PITTSFIELD — Tom and Kim Taglieri recently learned their lawnmower wasn’t going to be fixed when they thought it would.
The person who usually fixes their mower had left the job and their repair shop was having trouble finding a replacement.
It’s a situation that the Taglieris can relate to.
Trouble finding staff — a situation all Berkshire small businesses struggle with — has led to the closure of the Taglieris Alliance Appliance on Fenn Street, which they have owned since 1986, and with it their 43-year career in the household appliance industry have ended.
“We were thinking about retiring anyway,” said Kim, who is 67 (Tom is 69). “But last year it was next to impossible to find help. We can no longer do this alone.”
The Taglieris, who have been married for 47 years, have employed up to six people at the three Pittsfield locations where they have operated Alliance Appliance. But since November they have been running the business alone.
“In November, two of our employees left the company, leaving us just the two of us,” Kim said. “We tried doing it with just the two of us, but we said it didn’t work very well.”
One person was interested in buying the company but backed out because they wanted to focus solely on service rather than sales, the couple said.
The owners plan to sell the building at 579 Fenn St. where Alliance Appliance has operated since 2005.
Alliance Appliance closed on May 26, but the Taglieris plan to stay in store until June 9 while they sort through their inventory.
“People can still come in,” Tom said.
“We’ll give them a cut if we have it,” Kim added. “We don’t have fixed opening times.”
They plan to sell their building at 579 Fenn St., which they have owned since 2005.
Closing the store is difficult for the two people from Berkshire County.
“It’s kind of bittersweet because we were both ready to get it done,” Kim said. “But it’s hard to be a company for 44 years and then just be done.”
A 1972 graduate of Taconic High School, Tom studied equipment repair at the former Northeast Institute of Industrial Technology in Boston and went on to work as a mechanic for General Electric and Sears. In August 1980, they entered the home appliance business full-time, initially working out of the front rooms of their then home in Pittsfield.
“I kind of enjoyed the work,” said Tom. “I always wanted to have my own company.”
They operated a used appliance store on Wahconah Street before purchasing what was then known as Alliance All Appliance when the business was on Linden Street in January 1986 (Alliance All Appliance opened in 1980). According to Eagle files, the first thing the Taglieris did when they bought the company was drop the word “all” from the name.
“It was a tongue twister,” Tom said on Friday. “People never really got it.”
In 1988, they moved Alliance Appliance to a larger location at 1400 East St., in a building they shared with a health club. At this point, Alliance Appliance had two other full-time service engineers working with Tom Taglieri.
Of course, that was before small businesses had such a hard time finding employees.
Kim said the hiring problems started with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago and never really reversed.
“Not as far as we know,” Kim said. “The same thing has happened to some friends of ours who own businesses. They have a hard time finding help.”
“Many small businesses have reduced their working hours because they can’t find staff,” said Tom.
The nature of the home appliance business has also changed, they said.
Kim recalled that early in the couple’s life, Tom often received gifts from people who couldn’t afford to pay for the repairs.
“He came home from a service call with four coffee cups,” Kim said. “He said, ‘Well, they couldn’t afford anything, so they gave me coffee cups.'”
“A potter in Sheffield,” said Tom. “We went everywhere back then. He gave me four homemade coffee cups.”
“It wasn’t always about the money,” Tom said, referring to service calls. “I’ve spent more time having a cup of tea with a little old lady or a little old man who needed company.”
“I called him to see where he was and he said, ‘I’m going to eat a sandwich,'” Kim said.
The Taglieris have no concrete retirement plans.
“We picked a good time to retire because we can babysit a bit and play golf,” said Tom (the couple have two adult children who live in the Berkshires). “I don’t know what I’m going to do in winter.”
They will miss their customers as much as the people who served them, they will miss them.
“We’ve really enjoyed the clients we’ve had,” Kim said. “They were great. We still have people calling in here and saying, ‘What am I going to do without you?’”
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