As for Alex & Zac, they can often be found in the store playing games on their tablets or watching a movie. There are times when they have to be in the store when school is out and Mom & Dad are still at the store. They have a special "fort" between some of the racks in the showroom and often hide in it and wait for the store to close. The boys also spend a good bit of time at "Grannie's" house after she picks them up at the bus stop until the store closes.
The "Roy Boys" are great helpers in the store! They can't wait to be old enough to learn how to use the forklift truck in the warehouse [it has a great horn - and beeps when it backs up!.] Now there is a place that has many fun possibilities! But by the time they can actually "work" in the warehouse, it might not be as much fun, though... Joe Jr spends a good bit of time at the warehouse sorting deliveries and customer orders. He fabricates area rugs and does much of the binding on the warehouse floor as well! He started learning about floors when he was a young boy helping his Dad! [back when "the warehouse" was two garages, a shed, a barn, one pallet jack and a hand truck.]
Helping Daddy at work
Zac working with Daddy
Lunch break for Zac
After 35 years of running The Floor Store, "Joe Sr" and Anne Roy aren't quite ready to ride off into the sunset and hand over the baton to "Joe Jr" and Mary - although Joe & Mary are doing just fine making things work already. Anne still does most of the bookkeeping on a part time basis, and Joe Sr still puts in 50-60 hours a week in the store, making house calls and producing quotes for customers. Anne actually has another part time job at Riverbrook Residence in Stockbridge. Joe Sr stopped installing almost ten years ago, but still has plenty to do helping out and picking up the slack.
Joe Jr makes most of the business decisions, handles most of the customers, gets most of the deliveries, and manages most of the work schedule with the installers [ahhh, blessed youth!]. His wife Mary handles all the ordering, the price lists, freight receipts, pulls drops, keeps track of borrowed samples, orders samples for distant customers, helps in the showroom when "the two Joes" have customers, and knows how to meet an eighteen wheeler with deliveries at the warehouse.
12 Main Street West Stockbridge, MA 01266 Tel: (413) 232-7175
Alex making sure that
Grampie isn't making mistakes
Alex & Zac filing with Grannie
Alexander, "Joe Jr", Mary and Zachary
Carpet rolling 101
Alex applying for a job [1 1/2 yrs old]
Alex shoveling the back balcony