Joseph Stern
Boro Rug & Carpet Warehouse
Tell us the history of Boro Rug & Carpet Warehouse. How did you get involved with the business?
My father, Herman Stern, started his first company after the war. He’s 98 years old, and a Holocaust survivor. He started Belgotex Carpet Company, it was one of the biggest wholesale suppliers in the area. We had a warehouse here in Brooklyn, New York, where I’m located now. He moved his warehouse to upstate New York. My brother Isaac was running that and so this place became empty. I got married. My wife, she was from Manchester, England; we settled back in Brooklyn. I opened up a wall-to-wall business. That was in 1979. I joined this business in 1981, and it’s been growing and growing since then. That’s how we got into the carpet business.
Where does the name Boro Rug come from?
Because the neighborhood we live in is Borough Park. So, we named it after our community.
What trends are you currently seeing in flooring?
Carpet has taken a drastic drop, mostly because we have large families here and they feel like carpet is impractical. They will substitute for parquet floors and vinyl floors. Stone is also very popular, meaning grand marble floors and porcelain floors. That’s very popular here in Brooklyn. Oriental rugs have always been popular.
Our commercial business is very strong. Carpet tiles are a very strong item for us. Back in the 1970s and 80s, I used to sell carpets in Manhattan. If it was on the 14th floor or 20th floor, we had to hoist it up with a crane and roll it out. Carpet tiles took over the commercial space, which is a major plus and easier to install.
We always recommend customers buy 5 or 10% overage and put them away in case they have a stain or burn and need to replace a tile.
What advice would you give someone doing a remodel or new build when it comes to what type of flooring to put in their space?
My advice is to go with something practical. If you buy something, take care of it.
If it’s for a children’s room, I would say go with vinyl or wood flooring. I never recommend porcelain and stone. We have a doctor in the community who told me that most of the injuries he treats in our neighborhood are kids and elderly people who slip on stone and break something. Of course it’s beautiful, but it’s not practical.
What is something that the average person might not know about choosing the right flooring?
They might not know that if they’re going to buy a wool carpet, a Berber carpet, that they have these very high, big loops. Your heels get stuck. They’re going to pull a loop, and it’s almost impossible to repair.
Designers and decorators love the loop kind of look but a vacuum with a beater is going to beat the carpet up and it’ll start looking fuzzy. In a few months, the carpet looks like they’ve had it for 10 years.
People also need to know how to clean a carpet. If you buy a carpet, it does require maintenance. We sell products to help them clean and we always tell them to look up the manufacturer and find the best solution for their carpet.
What is the installation process like? What can a new customer expect?
Customers need to understand that the house has to be 100% clean to get the floor down. We get to jobs where the painter isn’t finished, there’s ladder all over the place. The room needs to be ready for us to come and install it.
And someone needs to be home. We’ve had jobs where I get a phone call saying we put red carpet in the blue room and blue carpet in the red room. The maid let my installers in and the actual customer wasn’t there. That’s not the maid’s job. Problems like that won’t come up if the customer is there on the day of the installation.
What has been the biggest shift or change in the flooring industry over the decades?
Years ago, products used to come from Belgium. And they were very, very high quality. Today the manufacturing is done in Turkey and China. The material is not what it used to be. Because of that, customers don’t keep it as long as they used it. They’ll buy it for two or three years, then throw it away and buy a new one.
Style is always changing. Colors keep changing every three or four years.
You have a lot of repeat customers. Why do they continue to choose Boro Rug year after year?
When it comes to service, nobody can compete with any local retailer throughout the country. The local retailer understands the customer, is there for the customer, and is loyal to the customer.
We know you by name; we know your family. That’s what makes us different.
They recommend us, they refer you. Our repeat business comes from referral after referral. They refer their neighbors. These people have commercial businesses. They own hotels and hospitality businesses. We get the commercial business from them and that keeps us going.
The medium and low-end customers have gone down. Today every customer is fashion minded and they’re coming in with their designers. The designer does the whole house for them from paint to kitchen to toilets to tiles. 90% of our customers now come in with designers and decorators.
What do you expect for the future of flooring?
We’ve seen a major decline in finding installers who want to do the job. I think it’s a critical issue for the whole carpet and flooring industry. In the city of New York its very hard to find hard-labor working people.
Trend-wise, they say trends come back every 20 years or so. I see carpet coming back a little bit. I hope for the best.
June 2026
