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Review - Once Upon A Carpet

A warm and fuzzy book about Carpets

When I review a book I look at it and to figure out all the ways reading it can help you sell rugs. I mean really, it is not like this is Oprah's book club I am much better looking and this is Rug News, we deal with rugs. This month I am going to review a book that is very different. Normally I tell you to read it but this time i am going to tell you to give it away. "Once Upon A Carpet" by Kathleen Bashian.

Once Upon A Carpet
by Kathleen Ryniker Bashian Ph.D.
retail: $49.00
Hardcover - 96 pages (July 16, 1999)
Kathleen Ryniker Bashian; ISBN: 0967269806

"Once Upon A Carpet" is not about carpet on a scholarly level it is about Oriental Carpets on an emotional level. This book is a celebration of those things which make us love our Oriental carpets. When Kathleen Bashian explains how how a British King, Henry VIII used carpets to "advance a commanding royal image" she is showing the reader how to use carpets to create their own "commanding royal image". You may think that your customer bought that rug because it went with the sofa or matched the drapes but on another level many of your customers will identify with the section on "The projection of power and authority". Going beyond the power and glory Dr. Bashian plucks at our heartstrings with vivid imagery of a toddlers first steps or un wrapping holiday presents on a cherished carpet. You may not stop to consider how important those little things are but they have helped you sell a lot of rugs over the years.

One particularly poignant part for me was in the discussion of sacred space Dr. Bashian compares the medallion of an Isphahan to the "eye of the all seeing god". Many years ago in the days of my foolish youth I had an odd experience that is most comparable to what people call a near-death experience. I was in a dark room in a very sober relaxed condition in perfect health. Out of nowhere a tiny pinpoint of light appeared in the ceiling and burst forth into a ball of tongues of flames. At that point the ball of flames opened into a window and I began to float up towards the light. I could see beings on the other side of the window into another world. I called out "who are you, what do you want". Quick as I did that the window slammed shut and I fell back into my body from a considerable height. Only when I hear people describing the so-called near death experiences do I hear anything like my experience. Anyway I probably sound crazy but the only thing I have ever seen that resembles that window to another world is the medallion of some Persian Carpets. That is the point of Kathleen Bashian's book it summons up those good feelings about carpets and focus them.

As a wee lad I remember the yearly trips to the liquor store with my Dad. My father was a scotch drinker. Not much of a drinker but a scotch drinker when he did. One fifth of scotch would generally last all year long but my Dad would buy scotch by the case. At Christmas time he would give scotch to his customers. My Dad had a steel fabricating plant and a mine and mill supply business and I remember his idea of gift giving like this: "Barry', he would say, "a bottle of scotch is a gift but a case of scotch is a bribe". So no matter what the competition was doing he would limit his gifts to a single bottle of scotch generally alternating between Haig and Haig Pinch Bottle or Chivas Regal. The bottle of whiskey was in part thanks for past business and part in hopes of engendering good will that will translate into future sales. The important part is that my father had a captive audience. If you owned a coal mine or a construction company you needed the things my father sold and if you did not buy from him you went to the competition but you had to buy.

Oriental Carpets are not like construction supply, there is not the same perception of need. When did you customers ever wake up and think if I do not buy a new rug I am out of business. You might but they don't. In all but the most unusual cases no one needs an Oriental Carpet. Your competition is not just the other Carpet Dealers it is the Mercedes Benz dealer, the jeweler, the pool dealer and countless others. How do you make your carpet more important than a pool or a Mercedes? The highly charged emotion message of Dr. Bashian's book is to subtly implant the message that the reader needs an Oriental Carpet. After reading Dr. Bashian's book the reader begins to perceive Oriental Carpets like Lays Potato Chips, no one can buy just one.

Let me sum up my thoughts on giving this book to customers who buy better rugs:

Reading this book will give your customer a greater appreciation of the the rug they bought from you.

Reading this book will give your customer a greater appreciation of you and will raise your credibility in their eyes.

Anyone who buys a good carpet will buy two. You didn't deliver it to a one room cabin did you?.

So my advise is to buy this book and give it to your best customers. The key to success is making sure that they buy the second carpet from you.