For Lorraine Early, A Magic Carpet Rid

For Lorraine Early, A Magic Carpet Ride

By Jodi Nash

Lorraine Early at her favorite one-stop store.

Head west on Rt. 211 out of Warrenton toward bucolic Rappahannock County and the stunning Blue Ridge Mountains. Early’s Carpet, Inc. your “One-Stop Shop for Complete Home Decorating Service” will be on the left, located near Amissville, and a walk inside clearly justifies the slogan.

Founded in October, 1966 by John and Lorraine Early, the couple began the business working out of their home’s basement, when wall-to-wall carpet was just coming on the scene.

Both came from local agricultural backgrounds. John’s family owned and operated Hill Crest dairy farm, and Lorraine’s father worked in landscaping and sod farming. They met at a dance in Calverton and married five years later. John had three children from a previous marriage, and he and Lorraine went on to have three of their own.

After losing their youngest son at age two, they knew something had to change. Tired of commuting to D.C. for his job, and after determining no-one in their home area wanted to tackle the carpet business, John and Lorraine started Early’s Carpet with a single “helper.”

John delivered and installed carpet and flooring and Lorraine handled marketing and sales, designing and mailing out 42,000 sales circulars twice a year in spring and fall, and working with all the local publications on ads and articles.

Lorraine recently recalled how the Amissville postmaster once fondly observed “This post office wouldn’t be here without Early’s Carpet—you’ve literally put Amissville on the map!”

In 1968 they built the “shop,” a 12,000-square foot cinder block warehouse, which currently stores 100 rolls of wall to wall carpeting, 75 rolls of vinyl flooring, and 400 Oriental and area rugs.

Early’s has been a long-time local treasure for contractors and homeowners, considered a “stocking dealer” with a 100-mile radius of operation. As product development changed, Early’s added other floor coverings, including vinyl, ceramic tile, hardwoods, and laminates.

More recently, the company has ventured into custom draperies and window treatments. Most of their work is residential, and they also offer water restoration emergency services. It’s only about 10-15 percent of their business, but much needed in the area.

John and Lorraine worked side by side for 48 years, putting in long hours, often from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m, six days a week to grow the business.

“Travel was our reward for working so hard” said Lorraine, who relished adventures, including seeing most of Europe and Russia. John died in 2014 at what Lorraine said was “a young 80,” after a long battle with cancer. He worked up until the last 10 days of his life, and being a “fight back” kind of guy, she said he always responded to queries about how he was feeling with “GREAT!”

Lorraine still works 40-50 hours a week, though she laughed when she said she was trying to “replace herself.” There are 22 employees and 18 vehicles on the road, and she manages accounts and inventory and continues to design her own display and copy ads.

She’s properly proud of her work and “seeing how our work transforms the home environment is satisfying,” her favorite part of the business.

The most difficult challenge in recent years has been finding good help. There’s been a dearth of vocational training for the current younger generation. A new Early’s employee is sent to the manufacturer to see how the product is made, but that’s only the beginning.

She tells them working at Early’s is “like going to college, but you’re going to go longer” because a technician must learn how to sell, install, finish, and teach the customer how to take care of the product. Lorraine now counts heavily on her loyal assistant, Donna Foster, who helps handle the business digitally, a key to any business’s survival. Her daughter Sonja, and Sonja’s husband, Solon Betts, are working as managers. The family’s collective goal has long been to ensure that employees work only 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, five days a week, with occasional Saturdays in the fall.

And is retirement in Lorraine’s future? With a dozen grandchildren, and a thriving family business, it’s certainly a possibility. And what would she do? She talks about a Viking cruise down the Danube, perhaps a trip to Israel to start with. And she’s always loved swing dancing, especially to the tunes of the Silver Tones Band. So there are definitely wall-to-wall possibilities.