EVERETT — Since junior high school, Steve Hatloe has had only one job.
Ditto for Jim Hatloe.
But the brothers aren’t complaining. After working after school and on weekends at Hatloes Carpet One Floor &Home, they own and run a business started by their great-grandfather and grandfather.
Steve Hatloe said it’s a little odd working at a single job all his life, but it has its rewards, too — he enjoys working with his brother. He has a degree in business management and his brother has one in marketing, but they don’t have a strict division of the work.
“We cross over in a lot of what we do,” Steve Hatloe said.
This month, Hatloes will celebrate its 70th anniversary. It was started by the brothers’ great-grandfather, a painter who supervised the painters, and their grandfather, who operated the store. The original location was on Hewitt Avenue. The business later moved to Hoyt Avenue and California Street. Its existing location is 3701 Rucker Ave.
Jim and Steve Hatloe purchased the business from their father, Arlan Hatloe, about seven years ago. The store focuses on paint and floor coverings and also sells blinds and countertops and related materials.
Owning a business that has been around so long has been helpful during the recession, the Hatloes said.
“Our dad went through tough times in the ’70s and the ’80s,” Jim Hatloe said. “We saw that.”
Calling the recession “the toughest I’ve seen in 22 years,” Steve Hatloe said it’s helped that he comes from a long line of conservative businessmen.
“We’re not one of those on the edge,” he said. “Our father, our grandfather and our great-grandfather were conservative in business. They didn’t stick their necks out.”
Jim Hatloe said the recession has certainly had an effect on the business.
He said consumers are doing more of their own painting, and contractors who buy supplies at the store are working on smaller jobs.
“They’re getting the kitchen remodel instead of the whole house,” he said. “People are still doing things, but it’s small-ticket items.”
Steve Hatloe said he’s seen less traffic in the store but that things seem to be improving these days.
He said it helps that the business has loyal customers, including some who remember coming in with their fathers and grandfathers. “We have some customers that come in once a month to buy something,” Steve Hatloe said.
He said the store has always focused on customer service and that he and his brother want to continue that tradition.
Jim Hatloe said his grandfather, who worked in the store one day a week until he turned 92, was well known for stopping by customers’ homes after he closed the shop to show them how prepare cabinets for painting or staining, to help them pick out colors, or to do some other chore.
“When he’d do that for a customer, they would always be loyal,” Steve Hatloe said.
He noted that customer loyalty is not automatic these days and that some buyers are interested in price only.
He said Hatloes competes by hiring staff members who know the products well and by participating in programs such as the Carpet One buying cooperative, which gets the store better prices and guarantees.
“We’re starting to see customers who have been burned (by other stores) come back to us,” Steve Hatloe said. “There are real advantages to knowing the people you buy things from.”
The Hatloes describe their store as neither high- nor low-end, but somewhere in the middle. “We know that Everett is still a blue-collar town,” Steve Hatloe said.
While trying to keep the family’s focus on service, the Hatloes have changed marketing approaches from focusing on phone book advertising to developing a Web page and online promotions.
“People don’t look in the yellow pages anymore. They want to punch you up on Google,” Jim Hatloe said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
