West Stockbridge — Almost 40 years ago, newly married Joe Roy Sr. was making a good living from servicing vending machines throughout Berkshire County when a sudden back injury put him out of work. Joe was given an opportunity to prove himself in a new line of work when a friend offered him a job in sales at his new flooring store. Joe didn’t know the first thing about floor coverings, but after a few seminars and successful sales, he surmounted the steep learning curve. He quickly learned, however, that the money was in installation—anyone could walk into a big-box home improvement store and pick out their own flooring, but you needed to hire someone to put it in. Joe, by then a floor-covering expert, decided, in 1983, to open up on Main Street in his hometown of West Stockbridge a business specializing in sales and installation of custom flooring —aptly named the Floor Store.
Originally located above the Public Market, the Floor Store moved next door a few years later into the “Phoenix Building,” a building that Joe Sr. had built “from the ashes” of the burned-down Miss Ruby’s Restaurant. The newest building on Main Street to this day, the Floor Store is easily recognizable by the mosaic tile sign that hangs above the front door. Inside, slabs of tile, planks of hardwood and carpet squares line the walls. There’s even a section of vinyl flooring just inside the front door to prove to skeptics that today’s vinyl is not the 1970s vinyl of their nightmares.
The Floor Store is a true mom-and-pop business, especially because son Joe Jr. and wife Mary are gearing up to take over for dad Joe Sr. and mom Anne. These days, Joe Sr. handles sales while Joe Jr. coordinates installation, and Anne does the bookkeeping while Mary oversees ordering, but, in true family-business fashion, it’s all hands on deck when necessary. Even Joe Jr. and Mary’s two young sons can be found at the office learning the ropes.
At the Floor Store, the “Joe Roys” (as they’re known) pride themselves on providing a complete start-to-finish service and offering the best products available. Over the years they’ve sought out safe and environmentally friendly products like phthalate-free carpet and renewable bamboo wood flooring. They’ve also made a point of sourcing regionally milled lumber and stock hardwood that has been grown and harvested sustainably throughout Appalachia. If they could get it any closer, they would, but in the face of globalization, the industry has become more vertically integrated and it’s difficult to source lumber from the Berkshires at an appropriate scale and price. Unfortunately, Joe Jr. says, flooring doesn’t always take priority in home improvement budgets and people will usually go for the less expensive option.
Even still, local comes first at the Floor Store. Although second-home owners account for the majority of the clientele, it’s the year-round local population that, as Joe Jr. says, “keep the lights on in the winter.” Having both been raised in West Stockbridge, Joe Sr. and Joe Jr. understand the implications of keeping money circulating throughout the region and have accepted BerkShares at the store since Day One. They don’t see many cash sales, but Joe Sr. says that they accept BerkShares at the Floor Store because, “Anyone who is helping increase the visibility of the Berkshires is helping everyone in it.” He even has a saying: “You promote the Berkshires, you promote the town, you promote your business.” And BerkShares are just another tool to make the local economy even stronger.
