family firm.
Company: V. George Rustigian Rugs, Inc.
Owner: Roz Rustigian
Location: 1 Governor St., Providence
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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Employees: 10
Year founded: 1930 as a single proprietorship; incorporated in 1981
Type of business: Fine rug and carpet sales and service
Annual revenues: $1.5-2 million
It’s more than just a rug.
And if you visit Roz Rustigian at her Providence store, she’ll explain how rugs are named (for the country and design name based on a tribe, village or city in the old rug-making world) and offer a little lesson in sociology.
Small rugs with geometric patterns were common among nomadic peoples, while larger rugs with more complex designs required the craftsmanship of professional rugmakers – "city rugs."
Through the attention of her staff and with a set of brochures created to answer some of the most common questions, Rustigian said a big part of her mission is providing education.
"If there’s anything that has defined our behavior, it’s our acknowledged goal to cater to an educated consumer, and we’ll do the educating," she said. "Job number one is to not try to sell them a rug . . . In 20 minutes, I can give you a real solid footing in the rug business that you could take somewhere else, or you could buy a rug."
More important, Rustigian said, is to let people know that the store is a place where people can feel comfortable to browse and ask questions.
"‘There are no pretensions here’ should be the sign over the door," she said.
The sign over the door instead reads "V. George Rustigian Rugs," founded by Rustigian’s father in the family’s Benefit Street basement in 1930, after Depression-era financial hardship kept him from finishing his degree at Harvard Law School, not once but twice.
"Odd though it may seem to open a luxury business during the Depression, but it just worked," she said.
Rustigian’s father died in 1980. She had been catering and teaching cooking in New York City and decided to return home to Providence and the business.
"Without deciding to be in the rug business, I realized that a dollar not in was two dollars out," she said.
It was important to Rustigian, however, that her business move out of the basement, so she moved the store to its current location at the corner of Governor and Wickenden streets for the street visibility and parking.
In the years since, Rustigian has built on the business her father founded, offering fine rugs and cleaning and repair. Broad loom (wall-to-wall) carpet sales and installation is also a significant part of the business today, and Rustigian predicts that eventually it will count for half of sales.
But it hasn’t always been easy, and Rustigian said she’s faced challenges on several different levels.
"First, you have people who worked for your father, and you’re not him," she said. "(Then, customers would say) ‘That’s not how your father did it.’ I’ve listened to that more than several times."
But both of those have been eclipsed by the challenges of running a business in general.
"Small businesses are tough," Rustigian said. "You’ve got to be married to it. It’s not a 40-hour week . . . and everything you do on the outside is inextricably related to being a sole proprietor, and that goes from the length of your vacation to the need to be a jack-of-all-trades."
Rustigian said her typical sale takes three visits, but that she’s glad to explain things like wool quality, knot count and the way she chooses the rugs she carries, at two annual trade shows in Atlanta and from wholesalers in New York, New Jersey and California.
"You empower somebody by telling them the truth," she said.
Her customers’ number one concern when buying?
"Color is a big one," said Rustigian, and added that other top considerations for customers tend to be size, design and price.
Rustigian said that rugs with muted colors and subtle designs are currently outselling traditional jewel-toned Orientals, but that "the classic jewel tones always have a place . . . It never goes away."
One of the biggest misconceptions about fine rugs is that they are an investment. Rustigian said that aside from antiques, the rugs are, also, a commodity.
"It’s only an investment insofar as you buy quality and treat it respectfully so it will last 10, 20, 30, 40 years," she said. "Anything that lasts that long is an investment, but it’s not a certificate of deposit. It’s not a bar of gold."
