Strategic Planning in the Small Business

Unit 2

HO 2-4 (continued)

goods at HAH-was

obtained from a recent

HardwareAge mag­

azine survey. Analyzing

this data and comparing

it with pop­

ulation

and income projections

for the county is most

revealing.

Importantdy, eighty-four

perceni of all year-round

housing units

are eleven years

old or older. An increasingly

oldcr area h,;)us­

ing stock will contribute

to the growth of do-it-yourself

sales.

(Note that

neither policital nor technological

forces were

deemed

directly relevant to the

HAH situation.)

INDUSTRY

FORECAST

Recent problems in

the building industry have

had a positive

effect on the

do-it-yourself, home improvement

industry

which

directly

affects HAH. The retail

chains and hardware

stores

have

experienced dramatic

gains this year.

The

growth has occurred for

many reasons. The continued

high cost

of professional repair

and remodeling has

encour­

aged

many bome owners

to attempt home improvement

proj­

ects by themselves. Retailers

have also increased

traffic in their

stores by expanding

in-store education,

simplifying projects,

and improving instructions.

In 1970, do-it-yourself

projects

accounted

for 36.5% of home improvement

spending.

By 1982,

this figure rose

to 53.5% and is projected

to rise to 59% by the

end of the decade.

The retailing

end of the industry

has experienced dramatic

changes in

recent years. Many

store owners have developed

modern store layouts

that aid selling packaged

products, rather

than selling nuts,

bolts, and nails by the

pound from bins. The

evolution

of this industry will

see the national chains

taking the

place

of the traditional local

hardware store. This change

is not

unlike the growth of supermarket

chains at

the expense of

Mom-and-Pop

grocery stores.

The

do-it-yourself segment

is growing faster than the

home

improvement

market as a whole.

There are several

reasons in

addition

to cost which

can be cited for this growth.

An addi­

tional

indicator is the projected

population growth in

the critical

48 Part One The
Analysis Phase

191