Pullman Building Supply sees final days

Heavily discounted tile, light fixtures and tubs sat on tables and the floor at Pullman Building Supply late this week, some of the last merchandise in the store that’s closing Saturday.

Vast portions of the 40,000-square-foot building and its 80,000-square-foot warehouse were empty, its inventory picked over by customers who have been taking advantage of deals since the decision to discontinue its operations was announced in July.

The store’s last hours will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and Saturday, said Tyler Garrett, president and CEO of Moscow & Pullman Building Supply.

“We’re down to pretty minimal stock,” he said.

What might replace the store has not yet been decided, Garrett said, noting the building and property are for sale or lease through Bornhoft Real Estate in Spokane.

Moscow Building Supply hired 40 of the 90 Pullman employees, Garrett said.

The store helped others find new jobs, and, in many cases, offered bonuses for those who stayed as the closure approached, he said.

“We’re sorry to go,” Garrett said. “It’s a necessary step to stay relevant. It’s not something we thought we would do, but it’s the reality we’re living in.”

As difficult as it is to shutter the Pullman location, Garrett said focusing his company’s attention on its other location — Moscow Building Supply, at 760 N. Main St. — will help the local store compete against Home Depot.

The national chain is anticipated to open in late spring next year near the Palouse Mall.

A number of factors made Pullman Building Supply unsustainable, Garrett said.

The home-improvement retailer entered the Pullman market in 1996 and opened at its present location at 400 S.E. Fairmont Road near Walmart in 2015.

The store is larger than its Moscow counterpart and had several categories of products such as flooring, clothing and housewares that the Moscow store didn’t have space to stock. But the business model for Pullman never panned out, Garrett said.

“It’s underperformed ever since we opened it up,” he said.

The challenges of operating the Pullman location grew in recent years as enrollment at Washington State University sagged, Garrett said.

That decline in students deflated the number of people shopping retail products and the volume of single- and multi-family residences being built, which hurt building material sales, he said.

At the same time, Garrett said, out-of-town companies have constructed some of the largest apartment complexes in Pullman in recent years.

Those companies frequently source most of their materials from national suppliers they use for other projects, not local retailers, he said.

And the labor costs for the Pullman and Moscow stores have increased with the rise in Washington State’s minimum wage, making the fixed expenses of both locations higher, Garrett said.

Moscow Building Supply and Pullman Building Supply had 90 employees each, and always paid more than minimum wage to attract high-quality employees, he said.

The company paid equal wages for the same jobs in Washington and Idaho out of fairness, Garrett said.

Moving forward, Garrett said, he anticipates Moscow Building Supply will perform well. It’s developed an online site at mbspbs.com.

It prices all of its products as low as possible and matches the prices of competitors, he said.

Plus, the store now has 130 employees in Moscow and they are trained to save customers money, Garrett said.

Staff members help customers identify what tools and supplies they need for their projects, he said.

That saves time, because people don’t have to go to the store multiple times to get something simple accomplished like painting a closet or fixing a pipe, Garrett said.

It also reduces costs because people are not buying items they don’t need, he said.

Moscow Building Supply is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.