Carpet One owner renames business

He is the owner of the newly-named Carpet One Floor & Home, formerly known as Cope’s Carpet One and owned by Stan Cope.

“I finally convinced Mr. Cope to sell it to me about six years ago,” Knoblauch said. “I think it’s always been the American dream to be your own boss and help the people who helped you.”

Knoblauch wasn’t always certain of his career path.

“I took those aptitude tests in high school,” he said. “They told me I should be a forest ranger so I figured I should study biology but you had to cut up things and it was smelly, so I decided to look into sociology because I liked to help people.”

Knoblauch worked with an agency distributing checks to clients but became frustrated when that was all the job entailed.

He became more interested in business and got a job working for Stan Cope’s Neosho furniture store in 1965. The store also sold electronics.

“I started as a TV delivery boy,” Knoblauch said. “I could see there was more money in sales so I talked Mr. Cope into letting me get into that. He liked my work ethic.”

Knoblauch liked the company and became store manager in 1986. He bought the business in 2001.

“We’ve had a real smooth transition,” he said. “Since I’ve been here forever it went well, but we’re never too old to learn new things and look to the future.”

The future looks green for Knoblauch and his crew because of both their 2006 sales figures (almost $3 million) and the industry’s changing environmental protection procedures and products.

“Going green is going to get bigger,” Knoblauch said. “Recycling is new to the industry and now we can take up old padding, bundle it up and send it back to the manufacturer for recycling.”

He is also seeing product changes as part of the green movement that include carpet fibers once made of an oil derivative now being made of a corn derivative. Cork and bamboo are also being used in flooring products.

That’s progress for an industry Knoblauch remembers once challenged by the advent of computers.

“When they first came out we had a long struggle to get someone who could work with us because carpet is cut in 12-foot widths,” he said. “The computer thought in tenths and we had to create whole new programs in order to do our work.”

The spouse of a customer who worked with computers came to the rescue.

“That’s because our customers are our friends,” Knoblauch said. “That’s part of being in a small town; we know these people.”

Despite his customer-as-family philosophy, Knoblauch acknowledges the competition.

“Good competition is a good thing,” he said. “It keeps you on your toes. My problem is with the guy who knows us and thinks that he can do what we do, but he’s really here for price only. Carpet is an investment for people and you need to have a relationship with the customer so you know they’re getting what they need.”

Charlene and Jim Hemphill appreciate their relationship with Knoblauch and the Carpet One crew.

“My husband is a residential contractor and we also have some rentals,” Charlene Hemphill said. “We’ve been buying carpet from Lary for the last 20 years and on the rare occasion when we had a bleep, he would get on it immediately. All we had to do was call and he’d respond right away. He gets the job done.”

Knoblauch is quick to credit his employees.

“We have a good crew here,” he said. “When I hire someone I look for the person who wants to work and has personality and common sense. We give them training and they become our consultants, not our clerks.”

Still, there are challenges.

“Scheduling is a big one,” Knoblauch said. “We strive for on-time delivery but if we have a truck coming in and it gets delayed due to flooding up north, then that is out of my control, due to outside forces. That makes me want to pull my hair out.”