Tony Shalhoub's Martha's Vineyard Cottage

Tony's cottage is so charming, and it was nice to see our Beantown rug in the story!


Tony Shalhoub's Martha's Vineyard Cottage

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My Grandparents

Gary and Mary.....the founders of Thorndike

Buying Quality Rather Than Price

Since this is my first time blogging, I wasn't really sure what to write about. So after some though I decided to write about something that seems to be a big issue these days, for everybody. This will obviously be my place to talk about braided rugs, home fashion, decorating tips....and who knows what else every now and then.

I grew up in this business, it was started by my grandfather back in 1925, and continues to be run by family today (Thorndike Mills). It's an interesting fact, that in the 1930's, there were approximately 35 to 40 major manufacturers of braided rugs in the United States....and today there are 4. I am proud of that fact, and proud of the hard work and sacrifices our family made, in order to be part of such a statistic.

A common value was instilled to my generation, by our grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, was that when we purchased something, buy the best we could afford. To them, it didn't make any sense to buy something that "seemed" like a bargain, if it was something that wouldn't last, and would wind up needing to be replaced. A familiar response, myself, my siblings,and my cousins came to expect, if we were about to make a purchase that was not up to our parents standards, was simply...... a shake of the head, followed by one word..."junk".

They didn't believe in buying junk, and they certainly didn't believe in manufacturing junk. My grandfathers beliefs were to make and sell a product that would meet the same standards he would expect if he were making the purchase himself. That still remains the philosophy with the generations that have followed.

For many years, Thorndike Mills was considered, "the expensive braided rug".....because some of our unique cloth braids are more labor intensive, and costly to make. However, many of our products that are commodity styled, are priced very closely with other similarly styled lines. The only difference being, that our quality is consistant throughout. It's important for us to be able to offer product for every budget. If your budget can afford our cloth braids, we have something that is very unique. But we feel it's just as important that we offer more affordable choices as well, and maintain the same quality that Thorndike Mills is known for.

Granted, it's no secret, and only makes sense, it's going to cost a bit more to produce a product where quality control is taken very seriously across the board. But let me ask you this....isn't it going to cost you much more in the long run if you have replace the same item over?