Letters To The Editor: Feb. 1999

To the Editor:
I appreciated your article “Keeping Up With Economic Changes” in the October issue.

I am a product line manager for a manufacturer selling only through distributorships to the irrigation industry. The fear of competition from mass merchandisers, such as Lowe’s Home Warehouse and Home Depot, is a justified one.

I worked for Lowe’s as a zone manager previously and I have some first-hand information that may be even more disturbing than your article suggested. Yes, both Lowe’s and Home Depot have programs set up for the “professional contractor.” However, to qualify, the customer does not have to be either a professional or a contractor.

The pricing structure is totally dependent on dollar volume of an individual sale and preferences are given to repeat purchasers. The possession of a tax certificate might help to cut some red tape, but is not required for this consideration. The technical know-how of the employees is generally limited to, but not uniformly enforced, as the viewing of a 20-minute video supplied by the manufacturer and possibly enhanced by input from the mass merchandisers corporate office. This “expertise” available to the DIY (do-it-yourselfer) may be passed on with an occasionally scheduled “how to” clinic which consists of viewing the video by the public with a question and answer period to follow. If the interested viewer pays more attention to the video than the store employee did when he viewed the same video, well, you can guess who will know more during the question and answer period. The situation would seem to greatly advantage the professional who has the training and experience.

However, the mass merchandisers again come to the rescue by offering their own installation professionals. Yes, both Lowe’s and Home Dept offer installation of many of the DIY products that they sell. Do they presently offer installation of sprinkler systems? You will have to call your local store to find out. The installation programs are handled by the individual stores with support from the district, regional and corporate offices. At the present time, the Lowe’s store in my area does not offer this service, but I was assured that they were “working on it” and hoped to be able to offer sprinkler system installation this spring.

The stores will then find local contractors and put them through their own certification process and offer the confidence that his work will be backed-up by the Lowe’s guarantee. The selling point for the store (and I assure you that they will be price competitive in the local market) is that if the customer ever has a question or a problem with the installed system, that they don’t have to hunt down some contractor, but they can just pick up the phone and call the Lowe’s store where the contract was signed.

The true professional contractors in this industry will need to have support from the distributors and manufacturers that advertise the emphasis of expertise and experience. Manufacturers that offer cooperative advertising incentives to the distributor, and distributors that offer certification programs to the contractors, should be the eventual winners in this war.

Bill Petty Product Line Manager
Presco Products
Sherman, Texas