When rock singer Mick Jagger needed 18 dozen Egyptian cotton towels, his assistant called wholesale linens supplier Max Formal Co. in Providence. Owner Paul Formal quoted a price to the assistant, who replied that Wal-Mart sold the towels cheaper and asked for a discount. Formal stuck to his guns and, two hours later, the assistant called back from a Wal-Mart, where he found cheap prices but no towels to his liking. Formal swung into action and had the order ready for pick up in under an hour – at his original price.
For a largely nondescript store on North Main Street in Providence, Max Formal Co. makes a startlingly wide impact. The store’s products have appeared on stage with the likes of Cher, as well as in hotels, nursing homes and hospitals across America.
“You look at a business like this and you’d never dream how successful we are,” said Formal, a soft-spoken man who writes poetry on the side.
The company counts thousands of long-distance customers – their accounts neatly arranged in manila folders contained in six filing cabinets behind the cash register. Locals drop in to purchase work clothes with brands like Dickie’s and Polo or linens from Dan River and Wamsutta.
A basement below and two floors above hold inventory that eventually lands in the shop or heads to customers around the world.
It’s a far cry from when Formal’s father, Max Formal, started the company in 1953 in a small storefront down the street. His wife heard local jewelry-plant employees grousing about the difficultly finding work clothes. Max sensed opportunity. He sold to door-to-door salesmen, who in turn sold clothes to local residents, often returning weekly to collect payments.
At the store, Max outfitted young businessmen with their first suits, extending them hundreds of dollars in credit – a lot of money in those days – with a handshake and a note in his ledger. Business boomed and the elder Formal moved to larger and larger stores as the years flew by.
After Max died in 1975, Paul – a Temple University graduate who had been in podiatry school – took over, never dreaming he would run the family business. Just three years later, Paul would build the brick building where the store stands today and then change the emphasis of the company.
During the early 1980s, Paul and his wife Debbie started chasing the market. They mailed thousands of postcards – sorted manually by zip code – to companies in the Northeast that they thought needed linens. And in a critical decision, Paul included a toll-free number, which placated cost-conscious business executives to call the unknown shop in the country’s tiniest state.
“Then it just snowballed,” Debbie said.
The two expanded beyond the Northeast, snapping up toll-free numbers for other regions. Today, Max Formal sells to the world. Paul is particularly proud that Internet users typing “wholesale linens” into Google often find Max Formal on the first page of the search results.
“Two-hundred, sixty-four thousand results and we’re No. 1,” Paul says pointing to the store’s computer screen. “We must be doing something right.”
Need more proof? Paul points to the Barbados business owner who placed a special order. When Paul, Debbie and their two daughters visited the island, the owner made Paul “king of Barbados,” setting his family up with food, jet skis and horses.
Then there was the Providence dentist, who came in recently looking for a bandana to complement his Halloween costume and left extolling the kindness of the Formals. And later the construction contractor who picked up two pairs of green Dickie’s pants, size 30. After paying, he pledged to return and place a “nice order” of embroidered clothing because he liked the Formals.
“We’ve developed so many friends,” Debbie said. “We’ve grown up with people.”
The Formals also try to support their friends and the local community. They raise money for scholarships and recently ran a campaign to raise money to buy computers at Hope High School in Providence. They work with Rhode Island School of Design students looking for vintage clothing that Paul keeps preserved in the original boxes.
“We believe the company is healthy because of our goods and philosophies of integrity,” Debbie said. •
COMPANY PROFILE
MAX FORMAL CO.
OWNERS: Paul and Debbie Formal
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Wholesale distributor of linens and clothing store
LOCATION: 1164 North Main St.,
Providence
EMPLOYEES: 2
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1953
ANNUAL SALES: WND
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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