Why I sell flooring...

I just wanted to tell you the story of why I decided to sell flooring for a living.  The answer is a complex one as I never thought I would end up owning a flooring store.  Quality Carpet One has been in our family for over 43 years now, started in 1969 by my grandfather, Bill Berlin (I'll from now on refer to him as "Pop-Pop" in my story because my father is also Bill, but has a different middle name).  I don't remember much of my grandfather because he died when I was very young, and what I remember of him I've heard doesn't touch the surface of the kind of man he was.  My father told me that Pop-Pop always amazed him because he really didn't know that much about flooring, but would sit down and start having a conversation and before the conversation was over, he'd be writing an order.  Funny thing is, they never talked about the carpet at all.

Now, I've always tried to keep myself up on the newest latest and greatest the floor covering industry has to offer, but there is something to be said about how my grandfather used to sell.  The truth is, he was never selling so much a product as he was himself.  He would give the customers a personalized one-on-one experience.  I personally think that's what lacking in society.  You can't hardly go anywhere now where you're not treated as just another customer.  Where do you go to get that one-on-one experience today.  This leads me back to the question at hand, "Why do I sell flooring...."

An interesting fact about myself is that I actually never intended to go into the family business.  It was never pushed onto me by my father.  He never stressed upon it because he wanted me to do what I wanted with my life and not feel like I had to follow in his footsteps.  I started going to college seeking an engineering degree.  I wanted to design cars for the best and greatest in Detroit.  During that time to make money, my father hired me to do measurements and sales and computer stuff.  Now, I had always made a few extra dollars over the summers coming up every once in a while to straighten the store up, roll remnants in the back, even help out the installers on jobs when needed.  It never clicked with me how much I enjoyed it until I started working for real part-time.  Working side-by-side with my father and seeing him treat every customer like they were his family was amazing to me.  It blew my mind because my father had an amazing ability to remember EVERYONE'S name.  And I mean everyone.  If they were a return customer, he would call them by their name and tell them "Hi" usually followed up with a hug or firm handshake.  He could even tell you almost every time what that customer had ordered last, even if it was years ago.  That was not something I could ever do being an engineer.

Because of this legacy in the store, I decided right then and there that I wanted to continue this legacy.  What could be better than taking over the family business?  Seeing how so many other stores have gone out of business over the years, it must mean that there is something very special about owning Quality Carpet Shop (Which has joined the largest flooring co-op in the world and now goes by Quality Carpet One.)  I wanted to be a part in that magic and hopefully, if I'm lucky, keep this legacy going for another 43 years. 

UPDATE: Lee's Carpet in our Bedroom

I told you that I would post some pictures of how well our Lee's Carpet is holding up.  It's amazing because it's one of the softest, durable, and stain resistant fibers I've ever seen.  Here's a picture from the "workout room"/spare bedroom:

I must say, it looks exactly like the day we put it in!

Lee's Spillabration Sale

 Here at Quality Carpet One, we love it when a product comes in that is just so amazing and has such a wonderful story that we feel the need to share it with the world.  Relax! It's Lee's carpet will be helping busy households (especially moms) by making their life a little easier in terms of cleaning.  Lees carpet features the new and extraordinary fiber Evertex.  The ONLY carpet in the industry to feature an exclusive LIFE OF THE FLOOR STAIN WARRANTY, NO EXCLUSIONS!  Ask any other flooring store if you can get that warranty on any of their carpet and I guarantee they will dance around the subject.  They will certainly tell you what the stain warranty covers, but I'm sure they will leave the important stains that their warranty doesn't cover!

On another note, I blogged about the Relax! It's Lee's Carpet that we personally put in our home called Yours Affectionately.  I must say, it's been installed for over a year now and the one room where it's installed has been my personal workout room.  I've been amazed (well not totally amazed because it's awesome carpet) by how well it's held up.  It looks exactly like the day we put it in.  Upstairs in my son, Gavin's room, the exact same thing.  I know Christal and I couldn't be happier with the product we selected and that's why I have a personal interest in making sure every customer that walks through our door takes a look at Lees.  I'll post some pictures of our carpet installed in the next blog so you can see how it's holding up to everything we've thrown at it.  In the meantime, check out the demonstration:

Buying Products Made in the USA

I have to say, I  personally think one of the biggest problems with our economy right now is the lack of products being made in the USA.  I just don't get it.  How can a country survive if we make and sell nothing we make here.  It completely contradicts the whole foundation on what this country was built on, literally.  It's almost impossible to find anything on the shelf anymore that says "Made in the USA."  Do a search and I'm sure you'll find the suppliers are limited.  And how does that affect our economy??  Well I'll tell you.  It cuts out a huge amount of jobs that used to belong to American's just to save a few bucks.  I can name quite a few sell-out brands right of the top of my head of products that used to be exclusively made in the USA and in order to compete, they jumped on the bandwagon and shipped production off to China.  Levi's, Craftsman, Wrangler, and Converse just to name a few.  And yes, these are also a few of the companies that you can still buy a few of their products that are still made in the USA, but the numbers are getting fewer and fewer.  These are brand names that the average American looks at and has pride in.  These are brands that for almost a century helped to build America by providing US jobs along with the supplies it needed to exist.  Now for the first time in decades, you can find "Made in China or Taiwan" stamps on the back of even the most expensive Craftsman hand tools.  Don't even get me started on the power tools.  And it seems to me that the prices has stayed the same or gone up, but the quality and reliability has dropped severely!  And for what??  It just cost 1000's of US jobs of which now have no income to then purchase their overpriced foreign-made merchandise. 

Being in the flooring industry, I'm proud to say that a lot of the manufacturers of flooring are still US companies that provide US made products from US supplies.  Although, I'm seeing more and more products come with that frightening "Made in China" label.  But I would say those are actually the minority.  Flooring is a rare breed, I must say in regards to that.  Manufacturers like Mannington, Armstrong, Congoleum, Mohawk, and Shaw still produce a huge amount of products that are made here in the good ol' US of A.  Mannington pretty much supplies the jobs of an entire town called Salem, NJ.  And Armstrong, the same with Lancaster, PA.  Mohawk and Shaw provide the work for Dalton, GA.  They are what GM, Ford, and Chrysler are to Detroit.  Now with that being said, I'm proud to say that our store does a great job trying not to sell you foreign made products if there are similar products that are made in the US.  There a few other retailers out there, however, (whose name ends in Liquidators), that would prefer to sell you these cheap foreign made products and lead you to believe its high quality goods at a very low price.  For example, I had a customer today bring me a wood flooring product that had a Swedish brand name, had writing in Spanish on the sides, said Made in China on the bottom, and was bought in the USA.  Go figure!  When is the world going to start supporting these US manufacturers that still believe that American's make and sell the best products in the world.  Is it worth saving a buck for an inferior product??  I've started making it a habit to flip over the package of everything I buy.  If there two products on the shelf, one made here and the other made elsewhere, guess which one I'm buying, and even in this economy, I'll usually PAY MORE FOR IT!  DO YOU HEAR THAT BUSINESSES OF THE WORLD????

New and improved soft, durable, and stain resistant carpet!

There has been a lot of buzz going around about the new carpets that are out there.  There are so many to choose from!  You hear things about SmartStrand by Mohawk, Stainmaster yarn, Tigressa, etc.  It's confusing!  Which one is the best?  Which one is going to be the best value?  Well, I promise that all companies have done their research on these products and they all believe they have the best fibers out there.  In all honesty, I don't think you'd be making a bad decision on any of the fibers listed above.  They all have their positives and negatives.  Smartstrand for example, no matter how you slice it, is still a polyester.  Polyesters have been known for their superior stain resistance, but have received a bad rap for prematurely matting down, but not necessarily wearing out.  Although manufacturers have done a wonderful job increasing the twist levels in this fiber, it's still a polyester and most likely will not wear as well as a nylon.  Nylons, such as Tigressa and Stainmaster, are made from the same fiber that airbags, and parachutes are made of.  What this means for you is that they are the most durable fibers on the market.  They also exhibit built in stain protection, antistatic protection, and texture retention (which is the ability to keep it's appearance over time).  What that means for you is that although nylons might cost a little more from the start, they will be the better long time investment.  If you'd like more information, check out The World Floor Covering Association and Quality Carpet One for prices and information.

Now that you've gotten a little background on carpet fibers, I've actually taken the liberty of installing a Relax It's Lee's piece featuring Smartstrand fiber in our own home in the bedrooms, one of them being my 6 year old son's room, to see if it can hang with the nylons on all accounts.  When you buy Lee's, you also get a 25 Year No Exclusion Stain Warranty, plus a 25 Year Wear Warranty, and a 15 Year Texture Retention.  Plus, you can try it out for 120 days to decide whether to like it or not.  If you hate the color or styling after installation, it'll be replaced for FREE!  Ask Luna, Empire, Home Depot, or Lowes if they'll do that for you and I promise they'll laugh at you.  Now this will be my personal test run and I promise it will get abused.  I'll keep you updated with pics and more information!