Vacuums R Us has been in business since 2003 and Josh has been part of the team since 2011. He started as a vacuum technician and over time, moved his way up to Assistant Manager. His wife Dina purchased the store in 2018, after a decade of working with a different store associated with Vacuums R Us. They brought their children into the family business, and Josh now manages the Information Technologies and deals with vendor relations.
Josh’s primary responsibility is maintaining the information technology infrastructure. Due to the high quantity of diverse inventory Vacuums R Us carries, the IT infrastructure is extremely important. The store has a catalogue of thousands of different parts that it carries. It is very important that they can be accurately tracked and stocked quickly when they sell.
Vacuums R Us operates a substantial ecommerce platform. The online platform makes it possible for customers anywhere in the Denver metro area to see what inventory is in stock without having to come into the store. If a customer is looking to change a belt, they can do a google search and Vacuums R Us will probably pop up a belt type for their vacuum cleaner.
Multiple times a day, customers make a comment saying “You’re the only one who has this part I needed. I looked everywhere else”. Because Vacuums R Us has such a strong IT management system through Josh, the store is able to track what customers are buying and is able to manage inventory and keep the necessary parts in stock.
Certain vacuum manufacturers, like Shark and Hoover, have recently not been interested in assisting their customers fully. They do not maintain or support their products or the longevity of those products. The other element to Josh’s job is to get the necessary products into the building so that customers have an easy time finding what they need. Josh liaises with vendors and manufacturers to force or shame the less helpful companies into allowing Vacuums R Us to maintain their products for their customer base.
Thankfully, higher end companies like SEBO, Miele, Riccar, and Simplicity have very different relationships. Those products have remained very high quality is because they are only sold through independent dealers, like Vacuums R Us. Those independent stores are able to hold the companies more easily accountable for their customers. All independent vacuum stores’ biggest advantage is their reputation in their community: their reputation for quality service and honesty.
Because those two are of such importance to their business, Vacuums R Us has to sell products they firmly and strongly believe in. Through their purchasing power directly to their vendors, Vacuums R Us is able to watch for trends in failing, broken, or subpar products and simply say to the vendor, “It’s either fixed, or it’s not sold to our customers”. As an independent store, Vacuums R Us gets to decide whether to stand behind a product and offer it to their community.
Josh also offers a zoomed out view of the inner workings of Vacuums R Us. Every employee at the store interfaces with different aspects of the internal system that keeps Vacuums R Us running. Due to his overarching view of store logistics, Josh can anticipate where the flow of information between team members might fail. Additionally, because he deals with vendors on a daily basis, he has a forward-looking understanding of what products are coming to market, as well as any issues the store might be expecting from various vendors or manufacturers.
Josh also has a fantastic wealth of information on almost every vacuum produced and the industry. Some people have called him an encyclopedia and one employee even calls him “Google”. Employees are able to use Josh as an information resource when a customer comes in with a question that no one else has heard before.
Because purchasing a good appliance is an investment, it makes sense to make those purchases in the physical location of a brick and mortar store. Customers are able to see the product, try it out, and be advised by an expert in the industry who has their interests in mind. Once the initial purchase has been made though, it does not make sense to require the customer to keep returning to the same physical location to purchase small accessories. For this reason, Vacuums R Us has worked hard to offer overnight shipping in Colorado for free, for all supplies offered online.
At the end of the day, Vacuums R Us stands for convenience and getting the customer what they want, when they need it.