On this episode of the What the Floor Podcast, Michael and Holiday get to know some of T&A Supply Company’s amazing branch managers! They step into the Branch Manager Dating Game to find out more about the people and the places that make T&A Supply Company the top-notch flooring distributor that they are.
From Hawaii to Utah, don’t miss meeting our team members from Portland, Boise, Bellevue, Anchorage, Honolulu, and Salt Lake City.
What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company Inc original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or tasflooring.com. This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser. Tell us what you think of the show at wtfpodcast@tasupply.com or #whatthefloorpodcast on social media to let us know what you think.
On this episode of the What the Floor Podcast, Michael and Holiday get to know some of T&A Supply Company’s amazing branch managers! They step into the Branch Manager Dating Game to find out more about the people and the places that make T&A Supply Company the top-notch flooring distributor that they are.
From Hawaii to Utah, don’t miss meeting our team members from Portland, Boise, Bellevue, Anchorage, Honolulu, and Salt Lake City.
What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company Inc original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or tasflooring.com. This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser. Tell us what you think of the show at wtfpodcast@tasupply.com or #whatthefloorpodcast on social media to let us know what you think.
This is What The Floor from T&A Supply Company Inc, a podcast for the flooring industry. I'm Holiday Van Erem.
Michael Goria:And I am Michael Goria. We're going to explore the hot topics of the flooring industry with a little humor and a new set of eyes.
Holiday Van Erem:Michael, today's gonna be an interesting episode.
Michael Goria:Yeah, we got a lot of interviews to do.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, and we did them one after another after another. Which I thought actually turned out pretty good.
Michael Goria:I liked it.
Holiday Van Erem:It was fun to compare everybody's answers.
Michael Goria:Yeah.
Holiday Van Erem:It was a lot of work.
Michael Goria:It was, it was a lot of work for you. You set them all up so thank you.
Holiday Van Erem:And I sat around and didn't do it for a while I just kind of let it sit in my email probably should have been right on top of it. We decided that it was time for us to introduce something special that's happening that is related to all of our branches. And then we thought, why don't we talk to all of our branches? That's too many, because there's a lot of them. But we thought, what if we hit up one branch per state and just find out more about our branches? Who is running them more about who T&A is outside of Kent and do a little introduction of our brand new branch?
Michael Goria:Yes, Dun dun dun, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Holiday Van Erem:And we have both now been there. Yeah. And I've been in the branch and with the sales reps down there, and I feel so good about it. I'm so excited.
Michael Goria:We have a great team, we've got a great building, we've got a great market that I think is going to only expand our footprint and our ability to serve as flooring dealers and projects down there. It's a huge opportunity for us.
Holiday Van Erem:One of our Kent employees was so excited to move there.
Michael Goria:Yeah, yeah.
Holiday Van Erem:Just up and left.
Michael Goria:Right, he's ready to go. It's very exciting. And this was fun. This was a fun episode, because our branches are an integral part to our business. And, you know, we have people that know an individual branch. But as someone who gets to travel to a lot of our branches, just to meet our people, and we have so many quality people this is this is fun. I think this will be a great lesson for everybody.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. So we're gonna highlight one branch from each state. And you know, some of those states is the only branch and some of them, they're one of many. We did like a speed dating round for each of them.
Michael Goria:Yeah, I was surprised none of them asked, Who do I get to pick at the end?
Holiday Van Erem:I know, which is probably good, maybe really good. Well, we didn't need HR involved. So I'm excited for everybody to hear more about our branches and get to meet some of our individual folks who are running the branches and and some of them talked about all the different people that they've got working at the branch with them. I hope that everybody enjoys the branch highlights
Michael Goria:Branch highlights episode.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes.
Michael Goria:Can you tell us your name?
Casey Laarman:My name is Casey Laarman.
Holiday Van Erem:Great. What branch are you with?
Casey Laarman:I'm with the Portland branch.
Michael Goria:How many years have you been with T&A supply?
Casey Laarman:I'm coming up on my first year.
Holiday Van Erem:All right. What is your favorite color?
Casey Laarman:Green.
Michael Goria:Oh, I like it
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, that's my favorite color, too.
Michael Goria:Who are you in a nutshell?
Casey Laarman:I am a mom who has way too much fun. And I am extremely positive, annoyingly positive. Yes, something comes up I'll be like now we're gonna look at this differently? I'm that guy.
Holiday Van Erem:That's awesome. How many people work at the Portland branch?
Casey Laarman:Currently we are sitting at, I believe 18.
Holiday Van Erem:Can you tell us a little bit about some of the folks that you have? Like, how many do you have out on the showroom versus the warehouse doing different things?
Casey Laarman:Oh, man, we have an awesome team. I absolutely love the Portland team. We have four in the branch. So that's myself, Cheyenne, and Glen and Chris. And then the warehouse, everybody else works in. And we have a lot of salesmen actually who come through too. Jepper runs the warehouse with JR. and we have got an amazing team a lot of personality. A lot of really funny people sometimes when they get going it's really hard to get us all back down to reality because Isaiah can get us all laughing pretty hard and JR's got jokes like some serious jokes that guy cracks us up.
Michael Goria:It's awesome. Super fun. Love it. What's your top selling product or a product category that you do well with
Casey Laarman:Well, I would say zine is a huge driver of sales down there? for us. We have a lot of easing out in the showroom. But interestingly, in this year that I've been on boarded LatiCrete has really done a lot for us, rather than right when I on boarded and we've seen substantial growth and the impact of the vendors that we have so like our new LatiCrete guy, John is fantastic. A lot of product knowledge been thrown into LatiCrete, so I would say that that's definitely a driving area. It's not one of our top but it's a great growth that
Michael Goria:Good. we've seen, but yeah, zine and is one of the big ones gundlach trowel surprisingly get a lot of sales, your trowel sales
Holiday Van Erem:Is there something in the branch that you guys stock that customers always forget about. That you want to make sure that they don't forget about.
Casey Laarman:Hmm, that's a tough one. Because you do have a lot of people who will be purchasing things and then have to come back. We try to remind them a lot. I'll be honest, like, my team's great at being like, did you remember your blades? Did you remember your glue? Do you need trowels? Are you sure you have enough in the truck? You know, you need primer, how about some primer? I would say the fiber bags are sometimes forgotten for the 150's. We sell a lot of 150 pallets and pallets of it. But I would say probably blades. That's why we have it behind us. We constantly remind them. They seem to forget a lot.
Michael Goria:All right, this is my favorite question. What's your favorite cereal?
Casey Laarman:Oh, that's a hard one. I haven't had cereal in a long time.
Michael Goria:Does not have to be eaten in the morning.
Casey Laarman:I'd say Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That's the one of the ones that you know. When I'm getting, I'm trying to get the healthy cereal for my daughter, and I'll be in the healthy section, and then she'll look over, and that's usually the one we land on. Like I mean, you can get that and then she doesn't eat all hopefully. Exactly, I hope.
Holiday Van Erem:How many accidents have you had at the branch this year?
Casey Laarman:Zerooo!
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. So I don't know if you're a Walking Dead fan. But there was a season where they kept track of like how many people died. And that's so my mind when we walk around the building. I'm like, oh, there's the accident board. How many accidents do we had?
Casey Laarman:You're just hoping for a zero.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, love it
Michael Goria:All right. Last question. Do you have any customer appreciation or vendor events happening soon?
Casey Laarman:As a matter of fact, yes. Another thing on top of the vendor customer appreciation, we do Training with us Tuesday's here in Portland. So a lot of my vendors will come in on Tuesdays specifically to do training. So I have a lot of those throughout the year. So I've had, almost every Tuesday I've had somebody out here but our big event is going to be in September on the 15th. And it'll be a backyard country barbecue theme, because I like to theme them up and yeah all our vendors will be there, customers will be there, come out and check it out and have some food with us and some laughs
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. Okay, so we've got some place to meet in June, September, in Portland, Maine, you're telling me? Yes. We're filling up our calendar today. Yes. Awesome. Well, that is the questions that we had. And we really appreciate you taking some time to chat with us.
Casey Laarman:Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for showing up.
Michael Goria:Thanks for all you do appreciate it.
Holiday Van Erem:Thank you.
Michael Goria:Bye bye.
Holiday Van Erem:Think of this like speed dating. We're about to do like five or six different interviews with branch managers from all over the place. And we have the same questions for all of you. The really the thought behind this is we want to get to know and have our audience get to know all of our branch managers a little bit better highlight the different areas that we have people in and more about that branch and the people and who they are and just who our company is as a whole. So we've got some funny questions, and we've got some serious questions. Who are you? What's your name?
Jessie:My name is Jessie. I have been with T&A supply a little over nine years now. I've been manager for actually a little over six years now. I grew up in Boise, Idaho, lived here my whole life and I'm the manager of T&A in Boise.
Michael Goria:Awesome that even just answered my question.
Holiday Van Erem:So if your name we've got your branch location, number of years at T&A supply,
Michael Goria:yep.
Holiday Van Erem:What's your favorite color?
Jessie:Depends on the day. You know, some days I like blue sometimes, like black sometimes like green. You know, maybe you can throw some red in there.
Michael Goria:Okay,
Jessie:I dont think I have an exact favorite, favorite color. You know what I mean?
Michael Goria:Okay, cool. All right, who is Jessie in a nutshell?
Jessie:Definitely an outdoors type person. I mean, being from Idaho, I go camping a lot fishing a lot. Got a big camp trailer and a lot of places pretty close. I mean, my favorite place is Garden Valley. It's probably about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Garden Valley from where I live and definitely family person, you know, spending time creating memories, things like that.
Holiday Van Erem:So how many people total work at our Boise branch.
Jessie:So we've got four in the warehouse. We've got two up in our showroom and then myself and then we have three sales reps. So we've got Jeff and Wendy on the counter myself, which I've bounced between warehouse counter outside visiting customers all of it and then we've got Zack who's the warehouse lead. We have two Ray's so we one of them is Razer. He's just a warehouse associate. And then there's Ray-Ray who is our delivery driver slash warehouse associate and then we've got Scotty who is another warehouse associate
Michael Goria:What's your top selling product or product category at the Boise branch?
Jessie:We excel in sundries for sure. Yeah, I would say sundries if I'm picking a category if I had to pick a specific product I would probably go with Uzin as our number one.
Holiday Van Erem:So if I asked you if there's a product that you think your customers always forget that you have in stock, what would be that product?
Jessie:I don't know. That's honestly a tough one. I mean, we everything that we have in our building. It's I feel like we move it fairly well.
Holiday Van Erem:He's telling us he's a really good branch manager.
Jessie:Yeah, I was gonna say I mean we do pretty well with the advertising in our showroom. We've got display boards up on the slot wall and I don't think there's too much, cause I, when we stock the showroom I always tell my, the showroom team I like how many times you go to a buffet and you eat more than you should have. So we try to keep the showroom looking like a buffet and and then people I think that that has helped a lot from when I first took over management to now I think, because at that point in time, there's a lot of people that are like, "What, I didn't know you carried that or that or this. Wait, what is that? I've never even seen that."
Holiday Van Erem:I like that answer.
Michael Goria:Yeah, very well done. Here's a tough one. What's your favorite breakfast cereal?
Jessie:Kinda like the colors thing. I mean, that's that's a tough one. It depends on what kind of mood I'm in. But if I had to choose, I'd probably say Honey Bunches of Oats is kind of a weakness for me.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, I'll do coming out of left field there.
Jessie:You're expecting like Apple Jacks.
Holiday Van Erem:Lucky Charms. So here's a question. This is one of my guilty pleasure questions. If you've ever watched The Walking Dead, there was a season where they kept track it how many people died? How many accidents have you had in the branch this year?
Jessie:This year? I think we are accident free this year.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh now right? Yeah,
Jessie:yeah. In fact, the last one we had was actually Denise one of the the sales. And it wasn't even at our warehouse. It was at a customer's showroom and some samples fell over on her ankle. So we were doing super well. So we give Denise a hard time and tell her that she owes us lunch you know.
Holiday Van Erem:As she rightly does. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. gratulations. That's awesome.
Michael Goria:Last Question, do you have any customer appreciation or vendor events happening soon that you want to talk about?
Jessie:Yeah, absolutely. So June 2, June 2, we've got a big big one Customer Appreciation Day. I know for sure. We've got at least eight vendors that are coming. Larger vendors got WF Taylor, Uzin, LatiCrete, Crane Tools, Taylor Tools, Spray-Lock will be there. We're gonna have lunch food, snacks, kinda of grabby the food for the mornings, muffins, things like that. And then we're going to I'm going to grill up some burgers and dogs for lunch and perfect. We're gonna need some prizes and giveaways and a lot of information to be learned and shared. And yeah, we always have a good time. We've got cornhole boards and little mini puttin' games and should be a good time.
Holiday Van Erem:All right, so June 2, let's get our tickets booked. Make sure you have a gluten free hot dog bun for me just set aside.
Jessie:Absolutely, absolutely.
Holiday Van Erem:All right. Well, thank you so much, Jesse. That is all the questions that we have for you. We appreciate everything that you do and everything that you do to make sure that that Boise branch is everything that it can be for our customers, and we'll make sure that Denise doesn't cause you any more problems, We'll take care of that.
Jessie:All right, yeah. No, I appreciate you guys as well. And hope you guys can enjoy the nice weather.
Michael Goria:Hey, look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks, Jessie.
Holiday Van Erem:Thanks.
Jessie:Absolutely. Yeah, we'll see ya, bye.
Holiday Van Erem:We are basically going to do like speed dating questions. We have the same set of questions that we're asking each person. Some of them are fun, silly questions. Some of them are more serious questions. Tell us your name.
Vincent Brewer:My name is Vincent Brewer.
Michael Goria:Awesome. What branch are you at? Vincent?
Vincent Brewer:I'm at the Bellevue branch.
Holiday Van Erem:And how long have you worked for T&A supply?
Vincent Brewer:Eight and a half years?
Michael Goria:Right. Nice work. That's good. All right. What's your favorite color? Maroon?
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, that's a nice answer. Okay, who is Vincent? In a nutshell,
Vincent Brewer:Vincent is a very direct and determined worker who tries to balance the needs of the company with the needs of the customer.
Holiday Van Erem:I can I can tell, that answered seems very appropriate.
Michael Goria:How many people total work at the Bellevue branch
Vincent Brewer:Four.
Holiday Van Erem:So, what's your like makeup? Do you have a couple of people that are at the counter? Mostly the rest are in the warehouse. How does that work?
Vincent Brewer:Well, the expectation is that everybody does everything. Okay. Division of labor doesn't really get us very far at the branch level.
Holiday Van Erem:What is your top selling product or product category out of the Bellevue branch?
Vincent Brewer:Well, we're primarily tile centric up here in Bellevue. I think our highest selling product is still probably using 150. But right behind that would be like the LATICRETE 253 gold mortar. Okay.
Michael Goria:Do you have a product that customers constantly forget about that you wish they would remember?
Vincent Brewer:Probably the using adhesives like using ke 2000. It's a universal adhesive. It can fit almost any job application. And it's relatively inexpensive when you look at it in that lens.
Holiday Van Erem:Brilliant. Awesome. All right, so this is Michael's favorite question I'm gonna ask at this time. What is your favorite breakfast cereal?
Vincent Brewer:Probably Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, that's okay.
Michael Goria:Can't sleep with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. How many accidents have you had at your branch this year?
Vincent Brewer:Zero.
Holiday Van Erem:All right. The last question for you. Do you have any customer appreciation or vendor events coming up that you want to let people know about?
Vincent Brewer:We do, we have one scheduled for September 11. Outside of that, I don't have anything currently on the books.
Holiday Van Erem:Okay.
Michael Goria:Somebody if I come up, will you get me a birthday cake?
Vincent Brewer:I can promise you some good food cause I always show up but I can't you a cake.
Holiday Van Erem:Alright, so I'll have to bring the birthday cake. Michael is trying to tell you that that's his birthday. And if you want to write on your calendar,
Vincent Brewer:Nice, swing through man.
Holiday Van Erem:Well, that's our question. Yeah.
Michael Goria:Yeah, thank you for all you do at the branch level, we do appreciate it.
Vincent Brewer:Thanks for having me, guys.
Holiday Van Erem:Thanks so much. We'll talk to you later. Take care. So I'll give you the spiel that I've been giving everyone, we are basically doing a round of speed dating, we have the same set of questions that we've asked the other folks that we've talked to today, and we're gonna ask you the same exact questions. Not a ton of them. So this is not going to take very long. Some of them are silly and funny. Some of them are just for us to get to know you better. And some of them are more serious questions. Michael, I will go back and forth asking the questions and we'll just dive in there and get started.
Santino Jaime:Sweet, lets do it.
Michael Goria:All right, what's your name?
Santino Jaime:My name is Santino Jaime I but I go by Sunny it's a lot easier to remember.
Holiday Van Erem:And which branch location are you working in?
Santino Jaime:I work in the Anchorage Alaska branch branch number 80.
Michael Goria:How long have you been with T&A?
Santino Jaime:Let's see this December will be four years. So not a long stint. But
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, four years is a pretty good stint. We'll take it. What is your favorite color?
Santino Jaime:Ooh, man. That is a tough one. I'm gonna have to say purple.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, that's a good one.
Michael Goria:We've got some good answers today. Yes. So who is sunny in a nutshell?
Santino Jaime:Sunny is just a typical guy. Proud Alaskan. Born and raised proud American for sure. Just a hardworking fella from the nasty north.
Michael Goria:We like it.
Holiday Van Erem:How many people do you have working in the anchorage branch.
Santino Jaime:In the branch? Typically it's just six. It's the showroom, the warehouse, myself. We've had Margie in our order desk. She's been working in house lately because she's been having some network issues at home. Seven of us now with some outside sales kind of coming in and out of the building but seven always probably back to six once we get our network situation figured out.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, Margiela want to go back to work and at home?
Santino Jaime:Oh yeah I'm sure that's, she's very patient with us I'm sure we're quite annoying so.
Michael Goria:What's your top selling product or product category at the anchorage branch
Santino Jaime:That's probably a tie between some TAS flooring like LVP finished goods and the Uzin self leveler.
Holiday Van Erem:We've got like a running theme of answers for some of these questions.
Michael Goria:We definitely do.
Holiday Van Erem:Okay, is there something that you guys stock at the anchorage branch that customers always forget that you have?
Santino Jaime:Yeah, probably similar to the using items We stock a lot of the using items self levelers and primers and things like that. But we also on the pack mat side because we run two were one of the rare branches that run a couple of the businesses under one roof.
Michael Goria:What is your favorite cereal?
Santino Jaime:Whoo, that is a tough one, favorite cereal.
Michael Goria:Doesn't have to be eaten for breakfast.
Santino Jaime:Yeah, I'm gonna go with a CT crunch. Gotta go CT crunch.
Holiday Van Erem:That's three.
Michael Goria:Yes.
Holiday Van Erem:Hot damn.
Santino Jaime:It's a staple.
Michael Goria:Is it really? That's that's our winner for sure.
Holiday Van Erem:Okay, so how many accidents have you had at the branch this year?
Santino Jaime:Accidents None. No accidents.
Holiday Van Erem:Got a little knock on wood
Santino Jaime:Definitely a couple like Hey, what are you doing? Oh whoops, and then like a quick adjustment you know, but like we catch up we actually have a pretty good running number. Not that anyone's counting. That's pretty pretty good number for no accidents. No engineering.
Holiday Van Erem:That's why I'm counting. I'm keeping an eye on you.
Michael Goria:All right, last question. Do you have any customer appreciation or vendor events happening soon?
Santino Jaime:Oh yeah, we do back 30 years ago when anchorage branch open. Our sales rep and fearless leader Matt Rainey started the surfaces the Alaska surfaces event I think down in the lower 48 You guys have the Customer Appreciation Day or the vendor fairs but yeah, man we shut the branch down a little early and we definitely have some some steaks and burgers and dogs and some games gifts prizes and we tried to fly everybody up it's kind of a logistical nightmare. I feel like for everybody else but man we really like to set up the tables and have people here
Michael Goria:Having attended it myself. It's a great event it's fantastic.
Santino Jaime:It's a good time Yeah, we're trying to get more people to especially the guys in the back you know the warehouse guys showroom guys bring your families let everyone see kind of a little slice of life, you know, being a T&A employee. So, it's cool.
Michael Goria:That's great.
Holiday Van Erem:Well, I'm looking forward to possibly attending that event sometime soon.
Michael Goria:Yeah.
Santino Jaime:We'd love to have you guys.
Holiday Van Erem:Well, that's it. That is everything that we got for you.
Michael Goria:Thank you again, for all you do for our anchorage branch. We do appreciate it.
Santino Jaime:Of course, guys. Absolutely. If you need anything from us, just give us a call.
Holiday Van Erem:We'll do. Thank you so much.
Santino Jaime:You're welcome.
Holiday Van Erem:We have done very similar calls with a handful of other representatives from different branches, basically one per state we're doing. I've been calling it kind of like speed dating. So we have a set number of questions that we're asking the same questions to each person. Some of them are silly funny. Some of them are get to know you questions. And some of them are more serious branch specific type questions. So we're recording this for our next podcast episode. And it'll be like branch highlights. So we want to just to get take a moment to talk to somebody from each state. We can't do every single one of the branches. It's just too much but just give our listeners or sales reps and our customers a little flavor of who we are around different areas that they've and they're not familiar with. Yep. So Michael and I are gonna go back and forth asking you different questions.
Chris Edmond:I'm good guys, for sure.
Holiday Van Erem:Okay, great. So can you give us your name?
Chris Edmond:Chris Edmonds.
Michael Goria:Great. What branch location do you represent?
Chris Edmond:We are in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Holiday Van Erem:Wonderful how many years? Have you been with T&A? Chris?
Chris Edmond:A little bit over three years, three and a half years?
Holiday Van Erem:Feels like longer? Yeah, I feel like I've known you longer than that.
Chris Edmond:It's because I talked so much.
Holiday Van Erem:No, I really, I think it's longer than that, Chris.
Michael Goria:Yeah, we went to Mannington together I think
Holiday Van Erem:It's just seems like so long ago.
Chris Edmond:I was hired. Yeah, just a little bit. It was March of 2019. Okay. I guess I guess it'd be four years.
Michael Goria:Chris, what's your favorite color?
Chris Edmond:Favorite color is probably white.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, okay, alright I mean that's fitting. I like that answer.
Chris Edmond:Only cause I just had like an in depth conversation with my three years old about this. And I tell her green. And then my wife said, I think you really like white. And I thought about it for a while. I do. Like, if it comes to like, if I'm behind like a new T shirt or like a new pair of cleats for lacrosse. I just like a nice clean set of white. So yeah, I think again, this conversation happened like three days ago. Yeah, this happened last week. I might have said green but I think if I really had to say it, it's white.
Holiday Van Erem:Okay, I like that. I respect that. Who is Chris Edmonds in a nutshell.
Chris Edmond:Aww man an over explainer and I'm somewhat long winded you know, I like to say that I tell a long story short, but it always goes long. I think I'm pretty relaxed but also you know, take things seriously want to do good in multiple aspects of life family work, just all around. Normal guy got nothing too crazy over here.
Michael Goria:That's all right.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, I think that was a really long answer for you in a nutshell.
Michael Goria:True to form. Hey, Chris, how many people work at the Honolulu, HI branch?
Chris Edmond:So right now total we have five of us
Michael Goria:Okay, and what does that entail warehouse inside?
Chris Edmond:Yeah, we got two warehouse guys right now. One of them is a temp worker so you can say we might have six of us but yeah two warehouse guys Mike Fields, it's myself and two other Roland Cortes, and Alex Suarez one with Roland kind of handling retail our Island aspect of T&A supplies footprint here in Hawaii. And then Alex Suarez, kind of assisting and the Assistant Branch Manager position here, as well as working in the architect and design community. And then we have an office admin gal named Lynn. Keeping my head on my shoulders most days is her job.
Holiday Van Erem:What is your top selling product or product category out of your branch there?
Chris Edmond:Yeah, I think sundry related. I think it's our self leveling. Uzin 150. It pretty much surpasses any one singular item of anything. That would be it. I find that our prep materials, especially here in Hawaii, where moisture is a big issue. prep materials are huge, but specifically Uzin 150 we stock it like crazy. It would be our top mover,
Holiday Van Erem:I'm not sure there's a single branch that hasn't answered that question the same exact way.
Michael Goria:Yeah, consistency with that. Chris, what's something that you do stock at the branch and people forget about often, or you'd wish they didn't forget about.
Chris Edmond:We've worked hard but for so many years, we've done so much in the sundry related items that I think sometimes they just forget about the great flooring choices we have. We've worked hard to build out a robust stocking program of our luxury vinyls, as well as some glue down luxury vinyl. And when people are sometimes reminded that we have it, and the price point and the colors that we have readily available. They're very, very pleased. But for a very long time, the business model out here was was Stoli projects, which is still a really important aspect of our market strategy here in Hawaii. But yeah, I want everybody to constantly be reminded that we locally stocked flooring finished flooring here in Hawaii.
Holiday Van Erem:That's a great answer. Yeah, you might need help from your daughter on this. What's your favorite breakfast cereal?
Chris Edmond:I mean, if I'm really splurging not watching the sugar and all that I would have to go like a fruity pebbles.
Holiday Van Erem:There we go.
Michael Goria:That's great.
Chris Edmond:Yeah, I think I can like, if you catch me like, in just a rough workweek, I mean, I could pride down like a whole box of those things. With you. No problem. I can easily happen.
Michael Goria:Chris, how many accidents have you had at the branch this year?
Chris Edmond:We have not had any, knock on wood
Holiday Van Erem:Yes.
Michael Goria:Well done.
Holiday Van Erem:My tables plastic here. Good. All right. Do you have any customer appreciation or vendor events coming up that you want to remind customers about?
Chris Edmond:Yeah, we got one, there's a design group called the source, we're gonna be doing an event with them here was supposed to be May 24th I think it's gonna be pushed back to early to mid June. So anybody listening in from the Hawaii territory, be on the lookout for that it's going to be a kind of a showcase event of our brand that we represent, that will be with the source, here in Honolulu, we're going to do a casino theme should be a lot of fun. So we're finalizing the date on that. That's going to be a really good one that we're going to be doing here this summer.
Holiday Van Erem:Awesome.
Michael Goria:Yeah. Sounds good.
Holiday Van Erem:That's great. Well, that's all the questions that we have really easy.
Michael Goria:Well done. Appreciate it.
Chris Edmond:Absolutely. Well, thank you guys. We I appreciate being on and I look forward to seeing what the other territories have to say to these questions.
Michael Goria:You got it.
Holiday Van Erem:You'll have to take notes on the nearest branch you'll put on your target list.
Santino Jaime:Yeah, I think Alaska would be a cool one. The new one in Salt Lake City. I'm excited to hear and see how they do. Obviously, exciting times. And we're expanding right now and a lot of opportunity out there in the unknown so to speak.
Holiday Van Erem:Right, Chris? Well, thank you so much. We have what I like to call like speed dating questions. We've got the same handful of questions that I'm asking to everybody that we've talked to. Some of them are silly funny questions. Some of them are more serious questions. Some of them are like get to know you type questions. Michael and I are gonna go back and forth and ask different questions but it's really super conversational if you make a mistake. It's really not a problem. We will we will make mistakes we will stumble over words.
Santino Jaime:Call me One Take Jake. So let's do this.
Holiday Van Erem:All right.
Michael Goria:I like it a little bit of confidence.
Holiday Van Erem:Okay, well, we'll see what happens here.
Michael Goria:All right. What's your name?
Parker Mortenson:Parker, last name Mortenson.
Holiday Van Erem:There we go. What branch location are you with.
Parker Mortenson:Salt Lake City, the brand new one.
Michael Goria:And how long have you been with T&A supply?
Parker Mortenson:I started in November. We got our building in December.
Holiday Van Erem:A brand new This interview is a little different because nobody knows about our Utah branch. So we probably shouldn't mention this are brand new Salt Lake City, Utah branch. Parker has been there since the very beginning pre having an actual building in place. So we're very excited to have you on and to give our listeners a little information about what Utah is all about.
Michael Goria:Yeah, the new market.
Holiday Van Erem:What is your favorite color?
Parker Mortenson:Ooh blue, like a light blue.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh a light blue? Yes to match the shirt he's wearing today. Our listeners can't see that.
Michael Goria:All right, who is Parker in a nutshell,
Santino Jaime:I am outgoing, loud and hit the ground running kinda guy ready to do something lets do it. No lollygagging.
Michael Goria:Nice.
Holiday Van Erem:Okay, how many people work? I think I already know the answer. Actually no, I think you hired somebody new recently. How many people work at the Salt Lake branch?
Santino Jaime:Right now there's me in the building. You have a new hire Jose he starts Monday.
Michael Goria:Oh, nice.
Santino Jaime:There are two fantastic sales team reps, Brad and Jeff and Garrett. He used to be with you guys. Who now handles all our field and displays the customers.
Michael Goria:So I'm going to change this question because you are so new. Okay. What products are you most excited to start selling out of the branch?
Santino Jaime:Well, just cause I've been playing with the cutting machine all day. I'm excited to get our carpet down here. Get that going
Michael Goria:A new carpet program,
Santino Jaime:A whole bunch of pads as well. So I think we're gonna do pretty good.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, and our next question doesn't really apply either. So we're gonna skip that one, too. I was gonna ask you, what's something that you guys stock that people forget about, but they don't know what you stock yet. So, I mean, you guys are gonna have pretty much a little bit of everything that we have from T&A. I think I mean, I've seen your stocking catalog that are 20 from our marketing departments building for you guys. And it's really got a little bit everything. So the next question then would be what is your favorite breakfast cereal?
Santino Jaime:Oh, Fruity Pebbels was it's gonna be new. It's not like month old Fruity Pebbels. Brand new fresh out the bag. Got that chrunch going.
Michael Goria:Yeah, Parker Have you had Fruity Pebbles with marshmallows yet?
Parker Mortenson:I've not have those yet.
Michael Goria:Yeah, okay.
Parker Mortenson:I didn't even know that was a thing.
Michael Goria:Little piece of advice. If you if you got nothing going on this weekend dive into a bowl. You won't regret it?
Parker Mortenson:Got it.
Michael Goria:Well, this is a pretty easy question as well, I think how many accidents have you had at your branch this year?
Parker Mortenson:Zero.
Michael Goria:Nice work.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. Nicely done. I don't know that you have an answer for this yet. But are you guys looking forward to do you have any customer appreciation vendor events that you guys would like to get set up in the next few months?
Santino Jaime:I think we're all looking forward to our grand opening when we're finally ready to get everything. We just got our system up I could talk about and the cutting machine out here. That'd be exciting to get everyone out here and our customers come in vendors helping.
Michael Goria:Yeah, I look forward to that day,
Holiday Van Erem:Something to look forward to. So down in Utah, we've got, we're all over the place. For the next few months, we've been invited to a lot of customer appreciation Uh huh, yeah. events today.
Michael Goria:Holiday and I are going to eat a lot of hot dogs In the next four to three months. and hamburgers.
Holiday Van Erem:Is there anything that our customers should know about? That's different for the Salt Lake branch? Who is the Salt Lake branch going to be? What are you guys really looking forward to? What can customers look forward to?
Parker Mortenson:Well, we are spreading ourselves in one stocking. That's something that Salt Lake doesn't have a lot of right now. That's usually you go in we've got about maybe a couple of things, and you have to wait for it to come in. We're prideing ourselves on stocking that, order it and we'll store it for you we can keep it here as long as you need. If you need it's gonna be ready for you a lot of places, you know, you don't do the pre-pull. That's something that I was happy to be part of during the pre-pull and get stuff for the customer. So we dont get it off the truck until we really don't need to.
Holiday Van Erem:Awesome. Well, I think that's about it. That's all the questions that I have.
Michael Goria:Oh, we're really excited to have you on board. Parker. I mean, having been down there last week got to meet you in person. And of course ride with the boys. We think we have a great opportunity with the Salt Lake market. So we look forward to continuing to work with you and build that business out there. Appreciate us for it.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, no problem. Thank you very much. You have a wonderful rest of your day.
Parker Mortenson:Thank you.
Michael Goria:Thanks Parker.
Holiday Van Erem:Bye! So six interviews back to back to back to back. I'm kind of exhausted.
Michael Goria:Yeah, I enjoyed it, though. I mean, it was interesting to hear some of their answers. And I hope the customers enjoyed. There's consistency for sure. In a lot of it, even in branches that have no relation, no state connection.
Holiday Van Erem:Uh huh. For folks that have probably maybe met each other once or twice in a team meeting or something.
Michael Goria:Yeah. And so but it also, I think, speaks to the quality of some of the products that were brought up. Some were super consistent, some cereal was super consistent.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, exactly. Well, I think it also speaks to the quality of the hiring that we do here at T&A. We apparently have a type we like.
Michael Goria:although I don't know that anybody had the same color choice.
Holiday Van Erem:We had some interesting color choices.
Michael Goria:Yeah.
Holiday Van Erem:So that was it was all very enlightening. But there's definitely some of those branch managers that I've met and know their answers are so spot on them like exactly what I would expect from you. And the ones that I didn't know as well still, their answers definitely gave me a much better picture of who they are as a person. So that was very interesting.
Michael Goria:Well, what I like is every branch I've been to every branch manager has been so welcoming, and also so proud of the branch that they run. And I hope that that comes across today in the podcast that you really understand these branch managers take their jobs serious, they love what they do. They work hard at what they do, and that just lends to why we're successful in those markets.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, for sure, those branch managers, they are the epitome of what T&A is in those areas. Some of them have been with us For a very long time, some of them just a short while, but you wouldn't even know it. They know everything about their branch and their people and their products. And their customers. I just started attending and I'm only there for a few minutes. But this you know, Branch Manager call every week, I'm so glad that I get the opportunity just to pick their brains for a few minutes and see what it is that I can help with. And they have so much going on. And they're so proud of their branches. There are so many times I walk into a branch and they just want to show me what they've done recently, though, look, this area I cleaned out, I've got ghosts change, we move this around like this. They've been sending us photos to update the Google branch websites. And some of them are hilarious. Some of them photos. Clearly, they've done a lot of cleaning, make sure it looks normally nice for their photos. But yeah, there are wonderful people down to earth. Fantastic people and I enjoy working with them.
Michael Goria:Agreed. No, and I'm glad we got the spotlight a few of them today. Maybe down the road, we'll get to
Holiday Van Erem:I know we did not even half
Michael Goria:No, no.
Holiday Van Erem:There's so many more.
Michael Goria:Right, so another episode
Holiday Van Erem:Yes and if you haven't been out to your local branch in a while, come stop by take an opportunity at one of these vendor customer appreciation events or just drop by and say hello, they will talk your ear off. They've got lots of books in the branch that will tell you all about what they've got that's new and just come by and see what we've got going on
Michael Goria:They are a great resource, so use them.
Holiday Van Erem:Alright, exactly. All right. Well, that's another episode
Michael Goria:There we go. Thanks holiday.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah no problem, all right. What the floor is at T&A Supply Company Inc, original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or TASflooring.com
Michael Goria:This show is produced by Paul van Erem with help from Tony Collier hosted by Holiday van Erem and Michael Goria.
Holiday Van Erem:Tell us what you think of the show by emailing us at WTFpodcast@tasupply.com or on social media#whatthefloorpodcast .