Payless Building Supply was started in the early 1970's with the idea of providing customers with the opportunity to buy at the lowest price possible. When it was started, we knew a few things:

1. If we wanted loyal customers, we had to provide them with a large variety and quality of wood and building products at a very low price.

2. If we wanted to keep those loyal customers, we had to give them decent service.

As a result of those goals, we knew we had to do a few things:

1. We had to buy direct. NO middle man.

2. We had to be a very low cost provider.

3. We had to have good and knowledgeable employees.

We knew that in the North Valley it is tough to make a living for most people. They only have so much money and they want to make it count. Because we wanted to buy direct, we needed to increase our sales volume. We therefore opened more yards in other towns. We now have yards in Chico, Susanville, Anderson, and a sister yard in Lodi. Each yard is unique, trying to best serve the customers in each area. The managers and partners have the option to buy and stock the materials needed by their customers.

We don't have fancy buildings so we can keep prices low. We also value your time. Unlike others, you load your pickup directly and it gets tallied. You do not have to load a cart, spend a long time going through a checkout counter and then pushing a cart out of your vehicle. If necessary, and especially for large jobs, we do have a full delivery fleet. We know that we are very competitive because our friends and customers tell us so. One our very large multinational competitors said once, "We will match anybody's price except Payless Building Supply". We thanked him for his honesty.

One of the reasons that we can offer spectacular prices is because our suppliers know that we will take their overruns, mistakes, and specials in large quantities. They many times give us very special deals. We once bought over 500,000 board feet of clear heart vertical grain and flat grain kiln dry redwood. Those of you that got in on that great deal know that we bought 20 truck and trailer loads of first quality wire fencing and posts. Here again, to provide our customers with the best deal possible, we sold these for less 50% of the normal price. We love pass these good deals on to you...but they do go quickly so you have to act quickly.

As most of our customers know, we offer many different qualities and grades of the same product. We know that our customers know that you don't need clear cedar to build a retaining wall, pecky cedar works better in most cases. Pecky (looks a little like rot) proves that the wood comes from the center of the tree which is very bug resistant. These same customers know that the peck stops growing when the tree dies.

If you are building a shed, many times you can use material that you would not use to build a house. Shop plywood, for example, looks as good as regular plywood, yet can save you as much as 40%. As one of our people said, "let us help you find the material in our yard to do your project and fit your budget".

When you are buying dimension lumber to build your house, we have as good a quality as anyone. Our trucks stop at the same mills as any one else...but we are buying direct while others may be going through distributors. We buy direct from the largest and best plywood plants and sawmills. Some of these quality suppliers are: Simpson Redwood, The Pacific Lumber Company, Collins Pine, Sierra Pacific, Roseburg, Seneca, Sound Stud.

We are also the only retailer to operate our own remanufacturing plant in Chico. This as a plant where we buy random loads of cedar and redwood and cut, grade, and dogear to make fencing. Many years, we will manufacture, process, and sell over 60 miles of wood fence. We do this to save you money, as well as provide you with better service. Many times we make something special for you that no one else can. Oh by the way, we do wholsale to others who then resell it to other retailers...so I guess our prices are really good.

Through the last almost 30 years we have seen lots of major national building material chains come to Chico and leave. Thanks to you, our very good customers, we have survived through good times and bad. We are still the only Chico based full service building material supplier. When you buy from us, the money stays in town and keeps working for you. We also support the town to the best of our ability. We challenge any one else to be as much apart of the Chico communityas we are.

We want to Continue to be your low cost provider.