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!
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!
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we discuss the people, places and events all around Kestrel Country. All right, let's get started.
Speaker 2:Okay, blaine johnson yes thanks for coming in am I supposed to look at the camera? You don't need to.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, I'm just going to pretend it's there. I mean, if you get tired of looking at me, you can just look at the camera.
Speaker 2:That's fine too. I can do a little side eye if other things can say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, the camera is just. It's like it disappears. We don't really light and everything but um, I actually really enjoy just doing these in my office and a little more casual too. It's kind of fun to, like you said, it's a conversation. At the end of the day, I always feel like my favorite podcasts are the ones where it's just two people talking yeah yeah, you're almost eavesdropping on somebody's conversation, like I feel like joe rogan right, he's the most successful podcaster ever.
Speaker 2:And they're just out there, yeah.
Speaker 1:They're just talking and you kind of get to just listen in on what they're talking to rather than like a formal interview.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess I should just throw the notes away, that's right, but it is helpful to have some topics.
Speaker 1:So we're here to talk about glass today, glass, norm's glass. So I guess the first question your name is Blaine, you manage Norm's glass.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm the operations coordinator.
Speaker 1:Operations coordinator.
Speaker 2:We've got Cliff in the office, kind of comptroller there dialing people in sending them places things like that, but no one there is named Norm. No, but Norm did start it, so who's Norm?
Speaker 1:Let's start there. Well, Norm is a fantastic gentleman.
Speaker 2:I've met him twice now, just real quick. He's an older fella. He comes in and just super happy that everything's continued on with his name. He started the business back in 1975. Every time I see that and people are like wow, 50 years old and I'm like man, I was born in 75 too.
Speaker 3:So it's kind of like every time, but yeah so, but no, did that.
Speaker 2:And then Peggy has been there pretty much since day one and kind of just eventually fell into the role of running the whole place and then took it over and bought it. So she's obviously still with us, thank goodness, and we're going to keep her. She wants to be semi-retired but we're going to keep her coming in as long as possible. She has so much knowledge. It's crazy. People will come in and they'll be like oh, I broke this thing off my screen door. That was put in back in 83. And she'll say, let me look at that. 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 like wow.
Speaker 2:So she's actually building us, um, I think she calls it peggy's brain book. She's going through this massive amount of information that she has collected over the years and she's taking all the super hypercritical stuff and putting it in a book and labeling it and telling us certain things. So we're gonna have like a condensed version. But, um, she gets to come and go as she pleases. It's fantastic for her. She still gets to see her Like customer. Everybody comes in. That knows.
Speaker 2:Everybody walks through and it's like you better, at least say hi to Peggy, she's here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I haven't been in Moscow long enough to know to have remembered it being Nora. I always knew it as Peggy Right, so it's like yeah, when that's interesting to know about Norm.
Speaker 2:So Norm's still around, norm's still around. He started it, yeah, and then. Yeah, how long have you been involved?
Speaker 2:Well, just a couple months honestly Okay, yeah, we moved over here in September be closer to the family. The family was doing some expansion and needed some help from my wife on some things and I was working remote and so just getting into norms on a daily basis. They got a shop area that I enjoy utilizing. So I was up there and just kind of seeing things that were going on and I saw a lot of huge potential and then massive steps forward that could be made in just a daily structure of things, kind of to expedite things, to kind of bring them from, honestly, the pencil and paper world and some things that are a little more focused as far as data-wise. We got this coming, it's going to be here, then we can schedule this, we can have these guys do it, just expediting things, instead of things kind of being like oh it gets here, we'll get it yeah, yeah coming from the world that I was in, um following product and managing when it gets out to people was very, very key.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, and what world was that? Well, that was um.
Speaker 2:Organics and superfoods, oh really yeah, I uh was working for a company called cambridge commodities love the guys, everybody. There was fantastic um, so we would bring in like top shelf ingredients from all around the world. It was fantastic. So I got to see all these new things and learn about all the advantages of knowing kind of like the, the the story behind your food. Everybody talks about this, that and the other, but if you don't know the regions it's grown in, it doesn't have certain properties. You could be buying something that is grown in Peru and has this amazing benefit, but it's grown somewhere else where they like mass produce a kind of stuff and it doesn't have any of the same and like nutrients. So the nutritional value stuff that was really is a whole different world for me.
Speaker 2:Jumping into that from um other things that I had done, but it it was interesting to get into the like logistics and yeah and and a lot of it was just learning how difficult it is to get stuff brought into the United States and then to also have partners outside of the United States that you could trust, because a lot of times once they get your money, they get a half for a deposit and then half when it gets, the other half when it gets put on the ship and then three months later you get the product. And if they're shy they would be like oh well, it was fine when we put it on the ship and you have no recourse. I mean there's not like there's a federal agency that was there to protect us. Like.
Speaker 2:I just spent $300,000 on something and we got it here and it was supposed to be organic and we went and did our own third-party testing. Because they sent us a certificate that says organic. We could sell it as organic. We didn't. We sent everything, had it third-party tested, just because we wanted to feel good about what it was we were doing. And if it came back and it had traced pesticides and things like that, they'd be like well, it was fine when we put it on the boat.
Speaker 1:And there's nobody to help you recoup that. So it's kind of so if they're their main. The main kind of teeth you have in it is a future business kind of thing, and if they're, if they're just willing to go around and whatever yeah so.
Speaker 2:yeah, you wanted to get established with long-term people that had good stuff and, ultimately, if they had their own distribution site in the united states, you had a little bit of recourse because you know you could show up on somebody's doorstep and, hey, let's have a conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah so yeah, yeah, that's interesting. I feel like that's one of those big advantages that often isn't talked about, about local right. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of like good touchy-feely, like hey, we're helping each other out and all that, which is great. But there's also that real accountability of like you're not going to, you know, even just social pressure right.
Speaker 1:Like you know, you're not going to screw somebody over on Windows, for example when it's like, yeah, you're probably going to run into that person in the grocery store in the next few weeks, right, because it's a small town, and you store in the next few weeks, right, because it's a small town. And, apart from Google reviews or Better Business Bureau or whatever other stuff, it's like we want to take good care of people because we're all in the same small town and we're going to see you all the time, or you're going to come back from 1984 and ask for a crank.
Speaker 2:Yeah, window crank. And guess what? I got it and I still got the right color. Yeah, it's funny that you use that analogy because when I was in the auto industry for about 18 years, before I jumped into the superfoods, that was my philosophy for the dealership that I ran. I didn't want to sell somebody a car and have to duck them at Safeway for the rest of my life. So we just did the right thing and for 13 years running that dealership, we never had a negative review. So yeah, absolutely Small town doing what's right, but just knowing that that's what you're putting out into the community, you're going to get it back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, and it seems like Norms has you know in terms of stepping into that role. Norms has that reputation right They've been around a long time, they'll take care of it. I know we had years ago had like a shower door that was supposed to be spot free or whatever and like it didn't, didn't perform the way it should have and whatever they were great about. Yeah, we'll come out, we'll take care of it nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's one thing that I felt really comfortable about hopping in at norms was the fact that they had been there so long and I spent a lot of time in there just kind of hanging out and visiting with people that came in and out of there, and just the feel that you get in there. It's just like, hey, come on in, hang out, we'll have a chat. You know, if we got something that works for you, great. If not, well, maybe on the next one. But now we're bringing in all sorts of new products while maintaining the old stuff. So it's pretty cool. It lends yourself to feeling good at jumping into a new something in a new area.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything's brand new and shiny. For me right now, it feels great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you grew up in Wenatchee, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, wenatchee area. Ellensburg and then moved up to Wenatchee in 1990, freshman year of high school, and then from then we did one stint over here back in 07, 08. But that was not the right time for me to jump into the real estate market. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's an infamous time. Oh boy, this may be another one, I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2:Hey, whoa, whoa, I'm hoping the universe has got better plans for me this time.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just meant the real estate industry. We're going through our own little challenges right now too, but yeah, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:So what are some of the big adjustments that are maybe not adjustments, but have you had any big surprises getting into the window? Business Cause, you know, or maybe another way to ask it are are there some things that carry over? You mentioned a little bit of it, but you know, from cars to superfoods to glass, that's quite a spectrum, but business is business. What are some things that have been maybe learning curve stuff for you as you've gotten into it?
Speaker 2:for you as you've gotten into it. Um well, with being in cars for so long, I knew everything Like really like a ridiculous amount of knowledge in that industry. So when people ask me questions, I knew right away, or at least I had a really good avenue to figure it out. Getting into superfoods that like me and potatoes guy, like, oh, superfoods, matcha, and you know all these different little things and then learning what they do for you, that was definitely something to try to wrap my head around. And then windows and glass is a whole other Avenue.
Speaker 2:But knowing that we have, you know, local suppliers for some of our products, like Coeur d'Alene windows and there's a railing company in Spokane that we deal with so kind of getting to know the core products that we have and that we've utilized for years and years, but also bringing on new stuff I think that's one thing that's exciting for me is to go out and find stuff that's going to set us apart over the changes that are going to be happening in the area over the next couple of years. I know that there's some big box stores that are looking about coming in and we want to solidify ourself as number one the local people that you can come to and trust um that we'll be able to get products quickly if we can't stock it, that it'll be a quick turnaround on getting it. But also we're gonna have a better mid and upper tier product to offer that you wouldn't maybe feel comfortable going into the bigger box stores and trusting somebody to sell you that stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do they do. I genuinely just don't know. Do they do a lot of windows? So Home Depot, right, they're the elephant in the room, yeah, they do. Yeah, do they do a lot of windows? So Home Depot, right, the elephant in the room, yeah, they do. Do they do a lot of windows?
Speaker 2:Windows and doors stuff like that. But it's pretty much off the shelf right. It is it's kind of? These are what we have. Here you go.
Speaker 1:So it's a commodity at that point.
Speaker 2: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 and take somebody's time up in order to figure out exactly how their process is, but I've stopped into a few. I've looked at how their displays are set up and the things that they show that are readily available or special order, and a lot of their special order stuff is still the same stuff that we're doing. So we'll be timeline sensitive on that and similar. You'll be dealing with local installer crews guys that have been here, been with norms, employed by norms, and instead of, maybe the crew that Home Depot will send randomly around to different cities to put in stuff on scheduled days. So you'll still be supporting local people, dealing with local people that you might run into them at the store and be like hey that one thing, and then oh, swing on over.
Speaker 1:So big differentiators being quality, like you said, kind of mid and upper range different quality products, as well as service.
Speaker 2:Service and knowledge, yeah absolutely Service knowledge, and then you know when you got to you're one thing that I've kind of sat back and looked at this. That's different than a lot of the other industries I've been in. You're welcoming us into your home and we need to understand that and respect that and and and treat it as the the, the, the invitation that it is, because when somebody brings you into their home, I mean you've got somebody who isn't there but his wife and kids are going to be there. You want to trust us. You want to be able to look us in the eye and know, hey, if there's anything I can trust these guys to come over here, walk in here, help my wife out, help my husband out, whoever happens to be that's there, you know.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of connection that that that needs to be understood and it just needs to be 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 the little footies. You know we'll do the stuff. That makes a difference in how you feel bringing somebody into your house. You don't want somebody that's going to come into your house and you feel like, when they leave like, oh my gosh, they didn't care about anything, they just set stuff down and made a big mess and left it or whatever.
Speaker 2:So that's, just something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause you get a crew of guys that come in from out of town and they're here to whip out as much installs and products as they can as possible in the week that they're here. They just kind of steamroll through things and they might not take the same kind of care that that we want to.
Speaker 1:so yeah, yeah, is that when you were um managing a dealership, did you guys do a lot of service as well, or mostly sales?
Speaker 2:yeah, we were an independent dealership um, and our service department was crazy good so does that translate?
Speaker 1:I mean in terms, obviously, people's cars different than their house, but it's still personal space, right?
Speaker 2: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 all the surfaces are wiped down. Because we went from doing your 1995 oil changes on the three-cylinder Geo Metro with 150K on it, which is a perfectly great vehicle, especially when gas prices are nutty but we raised and we focused on some of the Euro stuff. So we got into where we were servicing very, very nice vehicles, and the last thing you want to do is have a guy come back in his Audi S6 that's got touch marks from a dirty handprint or something like that, or it's got like the crazy super leather package or whatever you know.
Speaker 2:So yeah, because a lot of people like their homes, their car is a reflection of something they really enjoy and how they feel about themselves. So if you get in and out of somebody's super shiny, nice car and you leave big old mud prints on the floor mats or something like that, it's just kind of like oh, they didn't care. It doesn't matter what the service is. It could be like. You know, just, I'd want you to drive it down the road and listen to it, just like us. Hey, can you come out and look at this window? I think it's got a crack or the seal might be failed. So, yeah, how you treat people's stuff that they work hard for, spend a lot of money on and take pride in, I mean you pull up to somebody's house, you see, see the windows, you see the doors, I mean there's a, there's a little bit of a pop there, a presence that people like to feel good about. So, yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Maybe I'm a weirdo, I don't know. No, it's good service. I mean that's, and I think that's that's the thing that you know.
Speaker 1:When that announcement came out about Home Depot coming to Moscow, I mean, personally I'm excited about it. I think it's a, it's a great thing, but it's like that is what's going to have to be the differentiator for these. I don't think it's. I don't think it's like doom and gloom for the local businesses. But those local businesses better 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. Like I said, it's more commodity level, right, it's like run down there and get whatever you need, but you're not going to go in there, like you said, like you would in norms, like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this, I'm thinking about new windows, I'm thinking what? Do you guys?
Speaker 1: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 this package over this.
Speaker 2:It's that customer service and expertise that you're looking for or talking to the 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 place real quick, right, yeah, where we do that. I mean I enjoy being like the I don't know expedited service guy. I got a truck full of tools and if somebody has something and our guys are all busy doing stuff, I don't mind hopping in my rig, going out somewhere and taking a look at something. I might not know what it is I'm looking at, but I can figure it out and I also take a lot of pictures. Back to Peggy. Yeah, right, and that makes a huge difference in this world.
Speaker 1: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 have just gotten ridiculous and that's what people almost have gotten used to, where it's like, hey, I've got this issue Like well, you know, four weeks we can come take a look at it for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's going to be, and then it'll be another four weeks by the time we have to order it or whatever. Yeah, you just get used to those timelines and I think, like you said, maybe having some fresh eyes coming into something where you can say, look, we don't have to do it this way, Right?
Speaker 2:And I get a little bit of pushback because I'm like let's just do it, let's go figure it out. And they're like well, but that's not how Well I'm going to do it, and if I'm wrong I will fully own it and admit to it and we'll get it scheduled. But if I can go out there and take a couple of pictures and I get to drive around and learn the area, I love it, Like getting out visiting places. So if anybody needs something, don't hesitate, Give me a call and I don't mind a 20, 30 minute drive somewhere. There you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. Speaking of that, it kind of brings up a question what is your?
Speaker 2: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?
Speaker 2:Honestly, we've had people call um from oh gosh, there's a little.
Speaker 2:See, this is where I'm blanking central washington, I can name everything off, but there's a little town, um, I think it's about an hour north, and they're like, yeah, we tried with some people in spokane and they won't be able to get out here for like six or eight weeks. And we're like, okay, well, send us a couple of pictures of what you got and then we'll find a way to get somebody up there quickly, because we do stuff out through potlatch and up that general area and if it's another quick 20 minutes and, like I said, I don't mind the drive sometimes, so I'll just rally out, get it sorted and figure out what we got to do. Yeah, um, yeah, and a lot of it there's. We've got a very wide area that will 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 is going to be sending guys out in vans and trucks to come out, measure 10 or 12 windows. Put together an estimate for you and they won't have a service charge.
Speaker 2:I would be pretty surprised about something like that, because you know you take three hours out of your day. Yeah, so, but we do stuff like that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned um quarter lane window. You guys do a lot with them. Who are your? Do you have like kind of a top list of who your suppliers are?
Speaker 2:um, gosh, we've got so many right now. Um, so that's kind of neat. We've got like the anderson is been solid. Everybody knows the anderson thing. Um, we've got. We just recently picked up, uh, sierra pacific. They make some really cool looking windows. You look on their instagram, you're bang, these guys got some stuff. Plygem is another one that we picked up. That's a good mid-tier. I probably shouldn't say that they might. They probably have some really high-end stuff too. I just have not dove into that.
Speaker 1:These other guys? I don't know that Plygem will listen to my podcast, so that's okay. Well, all right.
Speaker 2: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 that nicole had tracked down some information and they came in and they brought us these displays to look at and walked us through their product. Wow, oh my gosh, their stuff is crazy good. Where are they out of? Uh, midwest, built by amish folks.
Speaker 2:Interesting, yeah, like the woodwork on these things and how they do their cores and all like everything is thought out to the nth detail and I mean it's just like their stuff. When you look at it you go that's, that's top tier. And and we've been really happy with that and we've got we got a call from some people out of oh mccall to do some doors with them. Um, because we were the closest supplier for them and they had dealt with them in the past and they knew what they wanted and they wanted those guys, um, so, yeah, that it's been interesting to dive into those. They make some pretty cool stuff. Are those wood windows? They're both. They have the wood and then they also have the vinyl and then, like the aluminum clad. There's a few different things that they have that we haven't got all of our stuff. We've got displays on order from them and from several other people.
Speaker 2:Like well, we're redoing the whole showroom I don't know if the last, when, the last time, you, everybody that comes in it's been a while yeah the pegboard. When they first walked in I was like the first thing I was like when I walk in the door is like we gotta do something with that pegboard. It's reminds me like the 1984 radio shack kind of thing, it was probably from 1984.
Speaker 2:And it worked, and it worked well. In fact, it worked great. We just moved it to a different location and we downsized it a little bit, because some of this stuff is just crazy, like, okay, we're going to need that, eventually Somebody will need it. So we got it and we've got it all on pegboard in the back now. But yeah, the showroom. We just wanted to showcase some of the new, more modern products and stuff, but we still have tons of parts and all that stuff. We can order everything still as well, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems like wood windows are not very common anymore.
Speaker 2:They're not.
Speaker 1:Everybody's gone to vinyl yeah.
Speaker 2:And they'll have like a vinyl exterior with a wood interior. So you still get the benefits. But then you get to look if it's what you need for a trim out in your house, depending on the room that it's going in, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Do you follow or are you kind of up on, like trends for style and that kind of thing?
Speaker 2:I'm learning, is it?
Speaker 1:like I know, Black Windows a few years ago was like that was the new cool thing, Right? Is that what people are still doing?
Speaker 2:It's still really popular. I love Black Windows.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it is. I think it's the striking contrast that you can make that it really like. You know, you drive through a neighborhood that's got a whole bunch of houses that were built by the same construction company. They all have a similar look, but there's something about just that that black frame standing out and they can add kind of some depth to it. I don't know, and that's just my 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 some teal windows. There you go yeah, what so?
Speaker 1:cordelaine's got to be your closest supplier. Yeah, are there any other local suppliers? Or are they because Anderson's out of the Midwest right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then there's Prime. Those guys are Tri-Cities area, I think. Okay.
Speaker 2:We can get some stuff from them, yeah, but yeah, there's a few local ones and still there's sometimes there's X amount of windows we got to order before they're shipped anyways. We have run into a couple of places where we've been able to expedite like a half a truckload or that kind of stuff. So we stockpile stuff and get it coming. But then again I needed to run up to Spokane to get some stuff and to keep a job working for a guy, and so I rallied up there and stuffed some stuff in the back of the little BMW and zip back down here. So if we need a one-off or something like that, we'll just make it happen. Yeah, so I tried not to be tied down too bad by constraints of oh, your delivery time is going to be from here to here, even though the product's ready and waiting. We'll find a way. We got trailers, we got trucks and we got people, there you go.
Speaker 1:There you go, so what are the most? Well, actually we haven't really talked much about doors. Do you guys do a lot of doors, or is it mostly windows?
Speaker 2:we gosh it it. I don't think people have like really realize how much we have available for doors. It's starting to become a thing um, there's a lot of contractors that will order a complete door package and all of a sudden we'll have like 30 doors show up. It's kind of funny. You never really like look at a house and think, oh, there's probably 25 doors in there, you know. But but when somebody comes in and they're building a good size house, all of a sudden you realize man, there's doors everywhere from you do interior, interior and exterior yeah okay
Speaker 2:yeah, and then yeah. So, yeah, the other day an order showed up and it was just a whole bunch of slabs that we were gonna, you know, make them, get them hung, um, and I couldn't believe how many were on this one pallet for one place. It was kind of funny. You just don't think about it. Yeah, like you know, we're looking at doing some projects for like gritman and stuff. And the amount of windows in a single building, you're like holy cow, yeah, some of these, but the amount of doors that are inside that building, it's nuts so yeah, um, we we do a decent amount of doors.
Speaker 2:Um, we've actually been going through, uh, some of the old storage areas and spots where they were just putting a lot of stuff that was ordered and never picked up, or it was ordered by the client and it was wrong, so it didn't fit, so they had to order something else, or we misordered, or whatever. The factory sent us stuff, so I've probably got a hundred doors right now in stock that we are categorizing, we're labeling them all, uh, and putting together. We're going to do kind of a yard sale thing. Oh cool, where we're going to bring stuff outside, for I don't know if we're going to do it on a weekend or during a whole week or whatever, but just get people to buy some product at pre-COVID prices.
Speaker 2:Some of the stuff in there is a few years old, so it's actually really reasonably priced. And I go in and we look it up in the computer and we go, oh my gosh, that's what it would cost to get it now and it's three times as much. It's crazy, the increase on certain things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was going to be another question. It's just how have you seen inflation hitting the window business? Is it certain components that have gone?
Speaker 2:up a lot. I think it's certain components, because I've dealt with some of our glass suppliers that we buy our sheets of glass for when we're custom making windows or replacements for things, and we've talked to them and they're like, yeah, we haven't raised prices in two years. And to me it kind of boggles the mind because a lot of those places they're bringing in a container from overseas and when I was in the food stuff the shipping prices during COVID went from a container load of something for $4,000, $4,500, up to $15,000, $17,000, $18,000, $20,000. Wow, and on a high-cost product you can work that into the margin. But if you're buying salt yeah, it's commodities it was crazy what it did to our salt customers so for them to not have to raise their prices. So a lot of that glass is imported, yeah. Which kind of surprised me.
Speaker 2:And then I know that there's some that's made here in the States and we get some of that too. I think that's usually kind of like the stuff for doing pictures that you want a no glare or it. It's gotta be a museum quality to stop the certain things.
Speaker 1:And yeah, there's all sorts of different little interesting finishes on things. Yeah, so and.
Speaker 2:I'm just scratching the surface on that stuff. I'm really kind of when it gets into the sales thing. I'll dive into that a little bit deeper as we get our operations and stuff set up, Because the last thing I want to do is go out and create an abundance of sales and projects and then not be able to fulfill those in a timely manner. So we've kind of they've kind of chalked me back on the reins a little bit. I'm starting to get to go out now, but it's because we had backlogs of things and we needed to get caught up and that's what we're doing and we've got some crazy cool software coming in, Super excited about some of that stuff. That'll just kind of automatically move you to the next step. That's cool, yeah, and we can. You know we'll get to start doing the things where we send you a quote. You've got an option to pay a deposit or pay for the whole thing right then, and there you can schedule it. So, yeah, Moving norms a little bit further into the data-driven world.
Speaker 1:That's cool, yeah, so you mentioned glass. We get in sheets of glass and stuff. So you guys will do custom glass. You know custom window, like. Do you build stuff then in-house, or is it more cutting a pane for I guess what? When does that come in? When would you use that sheet of glass?
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot of single pane windows that are still out there that you know. Somebody's got a barn window and they bring us in an old frame that they you know the glass has been broken in it. So we'll do what we call a putty hack out, cause those are basically it's a sheet of glass that fits in and then they take and they tag these little metal tags in there and then they put the putty around it and so on, something like that. We've got raw glass. We can cut it to fit. Um, if it's something people can't bring in, we'll get an approximate dimension, cut a sheet of glass or two to take out and then we'll cut it to fit on site, tag it in and putty it in for them. Okay, there you go.
Speaker 2:A lot of people are fixing little I don't know, like curio cabinets and things like that that just have a glass panel a window stuff like that Because it's not that expensive. Sometimes I hear the price of what somebody pays for the stuff we're doing. I'm like how does $18? Pencil on that Right but it is what it is, so we get in a lot of that, so the glass itself is pretty cheap. It's surprisingly reasonable.
Speaker 1:When it's not insulated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ss or DS, so like the 16th or 8th inch or 316th kind of stuff, start getting into quarter inch. It gets a little bigger and a little heavier. But yeah, and then we do mirrors. We have tons of mirrors. Some of those sheets that we get in. They're like 130 inches long and 60 or 72 inches tall. That's a big, heavy piece.
Speaker 1:And then you guys cut that stuff down too for like custom mirrors.
Speaker 2:Slide that out, bring it in.
Speaker 2:We got this really cool table you can flip stuff up onto and then cut it down to size. Yeah, so yeah, we can custom size. People come out and hey, we just remodeled our bathroom. We've got this new cabinet up over here. We'd like an edge to edge mirror that goes from it all the way to the wall or to the other cabinet that they put in, or whatever, and we can custom fit something instead of going down to a big box store and hoping that they've got a 43 and a half inch by 32 and a half inch piece yes they won't, yeah, and you go online to try to order something like that.
Speaker 2:It just doesn't exist. So it's really cool. We offer some really cool services when it comes to that. I also got to go out and help demo a bathroom that I kid you not. I walked in and I got vertigo. There was so much mirror everywhere, I'm not kidding, it was every panel all the way back around into like the little makeup nook where the sink and everything.
Speaker 1:Just infinity everywhere. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:They had, like the medicine cabinet had a glass door on it and then the quarter inch 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 something else, that's funny. Yeah, I don't know when that was built, but something was going on. It was popular, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, sometimes people do stuff that's not popular, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's cool. So it's definitely interesting and the stuff that we can do that a lot of people don't realize. Like one thing like a lot of the modern vinyl windows have an ig in an insulated glass unit. So basically it's two panes of glass with a little aluminum strip center. That's all sealed up so you get an insulated value. A lot of people have a broken window. They think they got to replace the whole window. Yeah, you don't.
Speaker 2:We can come out and they have these little plastic stops, they call them, value. A lot of people have a broken window. They think they've got to replace the whole window. You don't. We can come out and they have these little plastic stops, they call them. You pop those off. You get a measurement on the unit. We order a new unit. They're actually reasonably priced. We come, we cut out the other one because of the tape and the adhesive that they use to the other side. We pop it out, put it back in, pop, pop, pop up, you're in and out and you know, typically it's about an hour job, okay, and you don't have to replace an entire unit. So yeah, when people are like, oh, I can get that done for a couple hundred bucks, I don't have to buy a six hundred dollar window or something, yeah, super happy well, that's one of these in in my business right we with home inspections, getting homes ready to list all that kind stuff.
Speaker 1:Those things come up all the time. It's a most. The vast majority 90% or more probably of home inspection reports end up with a window with a failed seal right, you got condensation between the glass, right, right, and I do think that's one of those things that's kind of scary to people. They don't know how to handle it, or they don't, maybe they just never wanted to because they figured it was going to be expensive. And then the funny thing about selling homes is everybody does all the stuff that they probably should have done years ago.
Speaker 1:That they could have lived with and had the advantage Exactly and then it's like you get your house all dialed in and it's like why? Am I selling this thing? Right, it's awesome, but I do think that's one of those things like if you get that, get it dealt with, especially if you bought those windows. They're almost always under warranty, exactly, yeah, and that's a thing to do before you sell your house, 10, 20, 30 year warranty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and get them done, and I know we've got a house right now. That came up and I think they were gelled wind windows, but in any case, like, yeah, they're gelled wind windows, but in any case, like, yeah, they're gelled wind will replace them for free if it's the original owner, and so I'll just have them come out and then some manufacturers.
Speaker 2:I know they will transfer to the other owner, there's a certain amount of transfer. Another thing that we've been looking at and I just kind of popped into my head a while back and so we've started to dive into it is because we have people replacing these aluminum windows. There's huge rebates available through.
Speaker 2:Avista and some Idaho stuff and some federal stuff.
Speaker 2:So I'm really diving into some of 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 you replace them and they have the certain energy rating on them. Some of them are, you know, up to 350 a window that it just depends. So I'm looking at all the different programs and what we want to be able to do is sit down with people, um, and say, okay, there's this program, this program, this program, and find out if we can double dip on those. Hit you with the, you know, the avista rebate and the federal rebate. I mean you might be getting stuff for huge discounts. So yeah, there's some pretty exciting things and working on getting some training from the actual Avista folks, because I know that, depending on the type of project that you're diving into, they're like, hey, we need to be out there first, so you don't want to get ahead of yourself and start doing things and ordering things and then find out, oh, a VISTA needed to know ahead of time.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but yeah, energy efficiency rebates, that kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely Well not to mention the fact that you're going to save money on your energy bills. So yeah, it could be a very cost-effective thing to go ahead and replace your windows.
Speaker 2:That's the other thing. The energy cost over here versus Wenatchee, oh my goodness. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense to me now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still think of this area as relatively cheap, but you're saying, well, for Wenatchee electricity super cheap.
Speaker 2: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 building database centers over there because it's so cheap. I think it's like 2.7 cents a kilowatt hour. Last time I checked um over here it's like 10. It's crazy. Like when we first moved over here back in 07, 08, in my entire adult life this is kind of funny I had never budgeted for an electric bill because they were so cheap. Now, mind you, I was, like you know, in my early 20s. Mid 20s. I would go and pay the electric bill when they put the pink hanger on my door, because then I knew it had been about four months and I had to go down and stroke them. A check for like 65 bucks. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 2:And this was for a small three-bedroom place that I was in, and so first we came over here, Come over here.
Speaker 1:you're leaving everything on, using electricity like nothing else.
Speaker 2:We moved into a place that had been like recently remodeled and the guy was telling me all the energy-e he did to it and this, that and the other. We got the first energy bill and I was like whoa. And so I called up avista and I was like, hey, can you run the historical records on this and tell me kind of like if, if this is normal? And she pulls it up and she's like, yeah, it looks to be about normal. And uh, I remember thinking to myself I said out loud, I said, man, that's a lot of money for two months. And she goes sir, this is a monthly billing cycle. We were by every two months and when actually, I was like what, oh yeah?
Speaker 2:It just floored me. I couldn't believe it. So, yeah, no, I can definitely see huge benefits with some of the places, like when I we've been doing a bunch of stuff with the U of I and I keep driving around some of these really cool old buildings and they've got broken out single pane and I just wonder how much money that they're losing for no reason. So I've got some good connections down there that are helping me get in contact. I swear every building has a different person you get to talk to. It's great. It gives me a lot of reason to be up. Different person you get to talk to it's great. It gives me a lot of reason to be up there. I get to meet some really fun people it's cool.
Speaker 2:But my goodness, if they had one person for like, just okay, you're the windows person, they could probably pay somebody. It's, there's a lot of windows up there yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you guys do quite a bit of commercial too, then yeah, yeah we're diving into that.
Speaker 2:Um, we've got a new hire coming on with a ton of commercial experience, so we're super excited for that to happen, because there's some pretty big projects out there that we're we're swinging for the fences. Um, I know a lot of things in the past seemed maybe overwhelming for the the norm squad, but we've got some horsepower behind us now with some of our mutual contacts in the industries to where, hey, I need a couple extra guys. Can I get them for a few days? Sure, send them over. So it's cool. There you go.
Speaker 2:We've got some really good connections with other people that have fingers in the fingers in the same area, um, and, and we're just building something special and helping other people and they're helping us and it's I don't know, it's super fun. It really is the, the group of guys that I work with, um, I mean, yeah, it's often that you walk into a place and you don't, you don't just mesh well with people, and I'm a different breed versus a lot of people around 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 one person that I've been uncomfortable around, so, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:So where, first of all, I guess where are you? You've got a newer, or at least updated, showroom. Yeah, we're up there so most people know where it is. But where do we find it? Yeah, up on the hill, up on.
Speaker 2:Main Street 623, 621, north Main. Yeah, so we're right up on the hill on the left-hand side there I've got. Yeah, so we're right up on the hill on the left-hand side there Got some really cool ideas for the outside. If I can get the okay on some stuff, there you go.
Speaker 1:Light it up like a car lot. What about online presence? You got any other ways to find?
Speaker 2:you guys, we've got our website. It's up and we're looking at ways for people to submit requests on there and you can go in and just hit us with your normal contact and then we can call you. Absolutely, um, I don't know if there's an app in our future probably not, I don't know. Uh, windows are just so alien to people. There's certain amounts where just let us take care of it, because there's been times where people have been like yeah, you know, I've got a, a single pane of glass that's broken. I need need somebody to come out and fix it. And you get out there and it's actually one of the panes of a two-pane insulated glass unit. So, honestly, a lot of times, a quick phone call with us. But, yeah, you can find us online.
Speaker 2:I think we're getting a whole bunch of new products uploaded to the site so you get a better idea of what it is we have. But that's one of the reasons for the showroom. I've sat down with a bunch of different contractors here and they say that one thing that they would really like is for their people to be able to go in and touch and feel stuff, because you can look at the colors online, but depending on how your monitor or your phone's calibrated. The color could be wrong. Also, feel it and it's like that doesn't feel like an 800 doorknob. So being able to feel the operation of things, it really the tactile experience you can start to see the difference between those different tiers of pricing, because why?
Speaker 1:would I pay this much more for this?
Speaker 2: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 any value 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 and you're just like, wow, I can't believe it left the factory like that. And we keep tabs on that. When we pull stuff off the truck we're taking pictures, making notes and sending in requests if need be. And a lot of times they'll be like yeah, we messed up, we'll send you another one. I'm like well, can we send it today? We need it yesterday yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Today we need it yesterday yeah, absolutely no, um, yeah awesome I don't know.
Speaker 1:Good, I think we I think we covered pretty much everything I don't know.
Speaker 2:Let me see, hold on. Yeah, you got your notes, check your notes anything else you were supposed to say?
Speaker 2:oh, actually, we've got a big flyer that's going to get put out. Um, we've seen the other big companies that advertise online. When you look up, you know, moscow, idaho windows and you see like the anderson renewal stuff come up and things like they're monsters in the scene as far as that goes. Um, so we've got some programs that we're gonna do some uh like a 30 off your first window or door, up up to $350 off a window and door package, some other things. And then we've also got the ability to go in and tailor things to make it work for people so that we're competitive with, like, the big guys, because we can be. That's the cool thing is, you know, I'm going to make a ton of money. We just got to make some. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somebody told me one time you'll never go broke making a profit.
Speaker 2:I've always liked that, right, I should I should went back when I played poker a lot. 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 little bit scared that, oh my gosh, everything's changed. Well, the core is still there. Peggy jason, the installer, guys, they've just added a couple new pieces that you know have come in with cliff in the office and me going out and touching base with people, because they needed that. They were short-handed, so they've added not necessarily taken away or remove things so that we've still got what everybody knew norms to be, which is Peggy's brain. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean, we're still the same there, but we're just bringing in new things so that we can take care of those people that much better and that much quicker. Because that's kind of what's going to keep us going for another 50 is continuing things with the same standards that say Peggy had, but also just being able to do them quick enough that we can service the right amount of people. Because if you're dragging feet on everything, you're just not going to get to everybody and we'd hate to feel like people wanted to do business with us and couldn't because we couldn't fit them in. So we're also looking at, you know, bringing on more crew. So we're open to everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're looking, you're hiring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'll never say no to a conversation, even if somebody. Even if we didn't need somebody right now, I'd absolutely sit down because if you find the right person, you find a spot for them. That's one thing that I learned by watching one of my mentors in business at the car lot. He would interview guys and I'm like I thought we weren't hiring. He's like no, but that kid is amazing. And he would find a way to get that person and bring them into the business and then utilize them. And then boom, we grew. We were huge, like we were a small independent shop. We did the third highest volume of service work. I mean, that's putting us up against the toyota, the nissan, the honda, every dealership, and we're just a small shop, eastern washington yeah great, very good.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're looking for work, if you have experience, get up norms, even if you don't we train people up.
Speaker 2:I mean, sometimes the best person is somebody that's just eager to learn but doesn't know anything. You get an old salt like me that already thinks he knows how to do stuff. Sometimes you run into a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, willing to learn, eager to learn, eager to go after it into a problem?
Speaker 2:yeah, willing to learn eager to learn, eager to go after it. That's 100 right, that's the most important thing, and you'll be working with a good group of people. I mean, that's one thing also that I've noticed. Um, they take care of their people. Brad and nicole are like amazing. 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 a way to handle whatever it is. You could be on a boom 20 feet in 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 family first.
Speaker 2:It's it's how they that's how they suckered us over here. Yeah, there you go Family. Yeah, perfect, all right.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Blaine. Yeah absolutely Appreciate it and yeah, we'll look forward to watching norms grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, keep an eye out. If you have any questions, just give us a call. There you go, all right.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us. Like, share, subscribe. We'll see you next week.