Classic Stone Design, Plantsville, Conn.
The company doesn’t do any commercial work, and that’s a decision of the owners.
“I’ve done it in the past, but getting paid on commercial work is a job in itself,” Barbuito says. “We have the residential clientele and it’s working well, so we really don’t have that need, and we haven’t had to consider going that way.”
So why does the company even need a showroom? Well, Classic Stone Design is definitely a two-family company, with the offspring of both owners playing separate roles in its success.
Charamut’s son, Kyle, is the helper on the install crew, and Barbuito’s daughter, Alisha, spent a decade in sales at his old company before coming with her father to manage the showroom.
“She started working with me at the old place in 1998, and she came here with me,” says her proud father. “We don’t participate in the initial design of a kitchen, but Alisha will work with people to bring the colors together, tying in the floors and the walls, the cabinet color and the stone.”
Alisha Barbuito describes what she does as “making sure that people get the ‘Wow’ they’re looking for when they purchase granite,” adding that often she spends time talking people out of being too conservative in what they’re planning.
“I’m the one who sits there and says you need contrast,” she says. “I’ll say, ‘You need something darker,’ or, ‘You need something lighter.’ And, I’ll help them design a tile backsplash so it complements everything else they have going on in the room.”
Her other secret: not giving people too many options. Once they talk about the colors, she tries to keep them focused and pointed in a single direction.
“We made the showroom here very cozy,” says Alisha Barbuito. “We show a lot of different samples, but not too many. We don’t want to reach the point where somebody can get overwhelmed and walk out of here.”
The company also keeps some slabs in inventory, but Joe Barbuito says he’s developed good rapport with some of the distributors in the area – those who are selling the high-quality slabs. And, the shop offers several brand names of engineered stone.
However, Barbuito says the quartz products don’t seem to be especially attractive to many of the homeowners he serves. The reason: price.
“People will ask if it’s more-affordable than the natural stone,” he says. “The answer is that it really isn’t; it’s about the same cost and in some cases even more. When I tell them that, their response usually is, ‘Then why would I want something artificial, when I can have the real thing.’ I have to agree.”