Tough times force store closures in Pacific Northwest - lumberyards closed stores - Brief Article

Home Channel News, Nov 5, 2001 by Brae Canlen

PENDELTON, ORE. AND CLARKSTON, WASH. -- Economic conditions in the Pacific Northwest have forced one lumberyard to close and another to put itself on the market.

Lumbermen's Building Center, a 52-unit pro dealer, closed its Clarkston, Wash., store on Oct. 8. Thurman Industries, a 12-unit chain of hardware stores based in Bothell, Wash., will shut down its Pendleton, Ore., location at the end of the year. Both dealers cited the demise of local industries as the reason for the closures.

"The market wouldn't support our operation here," said Doug Grover, vp-marketing for Lumbermen's. Local lumber and aluminum mills have shut down, causing high unemployment in the southeast corner of the state. Clarkston is on the border between Washington and Idaho.

Lumbermen's, a division of Lanoga Corp., also has lumberyards and truss plants in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Arizona. None of the chain's other locations have been targeted for closure, according to Grover.

"We don't close stores very often, so it's a gut-wrenching event for us," he observed. Liquidation sales have begun at the Clarkston store, Grover confirmed. Several buyers have already expressed an interest in the business, he said.

In the northeast corner of Oregon, approximately 100 miles from Clarkston, agricultural interests are suffering from low prices and a scarcity of water. Logging restrictions have shut down small mills, some permanently. Aluminum companies have discontinued production lines because of energy costs.

"They've closed aluminum mills in many of the little towns I'm in," noted Ken Thurman, president of Thurman Industries, which operates three of these units, along with nine home centers that operate as Thurman Supply and Pak 'N Pak. "People without jobs only repair and replace."

Business at Thurman's Pendleton store was on the rebound before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, Thurman observed, but then foot traffic dropped by half.

Thurman has put the store on the market, but if no buyer surfaces, the operation will close when the lease runs out on Jan. 1, 2002. Thurman has also converted the chain's Lewiston, Idaho, location, which is located right across the border from Clarkston, into a building materials liquidation store.