Payless Cashways was a

building material Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-ma ...

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

er based in Kansas City, United States. The company primarily operated during the 1980s and 1990s, and is considered among the first national chains to implement the

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

strategy. The company experienced financial difficulties during the late 1980s. Payless Cashways differed from modern

home improvement The concept of home improvement, home renovation, or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electrical and plumbing), ...

retailers in that they utilized a fully functional outdoor

lumber yard A lumber yard is a location where lumber and wood-related products used in construction and/or home improvement projects are processed or stored. Some lumber yards offer retail sales to consumers, and some of these may also provide services suc ...

. Customers would purchase materials inside the store and upon payment, would drive their vehicle into the lumber yard area and give their order ticket to an attendant. Prior to filing for bankruptcy protection, Payless Cashways operated 194 stores across 22 states.

History

Sanford "Sam" Furrow founded his business in 1930 with the purchase of a lumberyard in Pocahontas, Iowa that was in default on its loans, along with his sons and business partner John Evans. He then bought two other lumberyards in the same financial position. The original yard was named ''Kiefer-Wolfe Lumber Company'', which was soon renamed ''Pocahontas Lumber Store''. The company grew, and Sam Furrow and John Evans split the company. Sam and his sons began operating on "cash-and-carry", able to offer lower prices than when taking on the risk of contractors buying on credit. The company eventually adopted the ''Payless Cashways'' name, but new locations were added using ''Furrow's'' due to trademark issues in Texas, Oregon, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, California, and Indiana. (For example, in Indiana, ''Payless'' was a grocery chain). By 1981, the company was the 5th largest in the industry. In 1983, Payless Cashways purchased the

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

-based Lumberjack Stores Inc for $26.3 million.Alternate Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

. In the following year, Payless Cashways purchased the

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area o ...

-based Somerville Lumber & Supply Company for $12 million in stock.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
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. In 1986, Payless Cashways purchased the

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...

-based Knox Lumber Company for an undisclosed amount. Payless Cashways was taken private in 1988, but didn't see any profits the five years it was private. Payless Cashways faced their first major challenge in 1988, when they were the target of a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...

led by Asher Edelman and Sutherland Lumber. The company also received a

takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

bid from The Ward White Group, a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

company which operated a similarly named retailer in Britain. In response to the takeover attempts, Payless Cashways repurchased the company's 33.6 million outstanding shares at $27 per share, totaling $909 million. The Payless Cashways stock buyback left them saddled with massive debt that stopped their expansion. The retailer's stagnation caused them to be left behind by the big box home centers such as Builders Square,

HomeBase Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, un ...

, and later the emerging

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement r ...

and Lowe's chains. The company struggled through the nineties with moderate successes and recurrent failures and never regained the momentum of their first wave of expansion. In July 1997, Payless Cashways filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whet ...

. The last straw for Payless Cashways was the burst of the dot com bubble that left many banks unwilling to help the company continue its operations. The company was ordered to be liquidated by the

United States bankruptcy court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy c ...

of Western Missouri on September 10, 2001, by coincidence the day before the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

Names Operated Under

Payless Cashways operated stores under a variety of banners, usually with one banner per given area. They were: *Payless Cashways *Furrow *Lumberjack *Hugh M. Woods *Knox Lumber *Somerville Lumber *Contractor Supply *PCI Builders Resource *PCIBuildStreet.com

References

{{reflist, 30em Retail companies established in 1930 Retail companies disestablished in 2001 Defunct retail companies of the United States Home improvement retailers of the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1997 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001

History

Names Operated Under

See also

References