McCoy’s Queries Shops

DALLAS-McCoy’s Building Supply Centers of San Marcos, Texas, has issued questionnaires to Texas advertising agencies for unspecified assignments, according to sources.
A spokesman for parent organization McCoy Corp. declined comment last week, but multiple sources told Adweek the 100-plus unit chain may be hiring its first agency.
Meetings are scheduled this week, insiders said.
The regional home improvement and lumber company spent less than $1 million in major media buys in 1998, per Competitive Media Reporting. The scope of its work is uncertain. It is unknown whether any broadcast was involved, but McCoy’s is believed to have produced TV ads in the past.
The questionnaire issued to shops was “generic,” with nine questions concerned with agency qualifications, according to one source. There was “no real indication as to what they were looking for or what they are going to spend,” explained one agency executive.
McCoy’s business is strictly regional-with stores in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico, per Hoover’s Online-and focuses on smaller markets, such as Pine Bluff, Ark., and Waxahachie, Texas, which are outside the urban zones dominated by The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
The MCoy chain also resists complying with another retail standby-it holds steadfast to a longstanding policy of closing on Sundays, agency sources said. “They think their employees should be home with their families,” said one agency source.
Reported sales figures for the privately held company were $450 million in 1997, according to Hoover’s. The 54-year-old chain is owned by co-chief executive officers Brian and Mike McCoy.