Throwback Thursday: Hardware Show edition

The Aug. 28, 1978, issue of National Home Center News, the forerunner of HBSDealer, covered the National Hardware Show as it played out in Chicago’s McCormick Place.

The man-in-the-street interviews included Richard Cantley of Utica, Mich.-based Church’s Lumber Yards; Patrick Topin, of Rochester, N.Y.-based Chase-Pitkin; and Dale Graham, president of Wayne, N.J.-based Circle Building Supply.

Included in the article were paraphrased comments from a young general merchandising manger for Builders Emporium (West), who was looking for a kitchen cabinet supplier, and hoping to test both knock-down kits and assembled lines in its California stores.

The general manager’s name was Jim Sinegal, who a few years later in 1983 co-founded Costco Wholesale Company, and served as CEO until his retirement in 2010.

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