May 14, 2024 • 50 mins
This episode features Blaine Johnson, operations coordinator at Norm's Glass, who shares an engaging blend of nostalgia and innovation. Blaine underscores the art of customer care and trust, the kind that you might find in a trusted mechanic.
Step inside the updated showroom at Norm's Glass without leaving your seat! The discussion on hiring reflects the company's commitment to preserving core values and ensuring that every team member contributes to unparalleled customer service. This episode promises to polish your perspective on the glass industry.
Website
Contact Blaine on Linkedin!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we
discuss the people, places andevents all around Kestrel
Country.
All right, let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Okay, blaine johnson yes thanks for coming in am I
supposed to look at the camera?
You don't need to.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, good, I'm just going to pretend it's there.
I mean, if you get tired oflooking at me, you can just look
at the camera.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
That's fine too.
I can do a little side eye ifother things can say.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, no, the camera is just.
It's like it disappears.
We don't really light andeverything but um, I actually
really enjoy just doing these inmy office and a little more
casual too.
It's kind of fun to, like yousaid, it's a conversation.
At the end of the day, I alwaysfeel like my favorite podcasts
are the ones where it's just twopeople talking yeah yeah,
(01:19):
you're almost eavesdropping onsomebody's conversation, like I
feel like joe rogan right, he'sthe most successful podcaster
ever.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And they're just out there, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
They're just talking and you kind of get to just
listen in on what they'retalking to rather than like a
formal interview.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I guess I should just throw the notes away
, that's right, but it ishelpful to have some topics.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So we're here to talk about glass today, glass,
norm's glass.
So I guess the first questionyour name is Blaine, you manage
Norm's glass.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Well, I'm the operations coordinator.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Operations coordinator.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We've got Cliff in the office, kind of comptroller
there dialing people in sendingthem places things like that,
but no one there is named Norm.
No, but Norm did start it, sowho's Norm?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Let's start there.
Well, Norm is a fantasticgentleman.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I've met him twice now, just real quick.
He's an older fella.
He comes in and just superhappy that everything's
continued on with his name.
He started the business back in1975.
Every time I see that andpeople are like wow, 50 years
old and I'm like man, I was bornin 75 too.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
So it's kind of like every time, but yeah so, but no,
did that.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And then Peggy has been there pretty much since day
one and kind of just eventuallyfell into the role of running
the whole place and then took itover and bought it.
So she's obviously still withus, thank goodness, and we're
going to keep her.
She wants to be semi-retiredbut we're going to keep her
(03:03):
coming in as long as possible.
She has so much knowledge.
It's crazy.
People will come in and they'llbe like oh, I broke this thing
off my screen door.
That was put in back in 83.
And she'll say, let me look atthat.
Oh, I know where those are.
And she'll go to the back,knock some dust around and come
back out.
And here you go and it's likewow.
(03:26):
So she's actually building us,um, I think she calls it peggy's
brain book.
She's going through thismassive amount of information
that she has collected over theyears and she's taking all the
super hypercritical stuff andputting it in a book and
labeling it and telling uscertain things.
So we're gonna have like acondensed version.
But, um, she gets to come andgo as she pleases.
It's fantastic for her.
She still gets to see her Likecustomer.
Everybody comes in.
(03:46):
That knows.
Everybody walks through and it'slike you better, at least say
hi to Peggy, she's here.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, so I haven't been in Moscow long enough to
know to have remembered it beingNora.
I always knew it as Peggy Right, so it's like yeah, when that's
interesting to know about Norm.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So Norm's still around, norm's still around.
He started it, yeah, and then.
Yeah, how long have you beeninvolved?
Well, just a couple monthshonestly Okay, yeah, we moved
over here in September be closerto the family.
The family was doing someexpansion and needed some help
from my wife on some things andI was working remote and so just
getting into norms on a dailybasis.
(04:29):
They got a shop area that Ienjoy utilizing.
So I was up there and just kindof seeing things that were
going on and I saw a lot of hugepotential and then massive
steps forward that could be madein just a daily structure of
things, kind of to expeditethings, to kind of bring them
from, honestly, the pencil andpaper world and some things that
(04:51):
are a little more focused asfar as data-wise.
We got this coming, it's goingto be here, then we can schedule
this, we can have these guys doit, just expediting things,
instead of things kind of beinglike oh it gets here, we'll get
it yeah, yeah coming from theworld that I was in, um
(05:12):
following product and managingwhen it gets out to people was
very, very key.
So, yeah, and what world wasthat?
Well, that was um.
Organics and superfoods, ohreally yeah, I uh was working
for a company called cambridgecommodities love the guys,
everybody.
There was fantastic um, so wewould bring in like top shelf
(05:33):
ingredients from all around theworld.
It was fantastic.
So I got to see all these newthings and learn about all the
advantages of knowing kind oflike the, the the story behind
your food.
Everybody talks about this,that and the other, but if you
don't know the regions it'sgrown in, it doesn't have
certain properties.
You could be buying somethingthat is grown in Peru and has
(05:54):
this amazing benefit, but it'sgrown somewhere else where they
like mass produce a kind ofstuff and it doesn't have any of
the same and like nutrients.
So the nutritional value stuffthat was really is a whole
different world for me.
Jumping into that from um otherthings that I had done, but it
it was interesting to get intothe like logistics and yeah and
(06:16):
and a lot of it was justlearning how difficult it is to
get stuff brought into theUnited States and then to also
have partners outside of theUnited States that you could
trust, because a lot of timesonce they get your money, they
get a half for a deposit andthen half when it gets, the
(06:38):
other half when it gets put onthe ship and then three months
later you get the product.
And if they're shy they wouldbe like oh well, it was fine
when we put it on the ship andyou have no recourse.
I mean there's not like there'sa federal agency that was there
to protect us.
Like.
I just spent $300,000 onsomething and we got it here and
it was supposed to be organicand we went and did our own
(07:00):
third-party testing.
Because they sent us acertificate that says organic.
We could sell it as organic.
We didn't.
We sent everything, had itthird-party tested, just because
we wanted to feel good aboutwhat it was we were doing.
And if it came back and it hadtraced pesticides and things
like that, they'd be like well,it was fine when we put it on
the boat.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
And there's nobody to help you recoup that.
So it's kind of so if they'retheir main.
The main kind of teeth you havein it is a future business kind
of thing, and if they're, ifthey're just willing to go
around and whatever yeah so.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
yeah, you wanted to get established with long-term
people that had good stuff and,ultimately, if they had their
own distribution site in theunited states, you had a little
bit of recourse because you knowyou could show up on somebody's
doorstep and, hey, let's have aconversation.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah so yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
I feel like that's one of thosebig advantages that often isn't
talked about, about local right.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's a lot of like goodtouchy-feely, like hey, we're
helping each other out and allthat, which is great.
But there's also that realaccountability of like you're
not going to, you know, evenjust social pressure right.
Like you know, you're not goingto screw somebody over on
(08:15):
Windows, for example when it'slike, yeah, you're probably
going to run into that person inthe grocery store in the next
few weeks, right, because it's asmall town, and you store in
the next few weeks, right,because it's a small town.
And, apart from Google reviewsor Better Business Bureau or
whatever other stuff, it's likewe want to take good care of
people because we're all in thesame small town and we're going
to see you all the time, oryou're going to come back from
(08:35):
1984 and ask for a crank.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, window crank.
And guess what?
I got it and I still got theright color.
Yeah, it's funny that you usethat analogy because when I was
in the auto industry for about18 years, before I jumped into
the superfoods, that was myphilosophy for the dealership
that I ran.
I didn't want to sell somebodya car and have to duck them at
Safeway for the rest of my life.
So we just did the right thingand for 13 years running that
(09:01):
dealership, we never had anegative review.
So yeah, absolutely Small towndoing what's right, but just
knowing that that's what you'reputting out into the community,
you're going to get it back.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, so yeah, and it seems like Norms has you know
in terms of stepping into thatrole.
Norms has that reputation rightThey've been around a long time
, they'll take care of it.
I know we had years ago hadlike a shower door that was
supposed to be spot free orwhatever and like it didn't,
didn't perform the way it shouldhave and whatever they were
great about.
Yeah, we'll come out, we'lltake care of it nice.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, and that's one thing that I felt really
comfortable about hopping in atnorms was the fact that they had
been there so long and I spenta lot of time in there just kind
of hanging out and visitingwith people that came in and out
of there, and just the feelthat you get in there.
It's just like, hey, come on in, hang out, we'll have a chat.
You know, if we got somethingthat works for you, great.
(09:56):
If not, well, maybe on the nextone.
But now we're bringing in allsorts of new products while
maintaining the old stuff.
So it's pretty cool.
It lends yourself to feelinggood at jumping into a new
something in a new area.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, everything's brand new and shiny.
For me right now, it feelsgreat.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, so you grew up in Wenatchee, is that right?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, wenatchee area.
Ellensburg and then moved up toWenatchee in 1990, freshman
year of high school, and thenfrom then we did one stint over
here back in 07, 08.
But that was not the right timefor me to jump into the real
estate market.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, that's an infamous time.
Oh boy, this may be another one, I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Hey, whoa, whoa, I'm hoping the universe has got
better plans for me this time.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
No, I'm just meant the real estate industry.
We're going through our ownlittle challenges right now too,
but yeah, yeah, that's good.
So what are some of the bigadjustments that are maybe not
adjustments, but have you hadany big surprises getting into
the window?
Business Cause, you know, ormaybe another way to ask it are
are there some things that carryover?
(11:07):
You mentioned a little bit ofit, but you know, from cars to
superfoods to glass, that'squite a spectrum, but business
is business.
What are some things that havebeen maybe learning curve stuff
for you as you've gotten into it?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
for you as you've gotten into it.
Um well, with being in cars forso long, I knew everything Like
really like a ridiculous amountof knowledge in that industry.
So when people ask me questions, I knew right away, or at least
I had a really good avenue tofigure it out.
Getting into superfoods thatlike me and potatoes guy, like,
(11:48):
oh, superfoods, matcha, and youknow all these different little
things and then learning whatthey do for you, that was
definitely something to try towrap my head around.
And then windows and glass is awhole other Avenue.
But knowing that we have, youknow, local suppliers for some
of our products, like Coeurd'Alene windows and there's a
(12:09):
railing company in Spokane thatwe deal with so kind of getting
to know the core products thatwe have and that we've utilized
for years and years, but alsobringing on new stuff I think
that's one thing that's excitingfor me is to go out and find
stuff that's going to set usapart over the changes that are
going to be happening in thearea over the next couple of
(12:31):
years.
I know that there's some bigbox stores that are looking
about coming in and we want tosolidify ourself as number one
the local people that you cancome to and trust um that we'll
be able to get products quicklyif we can't stock it, that it'll
be a quick turnaround ongetting it.
But also we're gonna have abetter mid and upper tier
(12:58):
product to offer that youwouldn't maybe feel comfortable
going into the bigger box storesand trusting somebody to sell
you that stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, do they do.
I genuinely just don't know.
Do they do a lot of windows?
So Home Depot, right, they'rethe elephant in the room, yeah,
they do.
Yeah, do they do a lot ofwindows?
So Home Depot, right, theelephant in the room, yeah, they
do.
Do they do a lot of windows?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Windows and doors stuff like that.
But it's pretty much off theshelf right.
It is it's kind of?
These are what we have.
Here you go.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
So it's a commodity at that point.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, and I think that they'll have designers that
you can sit down with.
I haven't sat down with anybody.
I haven't wanted to go in andtake somebody's time up in order
to figure out exactly how theirprocess is, but I've stopped
into a few.
I've looked at how theirdisplays are set up and the
things that they show that arereadily available or special
(13:48):
order, and a lot of theirspecial order stuff is still the
same stuff that we're doing.
So we'll be timeline sensitiveon that and similar.
You'll be dealing with localinstaller crews guys that have
been here, been with norms,employed by norms, and instead
of, maybe the crew that HomeDepot will send randomly around
to different cities to put instuff on scheduled days.
(14:10):
So you'll still be supportinglocal people, dealing with local
people that you might run intothem at the store and be like
hey that one thing, and then oh,swing on over.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So big differentiators being quality,
like you said, kind of mid andupper range different quality
products, as well as service.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Service and knowledge , yeah absolutely Service
knowledge, and then you knowwhen you got to you're one thing
that I've kind of sat back andlooked at this.
That's different than a lot ofthe other industries I've been
in.
You're welcoming us into yourhome and we need to understand
that and respect that and andand treat it as the the, the,
(14:50):
the invitation that it is,because when somebody brings you
into their home, I mean you'vegot somebody who isn't there but
his wife and kids are going tobe there.
You want to trust us.
You want to be able to look usin the eye and know, hey, if
there's anything I can trustthese guys to come over here,
walk in here, help my wife out,help my husband out, whoever
happens to be that's there, youknow.
(15:12):
So there's a lot of connectionthat that that needs to be
understood and it just needs tobe said that this is really,
really important to us.
When we're going to come in,you know we'll take our shoes
off.
If you want, we're wearing thelittle footies.
You know we'll do the stuff.
That makes a difference in howyou feel bringing somebody into
(15:37):
your house.
You don't want somebody that'sgoing to come into your house
and you feel like, when theyleave like, oh my gosh, they
didn't care about anything, theyjust set stuff down and made a
big mess and left it or whatever.
So that's, just something.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, that's interesting?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, cause you get a crew of guys that come in from
out of town and they're here towhip out as much installs and
products as they can as possiblein the week that they're here.
They just kind of steamrollthrough things and they might
not take the same kind of carethat that we want to.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
so yeah, yeah, is that when you were um managing a
dealership, did you guys do alot of service as well, or
mostly sales?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
yeah, we were an independent dealership um, and
our service department was crazygood so does that translate?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I mean in terms, obviously, people's cars
different than their house, butit's still personal space, right
?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
so it's like you want somebody to take care of your,
your vehicle seat covers,depending on the type of
vehicles.
In the interiors Make sure allthe surfaces are wiped down.
Because we went from doing your1995 oil changes on the
three-cylinder Geo Metro with150K on it, which is a perfectly
great vehicle, especially whengas prices are nutty but we
(16:51):
raised and we focused on some ofthe Euro stuff.
So we got into where we wereservicing very, very nice
vehicles, and the last thing youwant to do is have a guy come
back in his Audi S6 that's gottouch marks from a dirty
handprint or something like that, or it's got like the crazy
(17:11):
super leather package orwhatever you know.
So yeah, because a lot of peoplelike their homes, their car is
a reflection of something theyreally enjoy and how they feel
about themselves.
So if you get in and out ofsomebody's super shiny, nice car
and you leave big old mudprints on the floor mats or
(17:33):
something like that, it's justkind of like oh, they didn't
care.
It doesn't matter what theservice is.
It could be like.
You know, just, I'd want you todrive it down the road and
listen to it, just like us.
Hey, can you come out and lookat this window?
I think it's got a crack or theseal might be failed.
So, yeah, how you treatpeople's stuff that they work
hard for, spend a lot of moneyon and take pride in, I mean you
pull up to somebody's house,you see, see the windows, you
(17:53):
see the doors, I mean there's a,there's a little bit of a pop
there, a presence that peoplelike to feel good about.
So, yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Maybe I'm a weirdo, I don'tknow.
No, it's good service.
I mean that's, and I thinkthat's that's the thing that you
know.
When that announcement came outabout Home Depot coming to
Moscow, I mean, personally I'mexcited about it.
I think it's a, it's a greatthing, but it's like that is
what's going to have to be thedifferentiator for these.
I don't think it's.
I don't think it's like doomand gloom for the local
(18:23):
businesses.
But those local businessesbetter have a high level of
service.
Because that's the difference,right, you're you don't most
people not to knock Home Depot,but you don't generally go in
there for customer service,right, like you're not going in
there for expertise.
You're going in there like, hey, I need to get this.
It's going to be, you know,it's going to be cheaper than
the other place.
(18:43):
Like I said, it's morecommodity level, right, it's
like run down there and getwhatever you need, but you're
not going to go in there, likeyou said, like you would in
norms, like, hey, I'm thinkingabout doing this, I'm thinking
about new windows, I'm thinkingwhat?
Do you guys?
have and feel like, yeah, here,let me show you what we've got.
Let's walk through your options.
Here's why I would choose thispackage over this.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It's that customer service and expertise that
you're looking for or talking tothe guy at Home Depot.
He's not going to be like well,hey, let me grab my keys and
let's roll out to your placereal quick, right, yeah, where
we do that.
I mean I enjoy being like the Idon't know expedited service
guy.
I got a truck full of tools andif somebody has something and
(19:28):
our guys are all busy doingstuff, I don't mind hopping in
my rig, going out somewhere andtaking a look at something.
I might not know what it is I'mlooking at, but I can figure it
out and I also take a lot ofpictures.
Back to Peggy.
Yeah, right, and that makes ahuge difference in this world.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I mean now especially kind of post COVID, whether
it's supply chain, you know,staffing issues, those kinds of
things feel like lead times havejust gotten ridiculous and
that's what people almost havegotten used to, where it's like,
hey, I've got this issue Likewell, you know, four weeks we
can come take a look at it foryou.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And that's going to be, and then it'll be another
four weeks by the time we haveto order it or whatever.
Yeah, you just get used tothose timelines and I think,
like you said, maybe having somefresh eyes coming into
something where you can say,look, we don't have to do it
this way, Right?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And I get a little bit of pushback because I'm like
let's just do it, let's gofigure it out.
And they're like well, butthat's not how Well I'm going to
do it, and if I'm wrong I willfully own it and admit to it and
we'll get it scheduled.
But if I can go out there andtake a couple of pictures and I
get to drive around and learnthe area, I love it, Like
getting out visiting places.
(20:39):
So if anybody needs something,don't hesitate, Give me a call
and I don't mind a 20, 30 minutedrive somewhere.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaking of that, it kind ofbrings up a question what is
your?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
service area, for lack of a better word.
You know what?
How far do you guys go?
Where do you guys go?
Where do you need us?
Honestly, we've had people callum from oh gosh, there's a
little.
See, this is where I'm blankingcentral washington, I can name
everything off, but there's alittle town, um, I think it's
about an hour north, and they'relike, yeah, we tried with some
people in spokane and they won'tbe able to get out here for
like six or eight weeks.
(21:13):
And we're like, okay, well,send us a couple of pictures of
what you got and then we'll finda way to get somebody up there
quickly, because we do stuff outthrough potlatch and up that
general area and if it's anotherquick 20 minutes and, like I
said, I don't mind the drivesometimes, so I'll just rally
out, get it sorted and figureout what we got to do.
(21:33):
Yeah, um, yeah, and a lot of itthere's.
We've got a very wide area thatwill go and there's not like
any sort of a service charge,which I think is a pretty big
benefit.
I don't know that home Depot isgoing to be sending guys out in
vans and trucks to come out,measure 10 or 12 windows.
Put together an estimate foryou and they won't have a
(21:55):
service charge.
I would be pretty surprisedabout something like that,
because you know you take threehours out of your day.
Yeah, so, but we do stuff likethat yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So you mentioned um quarter lane window.
You guys do a lot with them.
Who are your?
Do you have like kind of a toplist of who your suppliers are?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
um, gosh, we've got so many right now.
Um, so that's kind of neat.
We've got like the anderson isbeen solid.
Everybody knows the andersonthing.
Um, we've got.
We just recently picked up, uh,sierra pacific.
They make some really coollooking windows.
You look on their instagram,you're bang, these guys got some
(22:35):
stuff.
Plygem is another one that wepicked up.
That's a good mid-tier.
I probably shouldn't say thatthey might.
They probably have some reallyhigh-end stuff too.
I just have not dove into that.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
These other guys?
I don't know that Plygem willlisten to my podcast, so that's
okay.
Well, all right.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, hopefully I didn't insult anybody Provia and
sold it, but, um, provia,provia, I haven't heard of them.
Right me either.
Tell these guys came in thatnicole had tracked down some
information and they came in andthey brought us these displays
to look at and walked us throughtheir product.
Wow, oh my gosh, their stuff iscrazy good.
(23:13):
Where are they out of?
Uh, midwest, built by amishfolks.
Interesting, yeah, like thewoodwork on these things and how
they do their cores and alllike everything is thought out
to the nth detail and I meanit's just like their stuff.
When you look at it you gothat's, that's top tier.
(23:34):
And and we've been really happywith that and we've got we got
a call from some people out ofoh mccall to do some doors with
them.
Um, because we were the closestsupplier for them and they had
dealt with them in the past andthey knew what they wanted and
they wanted those guys, um, so,yeah, that it's been interesting
(23:55):
to dive into those.
They make some pretty coolstuff.
Are those wood windows?
They're both.
They have the wood and thenthey also have the vinyl and
then, like the aluminum clad.
There's a few different thingsthat they have that we haven't
got all of our stuff.
We've got displays on orderfrom them and from several other
(24:15):
people.
Like well, we're redoing thewhole showroom I don't know if
the last, when, the last time,you, everybody that comes in
it's been a while yeah thepegboard.
When they first walked in I waslike the first thing I was like
when I walk in the door is likewe gotta do something with that
pegboard.
It's reminds me like the 1984radio shack kind of thing, it
(24:36):
was probably from 1984.
And it worked, and it workedwell.
In fact, it worked great.
We just moved it to a differentlocation and we downsized it a
little bit, because some of thisstuff is just crazy, like, okay
, we're going to need that,eventually Somebody will need it
.
So we got it and we've got itall on pegboard in the back now.
But yeah, the showroom.
We just wanted to showcase someof the new, more modern
(24:59):
products and stuff, but we stillhave tons of parts and all that
stuff.
We can order everything stillas well, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, it seems like wood windows are not very common
anymore.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
They're not.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Everybody's gone to vinyl yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And they'll have like a vinyl exterior with a wood
interior.
So you still get the benefits.
But then you get to look ifit's what you need for a trim
out in your house, depending onthe room that it's going in,
that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yeah, yeah.
Do you follow or are you kindof up on, like trends for style
and that kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I'm learning, is it?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
like I know, Black Windows a few years ago was like
that was the new cool thing,Right?
Is that what people are stilldoing?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
It's still really popular.
I love Black Windows.
I don't know what it is.
I think it's the strikingcontrast that you can make that
it really like.
You know, you drive through aneighborhood that's got a whole
bunch of houses that were builtby the same construction company
.
They all have a similar look,but there's something about just
(25:59):
that that black frame standingout and they can add kind of
some depth to it.
I don't know, and that's justmy own personal yeah, so that's
neither here nor there.
When it comes to other people,yeah, if you want like teal,
we'll get you set up with someteal windows.
There you go yeah, what so?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
cordelaine's got to be your closest supplier.
Yeah, are there any other localsuppliers?
Or are they because Anderson'sout of the Midwest right?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, and then there's Prime.
Those guys are Tri-Cities area,I think.
Okay.
We can get some stuff from them,yeah, but yeah, there's a few
local ones and still there'ssometimes there's X amount of
windows we got to order beforethey're shipped anyways.
We have run into a couple ofplaces where we've been able to
(26:43):
expedite like a half a truckloador that kind of stuff.
So we stockpile stuff and getit coming.
But then again I needed to runup to Spokane to get some stuff
and to keep a job working for aguy, and so I rallied up there
and stuffed some stuff in theback of the little BMW and zip
back down here.
So if we need a one-off orsomething like that, we'll just
(27:06):
make it happen.
Yeah, so I tried not to be tieddown too bad by constraints of
oh, your delivery time is goingto be from here to here, even
though the product's ready andwaiting.
We'll find a way.
We got trailers, we got trucksand we got people, there you go.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
There you go, so what are the most?
Well, actually we haven'treally talked much about doors.
Do you guys do a lot of doors,or is it mostly windows?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
we gosh it it.
I don't think people have likereally realize how much we have
available for doors.
It's starting to become a thingum, there's a lot of
contractors that will order acomplete door package and all of
a sudden we'll have like 30doors show up.
It's kind of funny.
You never really like look at ahouse and think, oh, there's
(27:54):
probably 25 doors in there, youknow.
But but when somebody comes inand they're building a good size
house, all of a sudden yourealize man, there's doors
everywhere from you do interior,interior and exterior yeah okay
yeah, and then yeah.
So, yeah, the other day anorder showed up and it was just
a whole bunch of slabs that wewere gonna, you know, make them,
get them hung, um, and Icouldn't believe how many were
(28:18):
on this one pallet for one place.
It was kind of funny.
You just don't think about it.
Yeah, like you know, we'relooking at doing some projects
for like gritman and stuff.
And the amount of windows in asingle building, you're like
holy cow, yeah, some of these,but the amount of doors that are
inside that building, it's nutsso yeah, um, we we do a decent
(28:38):
amount of doors.
Um, we've actually been goingthrough, uh, some of the old
storage areas and spots wherethey were just putting a lot of
stuff that was ordered and neverpicked up, or it was ordered by
the client and it was wrong, soit didn't fit, so they had to
order something else, or wemisordered, or whatever.
The factory sent us stuff, soI've probably got a hundred
(28:59):
doors right now in stock that weare categorizing, we're
labeling them all, uh, andputting together.
We're going to do kind of ayard sale thing.
Oh cool, where we're going tobring stuff outside, for I don't
know if we're going to do it ona weekend or during a whole
week or whatever, but just getpeople to buy some product at
pre-COVID prices.
Some of the stuff in there is afew years old, so it's actually
(29:22):
really reasonably priced.
And I go in and we look it upin the computer and we go, oh my
gosh, that's what it would costto get it now and it's three
times as much.
It's crazy, the increase oncertain things.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, that was going to be another question.
It's just how have you seeninflation hitting the window
business?
Is it certain components thathave gone?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
up a lot.
I think it's certain components, because I've dealt with some
of our glass suppliers that webuy our sheets of glass for when
we're custom making windows orreplacements for things, and
we've talked to them and they'relike, yeah, we haven't raised
prices in two years.
And to me it kind of bogglesthe mind because a lot of those
places they're bringing in acontainer from overseas and when
(30:08):
I was in the food stuff theshipping prices during COVID
went from a container load ofsomething for $4,000, $4,500, up
to $15,000, $17,000, $18,000,$20,000.
Wow, and on a high-cost productyou can work that into the
margin.
(30:28):
But if you're buying salt yeah,it's commodities it was crazy
what it did to our saltcustomers so for them to not
have to raise their prices.
So a lot of that glass isimported, yeah.
Which kind of surprised me.
And then I know that there'ssome that's made here in the
States and we get some of thattoo.
I think that's usually kind oflike the stuff for doing
(30:53):
pictures that you want a noglare or it.
It's gotta be a museum qualityto stop the certain things.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
And yeah, there's all sorts of different little
interesting finishes on things.
Yeah, so and.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I'm just scratching the surface on that stuff.
I'm really kind of when it getsinto the sales thing.
I'll dive into that a littlebit deeper as we get our
operations and stuff set up,Because the last thing I want to
do is go out and create anabundance of sales and projects
and then not be able to fulfillthose in a timely manner.
(31:24):
So we've kind of they've kindof chalked me back on the reins
a little bit.
I'm starting to get to go outnow, but it's because we had
backlogs of things and we neededto get caught up and that's
what we're doing and we've gotsome crazy cool software coming
in, Super excited about some ofthat stuff.
That'll just kind ofautomatically move you to the
(31:46):
next step.
That's cool, yeah, and we can.
You know we'll get to startdoing the things where we send
you a quote.
You've got an option to pay adeposit or pay for the whole
thing right then, and there youcan schedule it.
So, yeah, Moving norms a littlebit further into the
data-driven world.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
That's cool, yeah, so you mentioned glass.
We get in sheets of glass andstuff.
So you guys will do customglass.
You know custom window, like.
Do you build stuff thenin-house, or is it more cutting
a pane for I guess what?
When does that come in?
When would you use that sheetof glass?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, there's a lot of single pane windows that are
still out there that you know.
Somebody's got a barn windowand they bring us in an old
frame that they you know theglass has been broken in it.
So we'll do what we call aputty hack out, cause those are
basically it's a sheet of glassthat fits in and then they take
and they tag these little metaltags in there and then they put
the putty around it and so on,something like that.
(32:44):
We've got raw glass.
We can cut it to fit.
Um, if it's something peoplecan't bring in, we'll get an
approximate dimension, cut asheet of glass or two to take
out and then we'll cut it to fiton site, tag it in and putty it
in for them.
Okay, there you go.
A lot of people are fixinglittle I don't know, like curio
(33:07):
cabinets and things like thatthat just have a glass panel a
window stuff like that Becauseit's not that expensive.
Sometimes I hear the price ofwhat somebody pays for the stuff
we're doing.
I'm like how does $18?
Pencil on that Right but it iswhat it is, so we get in a lot
of that, so the glass itself ispretty cheap.
(33:27):
It's surprisingly reasonable.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
When it's not insulated.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, ss or DS, so like the 16th or 8th inch or
316th kind of stuff, startgetting into quarter inch.
It gets a little bigger and alittle heavier.
But yeah, and then we domirrors.
We have tons of mirrors.
Some of those sheets that weget in.
They're like 130 inches longand 60 or 72 inches tall.
(33:53):
That's a big, heavy piece.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
And then you guys cut that stuff down too for like
custom mirrors.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Slide that out, bring it in.
We got this really cool tableyou can flip stuff up onto and
then cut it down to size.
Yeah, so yeah, we can customsize.
People come out and hey, wejust remodeled our bathroom.
We've got this new cabinet upover here.
We'd like an edge to edgemirror that goes from it all the
way to the wall or to the othercabinet that they put in, or
(34:19):
whatever, and we can custom fitsomething instead of going down
to a big box store and hopingthat they've got a 43 and a half
inch by 32 and a half inchpiece yes they won't, yeah, and
you go online to try to ordersomething like that.
It just doesn't exist.
So it's really cool.
We offer some really coolservices when it comes to that.
I also got to go out and helpdemo a bathroom that I kid you
(34:41):
not.
I walked in and I got vertigo.
There was so much mirroreverywhere, I'm not kidding, it
was every panel all the way backaround into like the little
makeup nook where the sink andeverything.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Just infinity everywhere.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
They had, like the medicine cabinet had a glass
door on it and then the quarterinch or three quarter inch that
it stuck out, framed with mirror, it was just like, oh my gosh,
it was crazy.
Like yeah, that was somethingelse, that's funny.
Yeah, I don't know when thatwas built, but something was
(35:20):
going on.
It was popular, I guess.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, well, sometimes people do stuff that's not
popular, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
That's cool.
So it's definitely interestingand the stuff that we can do
that a lot of people don'trealize.
Like one thing like a lot ofthe modern vinyl windows have an
ig in an insulated glass unit.
So basically it's two panes ofglass with a little aluminum
strip center.
(35:47):
That's all sealed up so you getan insulated value.
A lot of people have a brokenwindow.
They think they got to replacethe whole window.
Yeah, you don't.
We can come out and they havethese little plastic stops, they
call them, value.
A lot of people have a brokenwindow.
They think they've got toreplace the whole window.
You don't.
We can come out and they havethese little plastic stops, they
call them.
You pop those off.
You get a measurement on theunit.
We order a new unit.
They're actually reasonablypriced.
We come, we cut out the otherone because of the tape and the
(36:09):
adhesive that they use to theother side.
We pop it out, put it back in,pop, pop, pop up, you're in and
out and you know, typically it'sabout an hour job, okay, and
you don't have to replace anentire unit.
So yeah, when people are like,oh, I can get that done for a
couple hundred bucks, I don'thave to buy a six hundred dollar
window or something, yeah,super happy well, that's one of
these in in my business right wewith home inspections, getting
(36:31):
homes ready to list all thatkind stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Those things come up all the time.
It's a most.
The vast majority 90% or moreprobably of home inspection
reports end up with a windowwith a failed seal right, you
got condensation between theglass, right, right, and I do
think that's one of those thingsthat's kind of scary to people.
They don't know how to handleit, or they don't, maybe they
just never wanted to becausethey figured it was going to be
(36:55):
expensive.
And then the funny thing aboutselling homes is everybody does
all the stuff that they probablyshould have done years ago.
That they could have lived withand had the advantage Exactly
and then it's like you get yourhouse all dialed in and it's
like why?
Am I selling this thing?
Right, it's awesome, but I dothink that's one of those things
like if you get that, get itdealt with, especially if you
(37:16):
bought those windows.
They're almost always underwarranty, exactly, yeah, and
that's a thing to do before yousell your house, 10, 20, 30 year
warranty.
Yeah, and get them done, and Iknow we've got a house right now
.
That came up and I think theywere gelled wind windows, but in
any case, like, yeah, they'regelled wind windows, but in any
case, like, yeah, they're gelledwind will replace them for free
(37:37):
if it's the original owner, andso I'll just have them come out
and then some manufacturers.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
I know they will transfer to the other owner,
there's a certain amount oftransfer.
Another thing that we've beenlooking at and I just kind of
popped into my head a while backand so we've started to dive
into it is because we havepeople replacing these aluminum
windows.
There's huge rebates availablethrough.
Avista and some Idaho stuff andsome federal stuff.
(38:05):
So I'm really diving into someof those programs to find out,
because some of them it's, like,you know, a $4 and 50 cents a
square foot rebate on if youreplace them and they have the
certain energy rating on them.
Some of them are, you know, upto 350 a window that it just
depends.
So I'm looking at all thedifferent programs and what we
(38:25):
want to be able to do is sitdown with people, um, and say,
okay, there's this program, thisprogram, this program, and find
out if we can double dip onthose.
Hit you with the, you know, theavista rebate and the federal
rebate.
I mean you might be gettingstuff for huge discounts.
So yeah, there's some prettyexciting things and working on
getting some training from theactual Avista folks, because I
(38:47):
know that, depending on the typeof project that you're diving
into, they're like, hey, we needto be out there first, so you
don't want to get ahead ofyourself and start doing things
and ordering things and thenfind out, oh, a VISTA needed to
know ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
So yeah, but yeah, energy efficiency rebates, that
kind of thing.
Yeah, absolutely Well not tomention the fact that you're
going to save money on yourenergy bills.
So yeah, it could be a verycost-effective thing to go ahead
and replace your windows.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
That's the other thing.
The energy cost over hereversus Wenatchee, oh my goodness
.
Yeah, it makes a lot of senseto me now.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Yeah, I still think of this area as relatively cheap
, but you're saying, well, forWenatchee electricity super
cheap.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
We've got a dam on the north end of town and a dam
on the south end of town and, uh, microsoft and t-mobile and all
those people are buildingdatabase centers over there
because it's so cheap.
I think it's like 2.7 cents akilowatt hour.
Last time I checked um overhere it's like 10.
It's crazy.
Like when we first moved overhere back in 07, 08, in my
(39:54):
entire adult life this is kindof funny I had never budgeted
for an electric bill becausethey were so cheap.
Now, mind you, I was, like youknow, in my early 20s.
Mid 20s.
I would go and pay the electricbill when they put the pink
hanger on my door, because thenI knew it had been about four
months and I had to go down andstroke them.
A check for like 65 bucks.
(40:15):
It was ridiculous.
And this was for a smallthree-bedroom place that I was
in, and so first we came overhere, Come over here.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
you're leaving everything on, using electricity
like nothing else.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
We moved into a place that had been like recently
remodeled and the guy wastelling me all the energy-e he
did to it and this, that and theother.
We got the first energy billand I was like whoa.
And so I called up avista and Iwas like, hey, can you run the
historical records on this andtell me kind of like if, if this
is normal?
And she pulls it up and she'slike, yeah, it looks to be about
(40:48):
normal.
And uh, I remember thinking tomyself I said out loud, I said,
man, that's a lot of money fortwo months.
And she goes sir, this is amonthly billing cycle.
We were by every two months andwhen actually, I was like what,
oh yeah?
It just floored me.
I couldn't believe it.
So, yeah, no, I can definitelysee huge benefits with some of
(41:11):
the places, like when I we'vebeen doing a bunch of stuff with
the U of I and I keep drivingaround some of these really cool
old buildings and they've gotbroken out single pane and I
just wonder how much money thatthey're losing for no reason.
So I've got some goodconnections down there that are
helping me get in contact.
I swear every building has adifferent person you get to talk
(41:32):
to.
It's great.
It gives me a lot of reason tobe up.
Different person you get totalk to it's great.
It gives me a lot of reason tobe up there.
I get to meet some really funpeople it's cool.
But my goodness, if they had oneperson for like, just okay,
you're the windows person, theycould probably pay somebody.
It's, there's a lot of windowsup there yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
So you guys do quite a bit of commercial too, then
yeah, yeah we're diving intothat.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Um, we've got a new hire coming on with a ton of
commercial experience, so we'resuper excited for that to happen
, because there's some prettybig projects out there that
we're we're swinging for thefences.
Um, I know a lot of things inthe past seemed maybe
overwhelming for the the normsquad, but we've got some
(42:17):
horsepower behind us now withsome of our mutual contacts in
the industries to where, hey, Ineed a couple extra guys.
Can I get them for a few days?
Sure, send them over.
So it's cool.
There you go.
We've got some really goodconnections with other people
that have fingers in the fingersin the same area, um, and, and
(42:38):
we're just building somethingspecial and helping other people
and they're helping us and it'sI don't know, it's super fun.
It really is the, the group ofguys that I work with, um, I
mean, yeah, it's often that youwalk into a place and you don't,
you don't just mesh well withpeople, and I'm a different
(42:59):
breed versus a lot of peoplearound here.
I'm a little I don't know goofy, but I just seem to hit it off
well with everybody.
So it's been great.
That's cool.
Yeah, I mean, I haven't met oneperson that I've been
uncomfortable around, so, yeah,that's good.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
So where, first of all, I guess where are you?
You've got a newer, or at leastupdated, showroom.
Yeah, we're up there so mostpeople know where it is.
But where do we find it?
Yeah, up on the hill, up on.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Main Street 623, 621, north Main.
Yeah, so we're right up on thehill on the left-hand side there
I've got.
Yeah, so we're right up on thehill on the left-hand side there
Got some really cool ideas forthe outside.
If I can get the okay on somestuff, there you go.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Light it up like a car lot.
What about online presence?
You got any other ways to find?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
you guys, we've got our website.
It's up and we're looking atways for people to submit
requests on there and you can goin and just hit us with your
normal contact and then we cancall you.
Absolutely, um, I don't know ifthere's an app in our future
probably not, I don't know.
Uh, windows are just so aliento people.
There's certain amounts wherejust let us take care of it,
(44:08):
because there's been times wherepeople have been like yeah, you
know, I've got a, a single paneof glass that's broken.
I need need somebody to comeout and fix it.
And you get out there and it'sactually one of the panes of a
two-pane insulated glass unit.
So, honestly, a lot of times, aquick phone call with us.
But, yeah, you can find usonline.
(44:30):
I think we're getting a wholebunch of new products uploaded
to the site so you get a betteridea of what it is we have.
But that's one of the reasonsfor the showroom.
I've sat down with a bunch ofdifferent contractors here and
they say that one thing thatthey would really like is for
their people to be able to go inand touch and feel stuff,
because you can look at thecolors online, but depending on
(44:52):
how your monitor or your phone'scalibrated.
The color could be wrong.
Also, feel it and it's likethat doesn't feel like an 800
doorknob.
So being able to feel theoperation of things, it really
the tactile experience you canstart to see the difference
between those different tiers ofpricing, because why?
Speaker 1 (45:11):
would I pay this much more for this?
Speaker 2 (45:13):
yeah, if you look at a white vinyl window for 149
versus a white vinyl window,that's 549.
You're not going to find anyvalue there unless you have the
ability to touch it, feel it.
Look at things the seams matter, the joints were stuff's put
together.
Sometimes you see stuff andyou're just like, wow, I can't
(45:36):
believe it left the factory likethat.
And we keep tabs on that.
When we pull stuff off thetruck we're taking pictures,
making notes and sending inrequests if need be.
And a lot of times they'll belike yeah, we messed up, we'll
send you another one.
I'm like well, can we send ittoday?
We need it yesterday yeah,absolutely.
Today we need it yesterday yeah,absolutely no, um, yeah awesome
(46:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Good, I think we I think we covered pretty much
everything I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Let me see, hold on.
Yeah, you got your notes, checkyour notes anything else you
were supposed to say?
oh, actually, we've got a bigflyer that's going to get put
out.
Um, we've seen the other bigcompanies that advertise online.
When you look up, you know,moscow, idaho windows and you
see like the anderson renewalstuff come up and things like
they're monsters in the scene asfar as that goes.
(46:24):
Um, so we've got some programsthat we're gonna do some uh like
a 30 off your first window ordoor, up up to $350 off a window
and door package, some otherthings.
And then we've also got theability to go in and tailor
things to make it work forpeople so that we're competitive
(46:44):
with, like, the big guys,because we can be.
That's the cool thing is, youknow, I'm going to make a ton of
money.
We just got to make some.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yeah, somebody told me one time you'll never go
broke making a profit.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
I've always liked that, right, I should I should
went back when I played poker alot.
I should have paid attention.
Yeah, that's right.
Um, the other thing is uh, well, just, people see all the
changes that we're making.
I know that people get a littlebit scared that, oh my gosh,
everything's changed.
Well, the core is still there.
Peggy jason, the installer,guys, they've just added a
(47:18):
couple new pieces that you knowhave come in with cliff in the
office and me going out andtouching base with people,
because they needed that.
They were short-handed, sothey've added not necessarily
taken away or remove things sothat we've still got what
everybody knew norms to be,which is Peggy's brain.
(47:39):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean, we're still the samethere, but we're just bringing
in new things so that we cantake care of those people that
much better and that muchquicker.
Because that's kind of what'sgoing to keep us going for
another 50 is continuing thingswith the same standards that say
(48:00):
Peggy had, but also just beingable to do them quick enough
that we can service the rightamount of people.
Because if you're dragging feeton everything, you're just not
going to get to everybody andwe'd hate to feel like people
wanted to do business with usand couldn't because we couldn't
fit them in.
So we're also looking at, youknow, bringing on more crew.
(48:20):
So we're open to everything.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, you're looking, you're hiring.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
And.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
I'll never say no to a conversation, even if somebody
.
Even if we didn't need somebodyright now, I'd absolutely sit
down because if you find theright person, you find a spot
for them.
That's one thing that I learnedby watching one of my mentors
in business at the car lot.
He would interview guys and I'mlike I thought we weren't
(48:47):
hiring.
He's like no, but that kid isamazing.
And he would find a way to getthat person and bring them into
the business and then utilizethem.
And then boom, we grew.
We were huge, like we were asmall independent shop.
We did the third highest volumeof service work.
I mean, that's putting us upagainst the toyota, the nissan,
the honda, every dealership, andwe're just a small shop,
(49:10):
eastern washington yeah great,very good.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Well, if you're looking for work, if you have
experience, get up norms, evenif you don't we train people up.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
I mean, sometimes the best person is somebody that's
just eager to learn but doesn'tknow anything.
You get an old salt like methat already thinks he knows how
to do stuff.
Sometimes you run into aproblem.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Yeah, willing to learn, eager to learn, eager to
go after it into a problem?
Speaker 2 (49:37):
yeah, willing to learn eager to learn, eager to
go after it.
That's 100 right, that's themost important thing, and you'll
be working with a good group ofpeople.
I mean, that's one thing alsothat I've noticed.
Um, they take care of theirpeople.
Brad and nicole are likeamazing.
When it comes to family first,business is second.
If you had a family emergency,get out of here, go, take care
of it.
We got it, we'll figure out away to handle whatever it is.
(49:58):
You could be on a boom 20 feetin the air, get a phone call.
You need to go somewhere?
Okay, go, we got it, it's it's,it's a core, core thing for
their businesses is the familyfirst.
It's it's how they that's howthey suckered us over here.
Yeah, there you go Family.
(50:18):
Yeah, perfect, all right.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Thanks, Blaine.
Yeah absolutely Appreciate itand yeah, we'll look forward to
watching norms grow.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Yeah, keep an eye out .
If you have any questions, justgive us a call.
There you go, all right.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Thanks for joining us .
Like, share, subscribe.
We'll see you next week.
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we
discuss the people, places andevents all around Kestrel
Country.
All right, let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Okay, blaine johnson yes thanks for coming in am I
supposed to look at the camera?
You don't need to.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, good, I'm just going to pretend it's there.
I mean, if you get tired oflooking at me, you can just look
at the camera.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
That's fine too.
I can do a little side eye ifother things can say.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, no, the camera is just.
It's like it disappears.
We don't really light andeverything but um, I actually
really enjoy just doing these inmy office and a little more
casual too.
It's kind of fun to, like yousaid, it's a conversation.
At the end of the day, I alwaysfeel like my favorite podcasts
are the ones where it's just twopeople talking yeah yeah,
(01:19):
you're almost eavesdropping onsomebody's conversation, like I
feel like joe rogan right, he'sthe most successful podcaster
ever.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And they're just out there, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
They're just talking and you kind of get to just
listen in on what they'retalking to rather than like a
formal interview.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I guess I should just throw the notes away
, that's right, but it ishelpful to have some topics.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So we're here to talk about glass today, glass,
norm's glass.
So I guess the first questionyour name is Blaine, you manage
Norm's glass.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Well, I'm the operations coordinator.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Operations coordinator.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We've got Cliff in the office, kind of comptroller
there dialing people in sendingthem places things like that,
but no one there is named Norm.
No, but Norm did start it, sowho's Norm?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Let's start there.
Well, Norm is a fantasticgentleman.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I've met him twice now, just real quick.
He's an older fella.
He comes in and just superhappy that everything's
continued on with his name.
He started the business back in1975.
Every time I see that andpeople are like wow, 50 years
old and I'm like man, I was bornin 75 too.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
So it's kind of like every time, but yeah so, but no,
did that.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And then Peggy has been there pretty much since day
one and kind of just eventuallyfell into the role of running
the whole place and then took itover and bought it.
So she's obviously still withus, thank goodness, and we're
going to keep her.
She wants to be semi-retiredbut we're going to keep her
(03:03):
coming in as long as possible.
She has so much knowledge.
It's crazy.
People will come in and they'llbe like oh, I broke this thing
off my screen door.
That was put in back in 83.
And she'll say, let me look atthat.
Oh, I know where those are.
And she'll go to the back,knock some dust around and come
back out.
And here you go and it's likewow.
(03:26):
So she's actually building us,um, I think she calls it peggy's
brain book.
She's going through thismassive amount of information
that she has collected over theyears and she's taking all the
super hypercritical stuff andputting it in a book and
labeling it and telling uscertain things.
So we're gonna have like acondensed version.
But, um, she gets to come andgo as she pleases.
It's fantastic for her.
She still gets to see her Likecustomer.
Everybody comes in.
(03:46):
That knows.
Everybody walks through and it'slike you better, at least say
hi to Peggy, she's here.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, so I haven't been in Moscow long enough to
know to have remembered it beingNora.
I always knew it as Peggy Right, so it's like yeah, when that's
interesting to know about Norm.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So Norm's still around, norm's still around.
He started it, yeah, and then.
Yeah, how long have you beeninvolved?
Well, just a couple monthshonestly Okay, yeah, we moved
over here in September be closerto the family.
The family was doing someexpansion and needed some help
from my wife on some things andI was working remote and so just
getting into norms on a dailybasis.
(04:29):
They got a shop area that Ienjoy utilizing.
So I was up there and just kindof seeing things that were
going on and I saw a lot of hugepotential and then massive
steps forward that could be madein just a daily structure of
things, kind of to expeditethings, to kind of bring them
from, honestly, the pencil andpaper world and some things that
(04:51):
are a little more focused asfar as data-wise.
We got this coming, it's goingto be here, then we can schedule
this, we can have these guys doit, just expediting things,
instead of things kind of beinglike oh it gets here, we'll get
it yeah, yeah coming from theworld that I was in, um
(05:12):
following product and managingwhen it gets out to people was
very, very key.
So, yeah, and what world wasthat?
Well, that was um.
Organics and superfoods, ohreally yeah, I uh was working
for a company called cambridgecommodities love the guys,
everybody.
There was fantastic um, so wewould bring in like top shelf
(05:33):
ingredients from all around theworld.
It was fantastic.
So I got to see all these newthings and learn about all the
advantages of knowing kind oflike the, the the story behind
your food.
Everybody talks about this,that and the other, but if you
don't know the regions it'sgrown in, it doesn't have
certain properties.
You could be buying somethingthat is grown in Peru and has
(05:54):
this amazing benefit, but it'sgrown somewhere else where they
like mass produce a kind ofstuff and it doesn't have any of
the same and like nutrients.
So the nutritional value stuffthat was really is a whole
different world for me.
Jumping into that from um otherthings that I had done, but it
it was interesting to get intothe like logistics and yeah and
(06:16):
and a lot of it was justlearning how difficult it is to
get stuff brought into theUnited States and then to also
have partners outside of theUnited States that you could
trust, because a lot of timesonce they get your money, they
get a half for a deposit andthen half when it gets, the
(06:38):
other half when it gets put onthe ship and then three months
later you get the product.
And if they're shy they wouldbe like oh well, it was fine
when we put it on the ship andyou have no recourse.
I mean there's not like there'sa federal agency that was there
to protect us.
Like.
I just spent $300,000 onsomething and we got it here and
it was supposed to be organicand we went and did our own
(07:00):
third-party testing.
Because they sent us acertificate that says organic.
We could sell it as organic.
We didn't.
We sent everything, had itthird-party tested, just because
we wanted to feel good aboutwhat it was we were doing.
And if it came back and it hadtraced pesticides and things
like that, they'd be like well,it was fine when we put it on
the boat.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
And there's nobody to help you recoup that.
So it's kind of so if they'retheir main.
The main kind of teeth you havein it is a future business kind
of thing, and if they're, ifthey're just willing to go
around and whatever yeah so.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
yeah, you wanted to get established with long-term
people that had good stuff and,ultimately, if they had their
own distribution site in theunited states, you had a little
bit of recourse because you knowyou could show up on somebody's
doorstep and, hey, let's have aconversation.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah so yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
I feel like that's one of thosebig advantages that often isn't
talked about, about local right.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's a lot of like goodtouchy-feely, like hey, we're
helping each other out and allthat, which is great.
But there's also that realaccountability of like you're
not going to, you know, evenjust social pressure right.
Like you know, you're not goingto screw somebody over on
(08:15):
Windows, for example when it'slike, yeah, you're probably
going to run into that person inthe grocery store in the next
few weeks, right, because it's asmall town, and you store in
the next few weeks, right,because it's a small town.
And, apart from Google reviewsor Better Business Bureau or
whatever other stuff, it's likewe want to take good care of
people because we're all in thesame small town and we're going
to see you all the time, oryou're going to come back from
(08:35):
1984 and ask for a crank.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, window crank.
And guess what?
I got it and I still got theright color.
Yeah, it's funny that you usethat analogy because when I was
in the auto industry for about18 years, before I jumped into
the superfoods, that was myphilosophy for the dealership
that I ran.
I didn't want to sell somebodya car and have to duck them at
Safeway for the rest of my life.
So we just did the right thingand for 13 years running that
(09:01):
dealership, we never had anegative review.
So yeah, absolutely Small towndoing what's right, but just
knowing that that's what you'reputting out into the community,
you're going to get it back.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, so yeah, and it seems like Norms has you know
in terms of stepping into thatrole.
Norms has that reputation rightThey've been around a long time
, they'll take care of it.
I know we had years ago hadlike a shower door that was
supposed to be spot free orwhatever and like it didn't,
didn't perform the way it shouldhave and whatever they were
great about.
Yeah, we'll come out, we'lltake care of it nice.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, and that's one thing that I felt really
comfortable about hopping in atnorms was the fact that they had
been there so long and I spenta lot of time in there just kind
of hanging out and visitingwith people that came in and out
of there, and just the feelthat you get in there.
It's just like, hey, come on in, hang out, we'll have a chat.
You know, if we got somethingthat works for you, great.
(09:56):
If not, well, maybe on the nextone.
But now we're bringing in allsorts of new products while
maintaining the old stuff.
So it's pretty cool.
It lends yourself to feelinggood at jumping into a new
something in a new area.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, everything's brand new and shiny.
For me right now, it feelsgreat.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, so you grew up in Wenatchee, is that right?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, wenatchee area.
Ellensburg and then moved up toWenatchee in 1990, freshman
year of high school, and thenfrom then we did one stint over
here back in 07, 08.
But that was not the right timefor me to jump into the real
estate market.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, that's an infamous time.
Oh boy, this may be another one, I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Hey, whoa, whoa, I'm hoping the universe has got
better plans for me this time.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
No, I'm just meant the real estate industry.
We're going through our ownlittle challenges right now too,
but yeah, yeah, that's good.
So what are some of the bigadjustments that are maybe not
adjustments, but have you hadany big surprises getting into
the window?
Business Cause, you know, ormaybe another way to ask it are
are there some things that carryover?
(11:07):
You mentioned a little bit ofit, but you know, from cars to
superfoods to glass, that'squite a spectrum, but business
is business.
What are some things that havebeen maybe learning curve stuff
for you as you've gotten into it?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
for you as you've gotten into it.
Um well, with being in cars forso long, I knew everything Like
really like a ridiculous amountof knowledge in that industry.
So when people ask me questions, I knew right away, or at least
I had a really good avenue tofigure it out.
Getting into superfoods thatlike me and potatoes guy, like,
(11:48):
oh, superfoods, matcha, and youknow all these different little
things and then learning whatthey do for you, that was
definitely something to try towrap my head around.
And then windows and glass is awhole other Avenue.
But knowing that we have, youknow, local suppliers for some
of our products, like Coeurd'Alene windows and there's a
(12:09):
railing company in Spokane thatwe deal with so kind of getting
to know the core products thatwe have and that we've utilized
for years and years, but alsobringing on new stuff I think
that's one thing that's excitingfor me is to go out and find
stuff that's going to set usapart over the changes that are
going to be happening in thearea over the next couple of
(12:31):
years.
I know that there's some bigbox stores that are looking
about coming in and we want tosolidify ourself as number one
the local people that you cancome to and trust um that we'll
be able to get products quicklyif we can't stock it, that it'll
be a quick turnaround ongetting it.
But also we're gonna have abetter mid and upper tier
(12:58):
product to offer that youwouldn't maybe feel comfortable
going into the bigger box storesand trusting somebody to sell
you that stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, do they do.
I genuinely just don't know.
Do they do a lot of windows?
So Home Depot, right, they'rethe elephant in the room, yeah,
they do.
Yeah, do they do a lot ofwindows?
So Home Depot, right, theelephant in the room, yeah, they
do.
Do they do a lot of windows?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Windows and doors stuff like that.
But it's pretty much off theshelf right.
It is it's kind of?
These are what we have.
Here you go.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
So it's a commodity at that point.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, and I think that they'll have designers that
you can sit down with.
I haven't sat down with anybody.
I haven't wanted to go in andtake somebody's time up in order
to figure out exactly how theirprocess is, but I've stopped
into a few.
I've looked at how theirdisplays are set up and the
things that they show that arereadily available or special
(13:48):
order, and a lot of theirspecial order stuff is still the
same stuff that we're doing.
So we'll be timeline sensitiveon that and similar.
You'll be dealing with localinstaller crews guys that have
been here, been with norms,employed by norms, and instead
of, maybe the crew that HomeDepot will send randomly around
to different cities to put instuff on scheduled days.
(14:10):
So you'll still be supportinglocal people, dealing with local
people that you might run intothem at the store and be like
hey that one thing, and then oh,swing on over.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So big differentiators being quality,
like you said, kind of mid andupper range different quality
products, as well as service.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Service and knowledge , yeah absolutely Service
knowledge, and then you knowwhen you got to you're one thing
that I've kind of sat back andlooked at this.
That's different than a lot ofthe other industries I've been
in.
You're welcoming us into yourhome and we need to understand
that and respect that and andand treat it as the the, the,
(14:50):
the invitation that it is,because when somebody brings you
into their home, I mean you'vegot somebody who isn't there but
his wife and kids are going tobe there.
You want to trust us.
You want to be able to look usin the eye and know, hey, if
there's anything I can trustthese guys to come over here,
walk in here, help my wife out,help my husband out, whoever
happens to be that's there, youknow.
(15:12):
So there's a lot of connectionthat that that needs to be
understood and it just needs tobe said that this is really,
really important to us.
When we're going to come in,you know we'll take our shoes
off.
If you want, we're wearing thelittle footies.
You know we'll do the stuff.
That makes a difference in howyou feel bringing somebody into
(15:37):
your house.
You don't want somebody that'sgoing to come into your house
and you feel like, when theyleave like, oh my gosh, they
didn't care about anything, theyjust set stuff down and made a
big mess and left it or whatever.
So that's, just something.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, that's interesting?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, cause you get a crew of guys that come in from
out of town and they're here towhip out as much installs and
products as they can as possiblein the week that they're here.
They just kind of steamrollthrough things and they might
not take the same kind of carethat that we want to.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
so yeah, yeah, is that when you were um managing a
dealership, did you guys do alot of service as well, or
mostly sales?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
yeah, we were an independent dealership um, and
our service department was crazygood so does that translate?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I mean in terms, obviously, people's cars
different than their house, butit's still personal space, right
?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
so it's like you want somebody to take care of your,
your vehicle seat covers,depending on the type of
vehicles.
In the interiors Make sure allthe surfaces are wiped down.
Because we went from doing your1995 oil changes on the
three-cylinder Geo Metro with150K on it, which is a perfectly
great vehicle, especially whengas prices are nutty but we
(16:51):
raised and we focused on some ofthe Euro stuff.
So we got into where we wereservicing very, very nice
vehicles, and the last thing youwant to do is have a guy come
back in his Audi S6 that's gottouch marks from a dirty
handprint or something like that, or it's got like the crazy
(17:11):
super leather package orwhatever you know.
So yeah, because a lot of peoplelike their homes, their car is
a reflection of something theyreally enjoy and how they feel
about themselves.
So if you get in and out ofsomebody's super shiny, nice car
and you leave big old mudprints on the floor mats or
(17:33):
something like that, it's justkind of like oh, they didn't
care.
It doesn't matter what theservice is.
It could be like.
You know, just, I'd want you todrive it down the road and
listen to it, just like us.
Hey, can you come out and lookat this window?
I think it's got a crack or theseal might be failed.
So, yeah, how you treatpeople's stuff that they work
hard for, spend a lot of moneyon and take pride in, I mean you
pull up to somebody's house,you see, see the windows, you
(17:53):
see the doors, I mean there's a,there's a little bit of a pop
there, a presence that peoplelike to feel good about.
So, yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Maybe I'm a weirdo, I don'tknow.
No, it's good service.
I mean that's, and I thinkthat's that's the thing that you
know.
When that announcement came outabout Home Depot coming to
Moscow, I mean, personally I'mexcited about it.
I think it's a, it's a greatthing, but it's like that is
what's going to have to be thedifferentiator for these.
I don't think it's.
I don't think it's like doomand gloom for the local
(18:23):
businesses.
But those local businessesbetter have a high level of
service.
Because that's the difference,right, you're you don't most
people not to knock Home Depot,but you don't generally go in
there for customer service,right, like you're not going in
there for expertise.
You're going in there like, hey, I need to get this.
It's going to be, you know,it's going to be cheaper than
the other place.
(18:43):
Like I said, it's morecommodity level, right, it's
like run down there and getwhatever you need, but you're
not going to go in there, likeyou said, like you would in
norms, like, hey, I'm thinkingabout doing this, I'm thinking
about new windows, I'm thinkingwhat?
Do you guys?
have and feel like, yeah, here,let me show you what we've got.
Let's walk through your options.
Here's why I would choose thispackage over this.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It's that customer service and expertise that
you're looking for or talking tothe guy at Home Depot.
He's not going to be like well,hey, let me grab my keys and
let's roll out to your placereal quick, right, yeah, where
we do that.
I mean I enjoy being like the Idon't know expedited service
guy.
I got a truck full of tools andif somebody has something and
(19:28):
our guys are all busy doingstuff, I don't mind hopping in
my rig, going out somewhere andtaking a look at something.
I might not know what it is I'mlooking at, but I can figure it
out and I also take a lot ofpictures.
Back to Peggy.
Yeah, right, and that makes ahuge difference in this world.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I mean now especially kind of post COVID, whether
it's supply chain, you know,staffing issues, those kinds of
things feel like lead times havejust gotten ridiculous and
that's what people almost havegotten used to, where it's like,
hey, I've got this issue Likewell, you know, four weeks we
can come take a look at it foryou.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And that's going to be, and then it'll be another
four weeks by the time we haveto order it or whatever.
Yeah, you just get used tothose timelines and I think,
like you said, maybe having somefresh eyes coming into
something where you can say,look, we don't have to do it
this way, Right?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And I get a little bit of pushback because I'm like
let's just do it, let's gofigure it out.
And they're like well, butthat's not how Well I'm going to
do it, and if I'm wrong I willfully own it and admit to it and
we'll get it scheduled.
But if I can go out there andtake a couple of pictures and I
get to drive around and learnthe area, I love it, Like
getting out visiting places.
(20:39):
So if anybody needs something,don't hesitate, Give me a call
and I don't mind a 20, 30 minutedrive somewhere.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaking of that, it kind ofbrings up a question what is
your?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
service area, for lack of a better word.
You know what?
How far do you guys go?
Where do you guys go?
Where do you need us?
Honestly, we've had people callum from oh gosh, there's a
little.
See, this is where I'm blankingcentral washington, I can name
everything off, but there's alittle town, um, I think it's
about an hour north, and they'relike, yeah, we tried with some
people in spokane and they won'tbe able to get out here for
like six or eight weeks.
(21:13):
And we're like, okay, well,send us a couple of pictures of
what you got and then we'll finda way to get somebody up there
quickly, because we do stuff outthrough potlatch and up that
general area and if it's anotherquick 20 minutes and, like I
said, I don't mind the drivesometimes, so I'll just rally
out, get it sorted and figureout what we got to do.
(21:33):
Yeah, um, yeah, and a lot of itthere's.
We've got a very wide area thatwill go and there's not like
any sort of a service charge,which I think is a pretty big
benefit.
I don't know that home Depot isgoing to be sending guys out in
vans and trucks to come out,measure 10 or 12 windows.
Put together an estimate foryou and they won't have a
(21:55):
service charge.
I would be pretty surprisedabout something like that,
because you know you take threehours out of your day.
Yeah, so, but we do stuff likethat yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So you mentioned um quarter lane window.
You guys do a lot with them.
Who are your?
Do you have like kind of a toplist of who your suppliers are?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
um, gosh, we've got so many right now.
Um, so that's kind of neat.
We've got like the anderson isbeen solid.
Everybody knows the andersonthing.
Um, we've got.
We just recently picked up, uh,sierra pacific.
They make some really coollooking windows.
You look on their instagram,you're bang, these guys got some
(22:35):
stuff.
Plygem is another one that wepicked up.
That's a good mid-tier.
I probably shouldn't say thatthey might.
They probably have some reallyhigh-end stuff too.
I just have not dove into that.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
These other guys?
I don't know that Plygem willlisten to my podcast, so that's
okay.
Well, all right.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, hopefully I didn't insult anybody Provia and
sold it, but, um, provia,provia, I haven't heard of them.
Right me either.
Tell these guys came in thatnicole had tracked down some
information and they came in andthey brought us these displays
to look at and walked us throughtheir product.
Wow, oh my gosh, their stuff iscrazy good.
(23:13):
Where are they out of?
Uh, midwest, built by amishfolks.
Interesting, yeah, like thewoodwork on these things and how
they do their cores and alllike everything is thought out
to the nth detail and I meanit's just like their stuff.
When you look at it you gothat's, that's top tier.
(23:34):
And and we've been really happywith that and we've got we got
a call from some people out ofoh mccall to do some doors with
them.
Um, because we were the closestsupplier for them and they had
dealt with them in the past andthey knew what they wanted and
they wanted those guys, um, so,yeah, that it's been interesting
(23:55):
to dive into those.
They make some pretty coolstuff.
Are those wood windows?
They're both.
They have the wood and thenthey also have the vinyl and
then, like the aluminum clad.
There's a few different thingsthat they have that we haven't
got all of our stuff.
We've got displays on orderfrom them and from several other
(24:15):
people.
Like well, we're redoing thewhole showroom I don't know if
the last, when, the last time,you, everybody that comes in
it's been a while yeah thepegboard.
When they first walked in I waslike the first thing I was like
when I walk in the door is likewe gotta do something with that
pegboard.
It's reminds me like the 1984radio shack kind of thing, it
(24:36):
was probably from 1984.
And it worked, and it workedwell.
In fact, it worked great.
We just moved it to a differentlocation and we downsized it a
little bit, because some of thisstuff is just crazy, like, okay
, we're going to need that,eventually Somebody will need it
.
So we got it and we've got itall on pegboard in the back now.
But yeah, the showroom.
We just wanted to showcase someof the new, more modern
(24:59):
products and stuff, but we stillhave tons of parts and all that
stuff.
We can order everything stillas well, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, it seems like wood windows are not very common
anymore.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
They're not.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Everybody's gone to vinyl yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And they'll have like a vinyl exterior with a wood
interior.
So you still get the benefits.
But then you get to look ifit's what you need for a trim
out in your house, depending onthe room that it's going in,
that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yeah, yeah.
Do you follow or are you kindof up on, like trends for style
and that kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I'm learning, is it?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
like I know, Black Windows a few years ago was like
that was the new cool thing,Right?
Is that what people are stilldoing?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
It's still really popular.
I love Black Windows.
I don't know what it is.
I think it's the strikingcontrast that you can make that
it really like.
You know, you drive through aneighborhood that's got a whole
bunch of houses that were builtby the same construction company
.
They all have a similar look,but there's something about just
(25:59):
that that black frame standingout and they can add kind of
some depth to it.
I don't know, and that's justmy own personal yeah, so that's
neither here nor there.
When it comes to other people,yeah, if you want like teal,
we'll get you set up with someteal windows.
There you go yeah, what so?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
cordelaine's got to be your closest supplier.
Yeah, are there any other localsuppliers?
Or are they because Anderson'sout of the Midwest right?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, and then there's Prime.
Those guys are Tri-Cities area,I think.
Okay.
We can get some stuff from them,yeah, but yeah, there's a few
local ones and still there'ssometimes there's X amount of
windows we got to order beforethey're shipped anyways.
We have run into a couple ofplaces where we've been able to
(26:43):
expedite like a half a truckloador that kind of stuff.
So we stockpile stuff and getit coming.
But then again I needed to runup to Spokane to get some stuff
and to keep a job working for aguy, and so I rallied up there
and stuffed some stuff in theback of the little BMW and zip
back down here.
So if we need a one-off orsomething like that, we'll just
(27:06):
make it happen.
Yeah, so I tried not to be tieddown too bad by constraints of
oh, your delivery time is goingto be from here to here, even
though the product's ready andwaiting.
We'll find a way.
We got trailers, we got trucksand we got people, there you go.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
There you go, so what are the most?
Well, actually we haven'treally talked much about doors.
Do you guys do a lot of doors,or is it mostly windows?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
we gosh it it.
I don't think people have likereally realize how much we have
available for doors.
It's starting to become a thingum, there's a lot of
contractors that will order acomplete door package and all of
a sudden we'll have like 30doors show up.
It's kind of funny.
You never really like look at ahouse and think, oh, there's
(27:54):
probably 25 doors in there, youknow.
But but when somebody comes inand they're building a good size
house, all of a sudden yourealize man, there's doors
everywhere from you do interior,interior and exterior yeah okay
yeah, and then yeah.
So, yeah, the other day anorder showed up and it was just
a whole bunch of slabs that wewere gonna, you know, make them,
get them hung, um, and Icouldn't believe how many were
(28:18):
on this one pallet for one place.
It was kind of funny.
You just don't think about it.
Yeah, like you know, we'relooking at doing some projects
for like gritman and stuff.
And the amount of windows in asingle building, you're like
holy cow, yeah, some of these,but the amount of doors that are
inside that building, it's nutsso yeah, um, we we do a decent
(28:38):
amount of doors.
Um, we've actually been goingthrough, uh, some of the old
storage areas and spots wherethey were just putting a lot of
stuff that was ordered and neverpicked up, or it was ordered by
the client and it was wrong, soit didn't fit, so they had to
order something else, or wemisordered, or whatever.
The factory sent us stuff, soI've probably got a hundred
(28:59):
doors right now in stock that weare categorizing, we're
labeling them all, uh, andputting together.
We're going to do kind of ayard sale thing.
Oh cool, where we're going tobring stuff outside, for I don't
know if we're going to do it ona weekend or during a whole
week or whatever, but just getpeople to buy some product at
pre-COVID prices.
Some of the stuff in there is afew years old, so it's actually
(29:22):
really reasonably priced.
And I go in and we look it upin the computer and we go, oh my
gosh, that's what it would costto get it now and it's three
times as much.
It's crazy, the increase oncertain things.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, that was going to be another question.
It's just how have you seeninflation hitting the window
business?
Is it certain components thathave gone?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
up a lot.
I think it's certain components, because I've dealt with some
of our glass suppliers that webuy our sheets of glass for when
we're custom making windows orreplacements for things, and
we've talked to them and they'relike, yeah, we haven't raised
prices in two years.
And to me it kind of bogglesthe mind because a lot of those
places they're bringing in acontainer from overseas and when
(30:08):
I was in the food stuff theshipping prices during COVID
went from a container load ofsomething for $4,000, $4,500, up
to $15,000, $17,000, $18,000,$20,000.
Wow, and on a high-cost productyou can work that into the
margin.
(30:28):
But if you're buying salt yeah,it's commodities it was crazy
what it did to our saltcustomers so for them to not
have to raise their prices.
So a lot of that glass isimported, yeah.
Which kind of surprised me.
And then I know that there'ssome that's made here in the
States and we get some of thattoo.
I think that's usually kind oflike the stuff for doing
(30:53):
pictures that you want a noglare or it.
It's gotta be a museum qualityto stop the certain things.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
And yeah, there's all sorts of different little
interesting finishes on things.
Yeah, so and.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I'm just scratching the surface on that stuff.
I'm really kind of when it getsinto the sales thing.
I'll dive into that a littlebit deeper as we get our
operations and stuff set up,Because the last thing I want to
do is go out and create anabundance of sales and projects
and then not be able to fulfillthose in a timely manner.
(31:24):
So we've kind of they've kindof chalked me back on the reins
a little bit.
I'm starting to get to go outnow, but it's because we had
backlogs of things and we neededto get caught up and that's
what we're doing and we've gotsome crazy cool software coming
in, Super excited about some ofthat stuff.
That'll just kind ofautomatically move you to the
(31:46):
next step.
That's cool, yeah, and we can.
You know we'll get to startdoing the things where we send
you a quote.
You've got an option to pay adeposit or pay for the whole
thing right then, and there youcan schedule it.
So, yeah, Moving norms a littlebit further into the
data-driven world.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
That's cool, yeah, so you mentioned glass.
We get in sheets of glass andstuff.
So you guys will do customglass.
You know custom window, like.
Do you build stuff thenin-house, or is it more cutting
a pane for I guess what?
When does that come in?
When would you use that sheetof glass?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, there's a lot of single pane windows that are
still out there that you know.
Somebody's got a barn windowand they bring us in an old
frame that they you know theglass has been broken in it.
So we'll do what we call aputty hack out, cause those are
basically it's a sheet of glassthat fits in and then they take
and they tag these little metaltags in there and then they put
the putty around it and so on,something like that.
(32:44):
We've got raw glass.
We can cut it to fit.
Um, if it's something peoplecan't bring in, we'll get an
approximate dimension, cut asheet of glass or two to take
out and then we'll cut it to fiton site, tag it in and putty it
in for them.
Okay, there you go.
A lot of people are fixinglittle I don't know, like curio
(33:07):
cabinets and things like thatthat just have a glass panel a
window stuff like that Becauseit's not that expensive.
Sometimes I hear the price ofwhat somebody pays for the stuff
we're doing.
I'm like how does $18?
Pencil on that Right but it iswhat it is, so we get in a lot
of that, so the glass itself ispretty cheap.
(33:27):
It's surprisingly reasonable.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
When it's not insulated.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, ss or DS, so like the 16th or 8th inch or
316th kind of stuff, startgetting into quarter inch.
It gets a little bigger and alittle heavier.
But yeah, and then we domirrors.
We have tons of mirrors.
Some of those sheets that weget in.
They're like 130 inches longand 60 or 72 inches tall.
(33:53):
That's a big, heavy piece.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
And then you guys cut that stuff down too for like
custom mirrors.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Slide that out, bring it in.
We got this really cool tableyou can flip stuff up onto and
then cut it down to size.
Yeah, so yeah, we can customsize.
People come out and hey, wejust remodeled our bathroom.
We've got this new cabinet upover here.
We'd like an edge to edgemirror that goes from it all the
way to the wall or to the othercabinet that they put in, or
(34:19):
whatever, and we can custom fitsomething instead of going down
to a big box store and hopingthat they've got a 43 and a half
inch by 32 and a half inchpiece yes they won't, yeah, and
you go online to try to ordersomething like that.
It just doesn't exist.
So it's really cool.
We offer some really coolservices when it comes to that.
I also got to go out and helpdemo a bathroom that I kid you
(34:41):
not.
I walked in and I got vertigo.
There was so much mirroreverywhere, I'm not kidding, it
was every panel all the way backaround into like the little
makeup nook where the sink andeverything.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Just infinity everywhere.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
They had, like the medicine cabinet had a glass
door on it and then the quarterinch or three quarter inch that
it stuck out, framed with mirror, it was just like, oh my gosh,
it was crazy.
Like yeah, that was somethingelse, that's funny.
Yeah, I don't know when thatwas built, but something was
(35:20):
going on.
It was popular, I guess.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, well, sometimes people do stuff that's not
popular, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
That's cool.
So it's definitely interestingand the stuff that we can do
that a lot of people don'trealize.
Like one thing like a lot ofthe modern vinyl windows have an
ig in an insulated glass unit.
So basically it's two panes ofglass with a little aluminum
strip center.
(35:47):
That's all sealed up so you getan insulated value.
A lot of people have a brokenwindow.
They think they got to replacethe whole window.
Yeah, you don't.
We can come out and they havethese little plastic stops, they
call them, value.
A lot of people have a brokenwindow.
They think they've got toreplace the whole window.
You don't.
We can come out and they havethese little plastic stops, they
call them.
You pop those off.
You get a measurement on theunit.
We order a new unit.
They're actually reasonablypriced.
We come, we cut out the otherone because of the tape and the
(36:09):
adhesive that they use to theother side.
We pop it out, put it back in,pop, pop, pop up, you're in and
out and you know, typically it'sabout an hour job, okay, and
you don't have to replace anentire unit.
So yeah, when people are like,oh, I can get that done for a
couple hundred bucks, I don'thave to buy a six hundred dollar
window or something, yeah,super happy well, that's one of
these in in my business right wewith home inspections, getting
(36:31):
homes ready to list all thatkind stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Those things come up all the time.
It's a most.
The vast majority 90% or moreprobably of home inspection
reports end up with a windowwith a failed seal right, you
got condensation between theglass, right, right, and I do
think that's one of those thingsthat's kind of scary to people.
They don't know how to handleit, or they don't, maybe they
just never wanted to becausethey figured it was going to be
(36:55):
expensive.
And then the funny thing aboutselling homes is everybody does
all the stuff that they probablyshould have done years ago.
That they could have lived withand had the advantage Exactly
and then it's like you get yourhouse all dialed in and it's
like why?
Am I selling this thing?
Right, it's awesome, but I dothink that's one of those things
like if you get that, get itdealt with, especially if you
(37:16):
bought those windows.
They're almost always underwarranty, exactly, yeah, and
that's a thing to do before yousell your house, 10, 20, 30 year
warranty.
Yeah, and get them done, and Iknow we've got a house right now
.
That came up and I think theywere gelled wind windows, but in
any case, like, yeah, they'regelled wind windows, but in any
case, like, yeah, they're gelledwind will replace them for free
(37:37):
if it's the original owner, andso I'll just have them come out
and then some manufacturers.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
I know they will transfer to the other owner,
there's a certain amount oftransfer.
Another thing that we've beenlooking at and I just kind of
popped into my head a while backand so we've started to dive
into it is because we havepeople replacing these aluminum
windows.
There's huge rebates availablethrough.
Avista and some Idaho stuff andsome federal stuff.
(38:05):
So I'm really diving into someof those programs to find out,
because some of them it's, like,you know, a $4 and 50 cents a
square foot rebate on if youreplace them and they have the
certain energy rating on them.
Some of them are, you know, upto 350 a window that it just
depends.
So I'm looking at all thedifferent programs and what we
(38:25):
want to be able to do is sitdown with people, um, and say,
okay, there's this program, thisprogram, this program, and find
out if we can double dip onthose.
Hit you with the, you know, theavista rebate and the federal
rebate.
I mean you might be gettingstuff for huge discounts.
So yeah, there's some prettyexciting things and working on
getting some training from theactual Avista folks, because I
(38:47):
know that, depending on the typeof project that you're diving
into, they're like, hey, we needto be out there first, so you
don't want to get ahead ofyourself and start doing things
and ordering things and thenfind out, oh, a VISTA needed to
know ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
So yeah, but yeah, energy efficiency rebates, that
kind of thing.
Yeah, absolutely Well not tomention the fact that you're
going to save money on yourenergy bills.
So yeah, it could be a verycost-effective thing to go ahead
and replace your windows.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
That's the other thing.
The energy cost over hereversus Wenatchee, oh my goodness
.
Yeah, it makes a lot of senseto me now.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Yeah, I still think of this area as relatively cheap
, but you're saying, well, forWenatchee electricity super
cheap.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
We've got a dam on the north end of town and a dam
on the south end of town and, uh, microsoft and t-mobile and all
those people are buildingdatabase centers over there
because it's so cheap.
I think it's like 2.7 cents akilowatt hour.
Last time I checked um overhere it's like 10.
It's crazy.
Like when we first moved overhere back in 07, 08, in my
(39:54):
entire adult life this is kindof funny I had never budgeted
for an electric bill becausethey were so cheap.
Now, mind you, I was, like youknow, in my early 20s.
Mid 20s.
I would go and pay the electricbill when they put the pink
hanger on my door, because thenI knew it had been about four
months and I had to go down andstroke them.
A check for like 65 bucks.
(40:15):
It was ridiculous.
And this was for a smallthree-bedroom place that I was
in, and so first we came overhere, Come over here.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
you're leaving everything on, using electricity
like nothing else.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
We moved into a place that had been like recently
remodeled and the guy wastelling me all the energy-e he
did to it and this, that and theother.
We got the first energy billand I was like whoa.
And so I called up avista and Iwas like, hey, can you run the
historical records on this andtell me kind of like if, if this
is normal?
And she pulls it up and she'slike, yeah, it looks to be about
(40:48):
normal.
And uh, I remember thinking tomyself I said out loud, I said,
man, that's a lot of money fortwo months.
And she goes sir, this is amonthly billing cycle.
We were by every two months andwhen actually, I was like what,
oh yeah?
It just floored me.
I couldn't believe it.
So, yeah, no, I can definitelysee huge benefits with some of
(41:11):
the places, like when I we'vebeen doing a bunch of stuff with
the U of I and I keep drivingaround some of these really cool
old buildings and they've gotbroken out single pane and I
just wonder how much money thatthey're losing for no reason.
So I've got some goodconnections down there that are
helping me get in contact.
I swear every building has adifferent person you get to talk
(41:32):
to.
It's great.
It gives me a lot of reason tobe up.
Different person you get totalk to it's great.
It gives me a lot of reason tobe up there.
I get to meet some really funpeople it's cool.
But my goodness, if they had oneperson for like, just okay,
you're the windows person, theycould probably pay somebody.
It's, there's a lot of windowsup there yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
So you guys do quite a bit of commercial too, then
yeah, yeah we're diving intothat.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Um, we've got a new hire coming on with a ton of
commercial experience, so we'resuper excited for that to happen
, because there's some prettybig projects out there that
we're we're swinging for thefences.
Um, I know a lot of things inthe past seemed maybe
overwhelming for the the normsquad, but we've got some
(42:17):
horsepower behind us now withsome of our mutual contacts in
the industries to where, hey, Ineed a couple extra guys.
Can I get them for a few days?
Sure, send them over.
So it's cool.
There you go.
We've got some really goodconnections with other people
that have fingers in the fingersin the same area, um, and, and
(42:38):
we're just building somethingspecial and helping other people
and they're helping us and it'sI don't know, it's super fun.
It really is the, the group ofguys that I work with, um, I
mean, yeah, it's often that youwalk into a place and you don't,
you don't just mesh well withpeople, and I'm a different
(42:59):
breed versus a lot of peoplearound here.
I'm a little I don't know goofy, but I just seem to hit it off
well with everybody.
So it's been great.
That's cool.
Yeah, I mean, I haven't met oneperson that I've been
uncomfortable around, so, yeah,that's good.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
So where, first of all, I guess where are you?
You've got a newer, or at leastupdated, showroom.
Yeah, we're up there so mostpeople know where it is.
But where do we find it?
Yeah, up on the hill, up on.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Main Street 623, 621, north Main.
Yeah, so we're right up on thehill on the left-hand side there
I've got.
Yeah, so we're right up on thehill on the left-hand side there
Got some really cool ideas forthe outside.
If I can get the okay on somestuff, there you go.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Light it up like a car lot.
What about online presence?
You got any other ways to find?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
you guys, we've got our website.
It's up and we're looking atways for people to submit
requests on there and you can goin and just hit us with your
normal contact and then we cancall you.
Absolutely, um, I don't know ifthere's an app in our future
probably not, I don't know.
Uh, windows are just so aliento people.
There's certain amounts wherejust let us take care of it,
(44:08):
because there's been times wherepeople have been like yeah, you
know, I've got a, a single paneof glass that's broken.
I need need somebody to comeout and fix it.
And you get out there and it'sactually one of the panes of a
two-pane insulated glass unit.
So, honestly, a lot of times, aquick phone call with us.
But, yeah, you can find usonline.
(44:30):
I think we're getting a wholebunch of new products uploaded
to the site so you get a betteridea of what it is we have.
But that's one of the reasonsfor the showroom.
I've sat down with a bunch ofdifferent contractors here and
they say that one thing thatthey would really like is for
their people to be able to go inand touch and feel stuff,
because you can look at thecolors online, but depending on
(44:52):
how your monitor or your phone'scalibrated.
The color could be wrong.
Also, feel it and it's likethat doesn't feel like an 800
doorknob.
So being able to feel theoperation of things, it really
the tactile experience you canstart to see the difference
between those different tiers ofpricing, because why?
Speaker 1 (45:11):
would I pay this much more for this?
Speaker 2 (45:13):
yeah, if you look at a white vinyl window for 149
versus a white vinyl window,that's 549.
You're not going to find anyvalue there unless you have the
ability to touch it, feel it.
Look at things the seams matter, the joints were stuff's put
together.
Sometimes you see stuff andyou're just like, wow, I can't
(45:36):
believe it left the factory likethat.
And we keep tabs on that.
When we pull stuff off thetruck we're taking pictures,
making notes and sending inrequests if need be.
And a lot of times they'll belike yeah, we messed up, we'll
send you another one.
I'm like well, can we send ittoday?
We need it yesterday yeah,absolutely.
Today we need it yesterday yeah,absolutely no, um, yeah awesome
(46:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Good, I think we I think we covered pretty much
everything I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Let me see, hold on.
Yeah, you got your notes, checkyour notes anything else you
were supposed to say?
oh, actually, we've got a bigflyer that's going to get put
out.
Um, we've seen the other bigcompanies that advertise online.
When you look up, you know,moscow, idaho windows and you
see like the anderson renewalstuff come up and things like
they're monsters in the scene asfar as that goes.
(46:24):
Um, so we've got some programsthat we're gonna do some uh like
a 30 off your first window ordoor, up up to $350 off a window
and door package, some otherthings.
And then we've also got theability to go in and tailor
things to make it work forpeople so that we're competitive
(46:44):
with, like, the big guys,because we can be.
That's the cool thing is, youknow, I'm going to make a ton of
money.
We just got to make some.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yeah, somebody told me one time you'll never go
broke making a profit.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
I've always liked that, right, I should I should
went back when I played poker alot.
I should have paid attention.
Yeah, that's right.
Um, the other thing is uh, well, just, people see all the
changes that we're making.
I know that people get a littlebit scared that, oh my gosh,
everything's changed.
Well, the core is still there.
Peggy jason, the installer,guys, they've just added a
(47:18):
couple new pieces that you knowhave come in with cliff in the
office and me going out andtouching base with people,
because they needed that.
They were short-handed, sothey've added not necessarily
taken away or remove things sothat we've still got what
everybody knew norms to be,which is Peggy's brain.
(47:39):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean, we're still the samethere, but we're just bringing
in new things so that we cantake care of those people that
much better and that muchquicker.
Because that's kind of what'sgoing to keep us going for
another 50 is continuing thingswith the same standards that say
(48:00):
Peggy had, but also just beingable to do them quick enough
that we can service the rightamount of people.
Because if you're dragging feeton everything, you're just not
going to get to everybody andwe'd hate to feel like people
wanted to do business with usand couldn't because we couldn't
fit them in.
So we're also looking at, youknow, bringing on more crew.
(48:20):
So we're open to everything.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, you're looking, you're hiring.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
And.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
I'll never say no to a conversation, even if somebody
.
Even if we didn't need somebodyright now, I'd absolutely sit
down because if you find theright person, you find a spot
for them.
That's one thing that I learnedby watching one of my mentors
in business at the car lot.
He would interview guys and I'mlike I thought we weren't
(48:47):
hiring.
He's like no, but that kid isamazing.
And he would find a way to getthat person and bring them into
the business and then utilizethem.
And then boom, we grew.
We were huge, like we were asmall independent shop.
We did the third highest volumeof service work.
I mean, that's putting us upagainst the toyota, the nissan,
the honda, every dealership, andwe're just a small shop,
(49:10):
eastern washington yeah great,very good.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Well, if you're looking for work, if you have
experience, get up norms, evenif you don't we train people up.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
I mean, sometimes the best person is somebody that's
just eager to learn but doesn'tknow anything.
You get an old salt like methat already thinks he knows how
to do stuff.
Sometimes you run into aproblem.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Yeah, willing to learn, eager to learn, eager to
go after it into a problem?
Speaker 2 (49:37):
yeah, willing to learn eager to learn, eager to
go after it.
That's 100 right, that's themost important thing, and you'll
be working with a good group ofpeople.
I mean, that's one thing alsothat I've noticed.
Um, they take care of theirpeople.
Brad and nicole are likeamazing.
When it comes to family first,business is second.
If you had a family emergency,get out of here, go, take care
of it.
We got it, we'll figure out away to handle whatever it is.
(49:58):
You could be on a boom 20 feetin the air, get a phone call.
You need to go somewhere?
Okay, go, we got it, it's it's,it's a core, core thing for
their businesses is the familyfirst.
It's it's how they that's howthey suckered us over here.
Yeah, there you go Family.
(50:18):
Yeah, perfect, all right.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Thanks, Blaine.
Yeah absolutely Appreciate itand yeah, we'll look forward to
watching norms grow.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Yeah, keep an eye out .
If you have any questions, justgive us a call.
There you go, all right.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Thanks for joining us .
Like, share, subscribe.
We'll see you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!