When John
Bloeser Carpet Company was founded, Rutherford B. Hayes was President of the United
States.
The year was 1879. Upholsterer John Bloeser from Erie,
Pennsylvania, teamed with Robert Sharp, a carpet installer from Sacramento, to establish a
carpet company in burgeoning downtown Los Angeles. For their new venture, they chose a
wise location - a building where the Los Angeles City Hall now stands. In those days,
broadloom carpets hadn’t been invented. All rugs were woven on 27-inch and 36-inch
looms and sewn together. Fortunately, early Angelenos wanted fine homes and fine carpets.
Their tastes fueled the early success of Bloeser’s 115-year-old business, the oldest
carpet company in California and one of the three longest time advertisers in the Los
Angeles Yellow Pages.
Today, John Bloeser Carpet Company operates from three
locations, the Long Beach store, opened in 1968 at Stearns
and Palo Verde, moved two years later to its present location adjacent to Los Altos Market
Center at Bellflower and Britton Dr.
In Costa Mesa, the carpet
store is a mile south of the 405 freeway. The Los Angeles business
moved several times as the central city expanded. Since 1967 the store has occupied
a 25,000-square-foot building east of downtown, the sign visible from the Santa
Monica freeway.
Fourth generation brothers John and Gerald Bloeser serve as
president and executive vice president, respectively. Both are graduates of California
State University, Long Beach. Their father, Donald, retired from the company nearly 20
years ago and made a second career as a tour director for travel agencies such as AARP and
Thomas Cook and Sons. Now at 83 years old, he occupies his time by restoring an historic
cottage on Catalina Island. "I’d rather wear out than rust out," proclaims
Don, the founder’s grandson and a role model for the busy Bloesers.
How has their business managed to be successful in over a
century’s market upturns and downturns? "Our best advertising is word of
mouth," says John Bloeser. "We’re always trying to separate ourselves from
our competition." Part of their uniqueness, he says, is their longevity. "When
customers give us a deposit, they know we’ll be here the next day - and the day after
that - to install the carpet they’ve asked for. "We’re also unique in that
we’re a family-owned business."
Another aspect of the business that’s important to
Bloeser is cleanliness. 
Their Long Beach store displays carpet samples neatly in a
sunny, well-lit building they built specifically to make carpet selection a pleasant
experience. Early on, when they warehoused carpet in their Los Angeles location for
southeastern carpet mills, they installed a system of racks to make it easy to find one of
the thousands of carpets they had on hand.
It’s easy to see that a key to the Bloeser family’s
success is the ability to adapt to market changes. Don Bloeser remembers washing rugs and
drying them on long poles at the company’s Olympic and 17th Street location when he
was a young boy. A nine-by-twelve-foot rug could be cleaned for $2.50. During the Great
Depression, Don says, "People couldn’t afford to buy new items, and profits came
from repairing carpet." As an historical sidelight, he adds, " In the Depression economy, we
didn’t work a full week. We divided time so each of us could work a little bit."
Market forces also initiated a move to the present Los
Angeles location where the Bloesers developed carpet warehousing. Mills in Georgia and
South Carolina sent rolls of carpet and employed salesmen. Once the sales were made, the
Bloeser crew did the cutting and shipping. At the same time, John Bloeser Carpet Company
continued selling carpet on its own.
The post- war boom in home-buying fueled
interest in home decor, and the Bloesers opened four stores - Fullerton, Downey, Costa
Mesa and Long Beach - in the 1960s, retaining their flagship store in downtown Los
Angeles. For a time, they owned their own drapery workshop in North Long Beach where they
serviced their own customers and made draperies for Long Beach companies. As neighborhoods
and buying habits changed, they consolidated to three stores, all well as tile, linoleum
and carpet. The Costa Mesa and Long Beach stores concentrate on carpeting private homes,
while the Los Angeles store focuses on the commercial market.
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