Pollock's Carpet Market

As the owner of Pollock’s Carpet Market for more than 40 years, Giulio Piras knows “plenty of good yarns” — and wools, and tiles, and hardwood flooring, and…you get the idea.

“Knowing what is going to last comes from experience,” Giulio says, chuckling at the pun. “People come in and say they bought a carpet from me 35 years ago, and it still looks as good as when they bought it. I’ll probably never get to replace it, but they tell their friends and family, and they all buy carpets from us.”

Giulio, who was born and raised in Italy, moved to Ohio in the early 1970s to work for a large carpet chain. But when his visa was revoked to create jobs for returning Vietnam War veterans, Giulio relocated to Toronto and started selling flooring at what was then Pollock’s Hardware.

In those days, Giulio explains, wall-to-wall carpet sales were booming. But the owner fretted about high overhead costs, so in 1973 he sold the business to Giulio, who ditched hardware to focus on flooring. (Two years later, the business next door changed hands and became Pollocks Home Hardware. Since then, the Roncesvalles Avenue mainstays have shared the Pollock moniker despite lacking a connection to each other or to anyone named Pollock.)