Member Profile: Boynton Billiards

Leo Izzo, Tony Vierra and Larry Wood

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS QUALITY AND SERVICE HAVE MADE BOYNTON BILLIARDS SOUTH FLORIDA’S LEADING BILLIARD AND GAME ROOM DEALER

Debbie Corvey didn’t possess a whole lot of knowledge about pool when she and her late husband, John, got into the business in 1990, but that hasn’t stopped her from making Boynton Billiards the premier billiard and game room destination in South Florida and beyond.

That’s not to say making the store a success was easy. In fact, it took a lot of hard work, dedication, and smart thinking.

By Anthony Stoeckert

It all started in 1990, when John retired from his career with IBM. The couple was thinking about opening a different kind of shop when a friend told them he was looking to sell the small pool hall he owned with seven tables.

“When my husband left IBM, he had thought he was going to open up a remote-control hobby shop, and when the little pool hall became for sale, he thought that sounded like fun, so we bought this pool hall,” Corvey says. “Well, it didn’t take more than three months for me to realize we were never going to make any money in the pool hall business.”

STARTING A NEW CHAPTER

They bought the pool hall in February of 1991 and they attended their first

BCA Expo in the summer of that year. Debbie had retail experience, having worked in the boat business, and she applied her knowledge and savvy for sales to her new trade.

“The first things we bought were McDermott cues, they had a special going on – if you spent $2,500, they gave you a big display case,” she says. “We bought $2,500 worth of McDermott cues and they shipped us the display case. We brought it up to the pool hall and we started to sell cues.”

While John had played pool during his college years, Debbie knew nothing about the game, and neither were what you’d call experts.

Debbie attributes part of her success to the people who helped her early on by teaching her and John about pool tables and what makes a quality table. Those people include Rick Roeder from Blatt Billiards, Gil and Andy Atkinson from Vitale Manufacturing and Sam Costanzo of Gandy Pool Tables.

The Corveys also had to compete against a lot of other stores in the area, owned by people who had more experience than they did.

“It was challenging at first, but pretty early on, we took the direction of doing high-end designer work,” Corvey says. “In Florida, since there are no basements, people put pool tables in the middle of their homes, in the middle of the living room or dining room. So they’re very visible, and early on, I knew the tables had to be not only high-quality playing pool tables, they also had to be beautiful pieces of furniture.”

ADDING TO THE BUSINESS

The next step in the growth of Boynton Billiards came when John realized he was going to have to re-cover the hall’s tables.

“He watched and he learned how to re-cover them,” Corvey says. “Within a year, we realized we were outgrowing our area, so we started looking for a building and it took us almost two years.”

They found the right building on South Federal Highway in Boynton Beach in the fall of 1992, and settled into that location – which remains Boynton Billiards’ home to this day – on Feb. 1, 1993. The new digs had a 21-table pool hall and a 1,300-square-foot showroom, where Debbie showcased about 10 tables for sale, along with game room furniture.

As the sales end of Boynton Billiards thrived, the direction of the business shifted at the beginning of 2000, when the decision was made to sell the tables that were in the pool hall.

“We were down to about eight or nine pool tables, and one Saturday after coming home, tumbling all over myself in the show room, I said, ‘That’s it, we’re done,’” Corvey says. “And I sold off the rest of the pool tables. I sold off all the bar equipment and the barstools and we re-carpeted and repainted where the pool hall was and moved in.”

As Debbie likes to joke, at that point, sales were accounting for 85 percent of their income, while the pool hall was 85 percent of their problems.

“It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what we needed to do, so we closed down the pool hall, moved over and the rest is history,” she says.

TAKING THE NEXT STEP

And quite a history it’s been. Focusing solely on retail was just the start because in 2001, the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton reached out to the Corveys because it had a tenant that was leaving, and it was looking for a temporary shop to utilize the space for about six to eight months.

“We went down there, opened a temporary store and ended up being there 11 months,” Corvey says. “When that was ready to close, a dealer in West Palm Beach decided to close his store, so we approached him and took over his lease in West Palm Beach, and that was the opening of our second permanent store.”

That West Palm Beach location served as Boynton Billiards’ second office for more than 10 years. In 2011, they moved to their current West Palm Beach location on Okeechobee Boulevard, which

Debbie Corvey

means Boynton Billiards has been running two stores for nearly two decades.

Then in November of 2004, the Town Center Mall called again to offer another temporary spot, which Boynton Billiards operated out of until March 31, 2006, so for about a year and a half, the business had three stores.

A SUCCESS STORY

Today, Boynton Billiards offers everything needed to make the perfect game room. It sells pool tables, shuffleboards, arcade games, game furniture and more throughout Florida, the Caribbean, and the entire United States.

The store’s team of experts also helps keep tables looking their best by offering a full line of worsted, woolen and specialty fabrics in more than 29 different colors.

The store has built exceptional relationships with customers over the years – that’s a fact that is proven by the number of repeat customers who walk into Boynton Billiards.

“We’ve had people who have bought more than one pool table from us,” Corvey says. “They’ll buy a pool table and then 5, 6, 10 years later, they sell and buy a new table for their new house. We’re very fortunate to have repeat customers, including their children when they become adults.”

Just before Boynton Billiards opened its first temporary store in the Town Center Mall, Debbie’s son, Larry Wood, joined her staff, and he’s been instrumental in growing the online business. He now holds the title of managing partner and handles social media. He is also an expert on new and used billiard cues, works on game room design and space planning, and collaborates with manufacturers on new designs and styles for the billiard industry.

Online sales are a big reason why Boynton Billiards has expanded its reach. “When I started out, it was pretty local and now I work with designers and builders all over the country and my retail customer base runs pretty much all of South Florida,” Corvey says.

Corvey credits much of her success to her employees, including her service manager, Jeremy Brooks, who has been with the store for 20 year, and Michael Ruback, vice president and director of sales, who has been in the game room business for over 25 years and specializes in working with the design trade industry. His attention to detail has made him an industry leading specialist.

It’s a team that is dedicated to making sure everything is done right, and that all customers get exactly what they want.

BUILDING THE PERFECT GAME ROOM

Although she started out with little knowledge of the billiard industry, 20 years in the business has made Debbie Corvey an expert, and she uses her knowledge to help people create the game room of their dreams.

That means working with customers to build a room that reflects each client’s lifestyle, interests and taste. The Boynton Billiards team is in contact with clients through every step of the process, so that the end result is the design, layout and products that make each and every game room Boynton Billiards works on perfect.

That’s done with knowledge, enthusiasm, competitive pricing and the very best service, the kind of service that earned Boynton Billiards recognition as a Top 20 Dealer from Olhausen Billiards.

A STRANGE YEAR

Like all businesses, Boynton Billiards has felt the effects of the coronavirus, but it is weathering that storm and is looking forward to a happy holiday season. The West Palm Beach shop had to close from March 21 to the middle of May during quarantine, but the Boynton Beach location stayed open for online sales shipping.

“We were still able to deliver and move, because moving was considered essential,” Corvey says. “But we were very careful about making sure that everybody wore masks and gloves, which we still do.”

The store is sanitized every morning, and whenever someone leaves, anything that is touched by a customer or staffer – door handles, credit card machines, etc. – is sanitized.

“It’s not like we have a lot of people in the store at any one time, we’re a destination location,” Corvey says. “It’s not as if people are just walking in to kill the time of day.”

She notes that this Christmas season will offer an opportunity for billiard retailers to be successful, because more and more people are looking for things they can do at home. Even if restrictions on dining, movie theaters and the like are lifted, a lot of people will continue to spend more time at home than usual for quite a while.

She also says success will depend on having products that customers can get right away.

“If you don’t have the inventory in stock, you’re not going to make the sale,” Corvey says. “This year, it’s going to be, ‘What have you got?’ We have found that through this whole virus, the people who come in say, ‘What can you sell and deliver to me now?’”

The custom business has been less affected by the coronavirus, as builders and designers work on projects that can take six or nine months, or even a year, to complete.

“They’re not going to stop the project because of the coronavirus, they continue to work on these projects and

they continue to build them, so that has stayed steady,” Corvey says. “It’s the retail end that has gone to, ‘What can you deliver to me now?’”

PART OF THE COMMUNITY

Corvey is appreciative for her success, for the people who helped her along the way, and for the community that has supported her business for all these years. And she has made sure that Boynton Billiards helps and supports its neighbors.

One way it does that is by helping the area’s firefighters who risk their lives to protect the lives and property of their fellow citizens.

“There’s a fire station directly across the street from us, and we have always supported the firemen by donating equipment to every firehouse – pingpong tables, foosball tables,” she says. “If they have a pool table, we maintain it at no charge.”

Boynton Billiards also supports young people by maintaining pool tables at the local Boys and Girls Club at no charge, and they do the same thing for older people who play on the tables at the area’s senior citizens center.

“The community has been good to me, I want to give back,” Corvey says.

Corvey also gives back to the billiard business itself. About a year ago, she joined the board of the Billiard Congress of America in order to help others in the industry and to keep the billiard business strong.

“When I was nominated and running for the board, I said, ‘This industry has been good to me, now it’s time for me to give back to this industry and donate my time and everything else I can for my industry,’” she says.

And her fellow billiard retailers are lucky to have Debbie Corvey share her experience and expertise with them.