SUMMARY 



This study of northeastern retail lumber yards was undertaken to 

 deserihe the aetivities of these yards and to determine the extent of their 

 influence on lumber marketing. 



Northeastern region retail lumber yards are primarily corporations. 

 The latter account for nearly 80 cents of each dollar spent at all retail 

 yards, and over 90 percent operate only one yard. Fifty-two percent of 

 all yards have an annual gross dollar sales volume under $300,000. The 

 other, larger yards, sell nearly three times the volume ( in dollars ) of 

 those with sales under $300,000. The number of employees per $100,000 

 of gross sales declines steadily from seven for the smallest yards to two 

 for yards with gross sales over one million dollars. 



Yards offer a variety of products and services. While wood products 

 dominate sales, lumber dollar sales volume is only 39 percent of total 

 gross sales dollars. Larger yards offer a greater variety of products and 

 tend to include many non-wood related items. 



Retailers show a substantial preference for western lumber, 70 per- 

 cent of purchased volumes. Quality, lengths, volume available, and spe- 

 cies characteristics are cited as major reasons. They do shop around for 

 the best price and buy 32 percent directly from sawmill producers. Can- 

 adian imports, 14 percent, are second in volume while Eastern species 

 comprise only 11 percent of total lumber purchases. The volume of 

 dimension lumlier purchased is nearly twice the volume of ])oards with 

 75 percent of the former in western species. 



Retail yards sell primarily to three consumer groups : building con- 

 tractors, home owners, and industrial plants. Nearly 50 percent of all 

 sales are to building contractors, 30 percent to home owners, 12 percent 

 to industries, and the remaining volumes to all other consumers. The 

 larger yards sell more volume to contractors while smaller yards sell 

 more volume to home owners. Sales to building contractors are most im- 

 portant in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Sales to home 

 owners dominate in West Virginia and Maine. Massachusetts has the 

 greatest proportion of sales to industries. 



Retail lumber yards sell a quality product, primarily dimension 

 lumber from western species to building contractors. But home owners 

 are apparently strongly oriented to "do-it-yourself" projects as nearly 

 one-third of retail yard lumber sales are to these people. Although 

 wood products represent the major proportion of annual gross dollar 

 sales volume, larger yards sell a substantial dollar volume of non-wood 

 items. 



