Employee Spotlight! Bob Taylor

The summer seems to be flying by, especially when there's so much to do. We've been working on construction projects all throughout the summer. You can't see them yet, and that's all thanks to this month's Employee Spotlight, Bob Taylor. Bob is our Construction Manager and Head of Operations here at Abt: many of the expansions you've heard about or seen in the store were headed by Bob, like the fountain in our Atrium. Our Employee Spotlight is a humble legend, with a full 39 years of Abt experience.

Some employees apply online, some are recommended by a family member, and on extremely rare occasions, some are offered a job during an appliance purchase. That was the case for Bob Taylor.

"I had just graduated from Indiana University and needed a range for a townhouse I was buying. My family said I needed to talk to Bob Abt to get the 'best deal'. After selling me a range, Mr. Abt kept asking questions about me, my education and my family. He must have seen something in me because he offered me a job on the spot, and I accepted because I definitely saw something special in him."

Bob Taylor and Mr. Bob Abt met at our Niles location. While Bob was hired as a salesman and worked as one for the first 15-20 years of his career, he was able to bring his passion for woodworking to the fore as well. "During that time, I designed and built a few displays for the showroom. I enjoyed woodworking growing up because my father had a woodshop in our basement. I still have a grandfather clock I built when I was 17".

Bob Abt must have recognized his skill and talent: when it was time to move the store to Morton Grove in 1990, he asked our Employee Spotlight to collaborate with the architect on the store's layout, displays and overall design. Bob Taylor worked as the construction manager for the entire project. That's when he and two other installers moved into their first woodshop, where they began working on custom displays for the showroom. In our large Glenview location, we have many dedicated woodshop employees who are hard at work making the store a better place for both employees and customers alike.

If you've ever walked into the Atrium at Abt in Glenview, you'll know it's one of the reasons so many people love coming into the store. With a beautiful Las Vegas-inspired fountain and specialty boutiques surrounding the fountain, it's an amazing space. When we asked our Employee Spotlight what his favorite story at Abt was, he had the following to say:

"In 2000, I was working on the design for Abt's new store in Glenview. I wanted to add an Atrium, but Mr. Abt wasnt sure it would fit with Abt's normal style. A week later he went to Las Vegas and stayed at the newly-opened Bellagio. He was so impressed with their conservatory that when he returned, he approved the Atrium and wanted to add flowers, fountains, skylights, and stone columns to the design. He sent me to Vegas, and I came up with a plan to make it happen."

You might not know that Abt in Glenview has its own in-house woodshop. The woodshop and our experts within help us tackle projects large and small, from tiny things like fixing a lightbulb to much larger projects.

"I have designed multiple showrooms and displays and handled 10 other construction projects. Im also responsible for special projects including the Recycling Center, solar panel installs, green roof, Tesla batteries, energy management, and operations."

All those projects and green initiatives have helped shape the store's identity, and Bob isn't stopping anytime soon. We're cooking up another project: an expansion of our furniture department. It will be a "40,000-square-foot expansion, an addition that will make Abt a major player in the Chicago furniture market." Anyone who has seen our existing 16,000-square-foot furniture department on the second floor of the Atrium knows just how exciting that addition will be. We can't wait to show you what it will look like, and Bob estimates that the project should conclude in 2025.

At Abt, we're a family business. Dads work with sons, moms work with daughters, and grandparents even work with grandchildren. Bob has had all of his kids work here at one time or another, and his son Devin Taylor began here when he was in high school. Mr. Abt said that "good kids come from good parents." He's right, too; Devin has been a steadfast employee for over 17 years and is now the Telecommunication and Mobility Manager.

Finally, we asked Bob Taylor what he loves doing outside of work. He had a pretty good answer. "We live in a condo on the water in Fox Lake and have a pontoon boat that we use to putt around the Chain of Lakes all summer long. It's a great way to connect with friends and family. In the colder months, we like to travel and have enjoyed visiting places like Italy, Greece and France."

With everything Bob Taylor has done for Abt throughout the years, we hope he gets some time to enjoy his time on the pontoon boat this summer. And we can't wait to see what the new furniture department looks like: check back in 2025 to see a new component of the Atrium he helped design.