Business Q&A: My Vacuum Store

When it comes to keeping your home as neat as a pin, My Vacuum Store, a relatively new addition the Merrick business landscape, certainly boasts the credentials to earn many repeat customers.

My Vacuum Store is a chain started in Queens more than 30 years ago, with shops in both Riverwood and Oceanside. They opened their new Merrick location a 14 months ago at 8a Merrick Ave. and store manager John Schneider recently spoke to Patch about the integrity of his business and how they can serve the Merrick community.

Tell us a little bit about what you offer at your establishment.

We offer household and industrial vacuum cleaner machines, as well as sewing machines. We repair electric razors, basically anything you can plug in, we can repair. We also do carpet cleaning.

We only carry specific machines that meet our standards. When we go to the trade shows, my boss is their nightmare because he beats up all the machines to see how well they perform. He doesn’t want to sell a customer a machine that’s going to go home with them and break a week later because they banged it into a wall or something.

What would you say the most popular vacuum cleaner going right now?

There’s a brand that we just recently started carrying called Riccar. It’s an American company and they offer great guarantees with their vacuums. They stand behind their machines.

What got you into this type of business?

Well, this is a family-owned and operated business and we’ve been in business for more than 35 years, so that’s what.

What makes you different from other appliance shops?

We guarantee everything that we sell and that we repair and all the repairs are done on the premises. As far as the carpet cleaning goes, everything’s organic, so there’s no harmful chemicals exposed to any of the customers, or us, as we use them. We’re very environmentally friendly and safe.

What do you like about operating a business in the Merrick area?

The best thing about Merrick is word of mouth and referrals. Merrick seems to be a very tight-knit community. We joined the Merrick Chamber of Commerce and we like it so far. When they hold their street festivals it’s nice to see all the families come out together as one.