Modesto, CA, July 25, 2006--Jay and Jack Mitri didn't know anything about rugs when they started selling them at flea markets 18 years ago. Now they own two stores and are considered rug experts.
Twenty years ago, the brothers started to learn the differences in quality and patterns.
They each bought a van to transport their growing collection of rugs, which they bought from factories in Southern California. They soon were operating a wholesale rug business out of a warehouse near Kansas Avenue in Modesto.
Now they own two Mitri's Rugs & Home Accents stores. They travel the world to select handmade and machine-made rugs, visiting China, India, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The brothers opened their first retail store on McHenry Avenue in Modesto nearly six years ago. They opened one in Turlock and one in Stockton, which have been consolidated into a 4,000-square-foot store in Salida.
The brothers have carved out a niche by offering "specialty" rugs, Jay Mitri said. They vary in price from $100 for smaller, machine-made rugs to $8,000 for higher quality handmade rugs.
The Mitris were born in Jerusalem and have bachelor's degrees in business from Bethlehem University. Jay Mitri is 45, and Jack Mitri is 44.
Jay Mitri immigrated to California in 1985 and worked the front desk of a hotel in San Francisco. He moved to Modesto in 1987 to take a job as a manager at a business that sold household items and rugs.
The rugs sparked his interest--mostly because he liked the way they looked. So he began to buy and sell them at flea markets on his time off.
Jack Mitri left Jerusalem to join his brother in Modesto, and they soon began selling rugs together.
"We just said, 'Let's give this a try and see how it goes,'" Jay Mitri said. "It wasn't planned."
The brothers learned about rugs by attending trade shows and seminars on different types of yarn.
"Rugs are an item that you need to be able to explain to customers, and you have to be able to tell the difference in quality," Jay Mitri said. "It takes a long time to learn about rugs."
The effort paid off. After nearly 20 years in the rug business, the brothers have become experts--
a quality appreciated by their longtime customers.
When Modesto resident Joni Hoskinson started shopping for rugs, the only thing she knew about them was "what was pretty." She went into Mitri's Rugs at least 15 times in search of the right rugs to accent her home.
"I am the most indecisive person, and (Jay Mitri) gave me so much time and was so patient," she said. "He explained the quality, the colors, where they came from, and we talked about all the different styles."
Jay Mitri manages the Modesto store and does most of the buying, while Jack Mitri heads the Salida store and manages inventory.
Jay Mitri, who speaks Arabic, Hebrew and French, travels abroad at least twice a year to buy rugs. Some are made at factories where workers sew the rugs after boiling yarn with vegetables and tea to give the material a faded, old-world appearance.
He often treks to small villages in remote countrysides where rugs are made by hand. It's a process that can take up to three weeks for a single rug.
The villagers often tell stories within the patterns of the rugs, and each region's characteristics are reflected in the pattern. For example, rugs that are made in northern Iran are often darker than those made in the south, he said.
Jay Mitri occasionally comes across families of five or six who sit in a circle around a large piece of fabric inside their home, weaving a rug.
Meeting new people abroad and locally is the best part of owning the business, the brothers agreed.
"I may spend one or two hours talking with a customer, talking about rugs and everything else," said Jack Mitri. "Even if they don't need a rug, some just stop by to say hello."
