History

Back in 1932, in the depression, Ben Mazer, Michael Mazer’s grandfather, was broke and out of work. A friend in the real estate business asked him to tear down a house to make room for a new building. Ben wrecked the house and salvaged the lumber, doors, windows, and the plumbing fixtures. In a short time he sold these used materials so that he was able to support his family for the next couple of months. At that point, he began to look for other buildings to wreck, and he soon became a wrecking contractor with jobs all over Alabama.

In selling the used salvaged materials from wrecking, Ben saw the opportunity to sell other items such as paint, drywall, and nails, which could not be salvaged from wrecking. This operation was the birth of a full-line building supply company that developed into Mazer Lumber Company Ben’s son, J.B.

The original location of Mazer Lumber Company was at the corner of 8th Avenue North and 13th Street-close to downtown Birmingham. In 1959, that property was sold and the business was moved to 41st Street in Avondale. At that time we were active in an association of locally owned building material dealers. Then, there were approximately 15 members of that association. Many of them were larger than we were. Today, we are the only one of those 15 still in business.

Through the years we began to buy closeouts and insurance salvage and phased out used building materials and wrecking. Product emphasis also switched to remodeling products like cabinets and flooring from commodity products like lumber and roofing. In 1976, the 41st Street location was remodeled. A general merchandise division, the Outlet Store, was also added to handle deals for products other than building materials. As warehouses were built and remodeled to become showrooms, we became one of the earliest warehouse home centers targeting consumers.

From time to time we would buy huge amounts of merchandise that was too much to handle at 41st Street. Then we would run a liquidation sale at an off-site, rented location. In 1995, one hundred truckloads of furniture were purchased from an insurance company due to the Northridge, CA earthquake. This was sold in an old K-Mart on Green Springs Highway in Homewood that had been vacant for years. That sale was very successful and led to the establishment of our permanent Furniture Center at the same location. We expanded that location to include all of our core departments: Appliances, Kitchens and Baths, and Flooring in addition to Furniture.

In 2009, the economic downturn forced us to discontinue retail operations on 41st Street. The Building Supplies department was liquidated and we consolidated all other retail sales to our Homewood location. We do business as MAZER DISCOUNT SUPERSTORE at this location. While our locations and products have changed through the years, we continue to offer the best prices and best service anywhere for our valued customers.