Salem Glass Co

Salem Glass Co. opened as a corner glass shop in 1929, when Saul Goldberg started Salem Plate & Window Glass Co. with $100 borrowed from his new bride. Nearly a century later the company says it's still run by his family, three generations in, with Lois Miller as president since 1972 and Laurence and James Miller as executive vice presidents. Based in Salem, Massachusetts, it works commercial-scale glazing: curtainwall systems, aluminum framing, and architectural glass for large construction projects, not routine household window repair. One relationship the company points to is its bond with Kawneer, the glazing-systems manufacturer. Salem Glass says it's been Kawneer's dealer since 1948, its oldest continuous one anywhere. That kind of multi-decade vendor tie says more about staying power in commercial glazing than a handful of star ratings would. Customer reviews are sparse, and the newest one isn't kind. Google puts Salem Glass at 4.4 stars, but that average rests on just 14 ratings, and the most recent one, from this past May, is a one-star account calling the company rude and conceited and accusing it of overstating the difficulty of what were really bathroom-partition and composite-panel jobs. The BBB gives the company an A+ grade, though it isn't BBB-accredited and its own BBB page shows no complaints or reviews. With so few outside reviews to weigh against it, that recent complaint is worth asking about directly: how the company handles a smaller job, and whether pricing and scope get set clearly up front, especially for anything outside its usual large commercial projects.