Payless Cashways Inc. was a major building materials retailer in
the 1980s and 1990s and many consider it the first national chain
to implement the powerful DIY strategy. They operated throughout
the Mid West under the names Payless Cashways, Hugh M. Woods,
Furrow, Lumberjack, Knox Lumber and for a while Sommerville Lumber
was a wholly owned subsidiary. They faced their first major
challenge in the mid 80s when they were the target of a leveraged
buyout led by Asher Edleman and Sutherland Lumber. The resulting
Payless Cashways stock buyback left them saddled with debt that
almost stopped the expansion and steered the retailer to be left
behind by the upstart "Big Box" home centers like Builders Square
and Home Club (later Home Base). The company struggled through the
nineties with moderate successes and recurrent failures and never
regained the glory days of their first big expansion. The last
straw was the burst of the dot com era that left many banks
unwilling to continue the dream of it ever becoming a viable
competitor to the successful Home Depot and emerging Lowes chains.
On Sept. 10th, 2001 the company (already in bankruptcy) was ordered
to be liquidated.
