California Retailer Expands

Oroville, CA, February 24--When Chico residents Bryan and Ray Hobbs began looking for satellite locations for their successfully expanding floor coverings business Floors by Ray, the natural choice they found for a location was the city of gold. Floors by Ray is a family-born business tracing its roots back through four generations. Back in the 1930s, Wilbur Hobbs began a small business in Pueblo, Colorado, where he and his four sons Richard, William, Charles and Calvin worked along side of him. In time, the family business would move out of furniture and into floor coverings. This move would have lasting effects, and was passed to the next generation of Hobbs. One of the new generation sons, Bryan Hobbs, would venture from his home town to Southern California in 1976. Two years later he would again relocate, this time to Chico, California. The following year, Bryan's brother, Ray Hobbs, would also join him. It was at this time the two formed Hobbs Brothers, Inc., which is today best known as Floors by Ray. "When I first moved to Butte County, I fell in love with the place," began Bryan. "I knew right away that I wanted to make this place my home. Then, my brother joined me in '79 and we began flooring together. Since then, we have done business all over the North State for some 26 years now." A year-and-a-half ago, the Hobbs brothers decided to position a satellite store in Oroville. This store is run by a father (Bryan) and daughter (Amber) team. "We have a lot of things in common when it comes to how we like things in the business to be run," said Amber. "It's good being able to work with my daughter. She's the best," added Bryan. Talking about the new store and Oroville in general, Bryan said, "The decision to place a store in Oroville was a good one. The area is growing, the business here is doing well, and I like Oroville. It has a warm feeling to it and has been a real nice place to do business here. Everyone has really welcomed us and what we offer." In business now for more than 25 years, Floors by Ray can say it has got it covered, at least when it comes to floor coverings. According to Bryan, there is virtually no carpet that is out there that they do not already carry or cannot provide. There are thousands of varieties to choose from in hundreds upon hundreds of colors and textures. Many top name brands, such as Shaw Carpet, Mohawk, Coronet, World Carpet, and others are carried. There are also thousands of linoleums, laminates, and other floor coverings to choose from. The business offers free estimates, and has a "mobile showroom" service that can bring customized samples directly to the house to choose from. This service especially has the senior population in mind, but may be used by anyone for their convenience. Plus, due to 12 full time professionally certified and bonded floorings crews, Floors by Ray is likely to be able to complete most jobs within 24 hours, depending on the size and complexity of the job. "A lot of our business has come from word-of-mouth," said Bryan. "That is really the best kind of advertising a business can have. And, as long as we have been in Butte County we have developed a pretty good reputation." "We are a personable business," said Amber. "We allocate a single person to each customer to help them work through the process of everything from picking out the carpet to seeing it installed. We want to make sure that the customer is being taken care of." In closing, Bryan said, "We look to provide quality products with friendly customer service to the people and businesses of Oroville who have welcomed us into this community. I enjoy working with the people here and the friendly down home feeling sure makes it easy for us to do business here."

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