Article Number : 3123 |
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| Date | 3/27/2008 8:55:28 AM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=3123 |
| Abstract | KETTERING, OHIO—Don Mendenhall, founder of CarpeTalk, a chain of Midwest-based franchised retail flooring stores that reached a high of 46 in 1974, died Jan. 18 following a short illness. He was 79... |
| Article | KETTERING, OHIO—Don Mendenhall, founder of CarpeTalk, a chain of Midwest-based franchised retail flooring stores that reached a high of 46 in 1974, died Jan. 18 following a short illness. He was 79. Over a two-year span Mendenhall and his staff built 46 4,000-square-foot stores in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. His vision was simple: All advertising, accounting, merchandising and warehousing would be centralized in Dayton, Ohio, allowing the store owner to concentrate full-time on selling. Following a two-week training period, each franchise would open its fully operational, turnkey location and begin selling carpet, draperies, paint and wallpaper, noted Bill Wellbaum, general manager of Consolidated Flooring Service in Las Vegas, who worked with Mendenhall at CarpeTalk for five years. “The owner would send in his orders daily on a fax machine to the central warehouse. The orders would be pulled and delivered to each store twice weekly.” The name CarpeTalk was derived from a pre-recorded message inside each waterfall rack describing the attributes of the carpet on that rack. In this way a customer could entertain herself until the owner was free to help her. A minimum $9,000 investment meant the franchise was affordable to a wide range of would-be owners. “Dad did nothing small,” said his daughter, Donna. “He did everything big. Why have two carpet stores when you could have 40? I think back to our house. We had carpet everywhere; there was not one square inch of that house that didn’t have carpet. The walls in the basement were even carpeted.” After he sold his company in 1976, Mendenhall entered into his second career when he purchased the famous Colony Club, a well-known Dayton bar and supper club that had seen better days. In 1983 it was named the best supper club in town featuring a cozy atmosphere, great food and a house band for those who wanted to dance. Mendenhall’s flooring career began in the carpet business with Myron Cornish Co. In 1959, he acquired that company and started Don Mendenhall Inc. He guided his firm to a yearly sales volume between $3.5 million and $4 million. He then expanded into CarpeTalk, and his trademark was the “talking carpet,” which was hailed as a highly motivational technique, where the consumer could push a button and hear the merits of the various carpets. Mendenhall is survived by his wife of 52 years, Janet; daughter Donna Garrett and husband Harry of Springboro, Ohio; sons Gary and wife Linda of Waynesville, Ohio, and Dana and wife DeeDee of Centerville, Ohio; sisters Ruth Sacksteder of Centerville, Ohio, and Dorothy Brewer of Lexington, S.C.; eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to the Kettering Medical Center Foundation, Pulmonary Rehab Unit, 3535 Southern Blvd., Kettering, OH 45429. |