Throwback Thursday: Issue 1, Volume 1

The first issue of National Home Center News, the predecessor of Hardware + Building Supply Dealer, hit newsstands Jan. 13, 1975. The rest is, literally, history.

The top story of that issue carried the headline: “Home centers plan new slump tactics.” Those tactics, according to the Nationwide HCN Report, include tight internal operations, aggressive merchandising, and “maybe a little luck.”

“I look forward to bigger and bigger slices of the consumer’s discretionary dollars going to DIY stores,” said Stanley Cohen, president of St. Louis-based Central Hardware.

Companies participating in the report included Central Hardware, Handy Dan, Wickes, Wolohan and Hechinger.

Further evidence of the dramatic changes to the home improvement industry since the publication of the first issue can be seen in the front-page photo. In it, a Dart Home shopper pushers her shopping cart directly under a forklift carrying a bathtub.

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