84 Lumber unveiled a new store prototype last month featuring new products and a new layout designed to attract and service do-it-yourselfers and retail customers. The new locations contain design centers for kitchens and baths, more railing, decking, and door displays and aisles of products such as paint, plumbing fixtures, gas grills and potted plants.
The Eighty Four, Pa.-based company plans to apply the prototype to about 70 existing stores, but did not provide details as to when and where that would happen. The prototype is located at the company's headquarters. Jeff Nobers, 84's vice president of marketing and public relations, says the company is seeking to attract do-it-yourselfers. Nobers says the move is to intended to pursue a "consumer business that tailed off during residential building boom years." The company does not plan to pay any less attention to its contractor customers, however, and will continue to offer the same level of service to them.
The company plans to have 15 stores with this design by the end of the year and then plans to add about 15 stores each quarter during next year until they reach 70. The vast majority of these types of locations will be located in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, but there may be a few west of the Mississippi River.
