Anyone driving on Route 68 just north of West Liberty has seen the lighted sign at the intersection with Township Road 30. This has been the home of The Flooring Gallery since the late 1990s. George Johnson first opened his store in downtown West Liberty in late 1996. When the Crossroad Christian Bookstore relocated to Bellefontaine, Johnson bought the property on Route 68. The store was originally called the Carpet Gallery, however Johnson changed its name a few years ago, to signify a wider offering of tile and laminate flooring.

Johnson had already been in the flooring business for twenty years, prior to opening the store. He started off in retail sales at The Floor Store in Springfield in 1976. He then moved up the supply chain as a sales rep for a flooring distributor. Later, he moved up again and became a regional sales rep for the carpet mills in the southern U.S. His territory was large, including Indiana, West Virginia, and most of Ohio. He drove thousands of miles calling on retail flooring stores, becoming one of the top producers. He described this as an exhausting and high-pressure career. His unique experience in all facets of the flooring business made the decision easy for him to settle down and open a retail flooring store in West Liberty….READ MORE…