Company Information

Our business goal has always been to provide the best products on the market at the best possible price without compromising service and personal attention. Over the last 55 years, many of our customers have become adopted family members, and some have even become employees. Ray's Sewing Machine Center offers a unique 5 and 5. 5 years free sewing machine service and when you trade up to a new Janome sewing machine within 5 years you receive a trade in value equal to your purchase price.

Ray's is owned by Ken and Lori Gresham, Ray's son and daughter-in-law. Ray's Sewing Machine Center has been located at 1717 Park Ave., San Jose, Ca. 95126 for over 55 years. Phone: 408 295-6901 Fax: 408 295-3320. Store Hours: Tues-Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-5 and closed Sunday and Monday.

In the 1940's Ray was a machinist, learning his trade two years before World War II and using it on board ship in the Navy. When he and his wife Deon moved to Santa Clara, he resumed his job as a machinist. An entrepreneur at heart, Ray then produced a job for himself painting corn catches on ice machines and sewing machines. Next, he began buying old sewing machines which he eventually rented for $1.00 a week. Business was so good that Ray went into the sewing machine business full-time.

By March of 1947, the business grew so large they rented a building on Park Avenue (current location) for $150 a month, selling Pfaffs and Berninas and renting industrial machines to the Japanese farmers to make covers for their greenhouses.

Deon, Ray's wife, was a college graduate majoring in home economics. Her role in the business was bookkeeping, classes, covering buttons and belt buckles. But her favorite job besides being a wife and mother was making buttonholes. This she did for over 30 years.

In the late 40's Ray and Deon had a daughter, and in the mid-50's a son whom they named ken. Ken started working in the business at the age of four, and his abilities grew quickly. He eventually went to Steckborn Switzerland to learn sales and service on Bernina sewing machines and later taught at the Bernina University.

Ken Writing His First Sales Receipt-1959

The sewing machine business changed immensely through the 70s, 80s, and 90s due to computer technology, therefore changing the brand of machines Ray's sold. The European companies couldn't compete with the knowledge, quality or workmanship of the Japanese factories. In the late 80s, Ray's stopped selling European sewing machines because of rising costs and high repair factors. Today, few European companies still exist.

Ray's adage for success is "be honest and sell good products." Ken adds, "you need to work hard everyday to keep your business strong....after the sale, service and support are as important as the products we sell.

Ray's throws an annual theme party for every customer who bought a machine that year. Last years theme was the1960s, complete with band and food galore, attracting over 300 people. Everyone had to sew a costume (some didn't) on his or her New Home sewing machine. During the party, Ken awards a New Home sewing machine, overlock machine, accessories and gift certificates for the best costumes, best dancers and door prizes. Ray's Sewing Machine center has proven to be one of the most productive sewing machine dealers in the country.

Ken continues to run the store as a family business, with help from his father, wife Lori, daughter Lindsay, Stuart, and all of our wonderful customers who are like family. And to you, we give thanks. Here's to the next 50 years of friendship and fun!

The Sewing Hall of Fame was started by Vacuum Dealers Trade Association/Sewing Dealers Trade Association in 1994 and first displayed at their annual Las Vegas Convention that year. At that time, the first year 50 people were inducted. These were individuals from the early 1800's to the early 1900's. Since 1995, they began accepting nominations from manufacturers, distributors and dealers in the industry for persons to be included in the Hall of Fame. These nominations are given to a committee to select between four and six people to be inducted each year. The new inductees are well know for their dedication and hard work in their industry and communities.

This document is a privacy statement for Ray's Sewing Machine Center and discloses the privacy practices for http://www.rayssewingcenter.com.

Ray's Sewing Machine Center is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, trade, or rent this information to other companies, individuals, etc. in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. Ray's Sewing Machine Center collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site.

Ray's Sewing Machine Center offers an opt-in e-mail-based newsletter sign-up. To register, a user is required to give their e-mail address. This e-mail address is the only piece of information requested and the sole use of the e-mail address is for the purpose of sending the newsletter to the recipient. We will not sell, share, trade, or rent the information to others.

Users who no longer wish to receive our e-mail-based newsletter may op-out of receiving these communications at any time by following the "to unsubscribe" information on the bottom of all e-mail-based newsletter.

We request information from the customer at time of checkout. The customer must provide contact information (such as their name and shipping address) and, if paying by credit card, financial information (such as credit card number and expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customers' orders. If we have trouble processing an order, we use this information to contact the customer. We do not sell, share, trade, or rent this information to others.

We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are the numerical equivalent of the ISP of visitors. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

We use an outside shipping company to transport orders to customers (UPS, etc), the shopping cart services of Americart, and credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

This Web site contains links to other sites. Since these companies are separate from Ray's Sewing Machine Center, we are not responsible for their privacy practices. Users should be aware when they leave our site, our private policy applies solely to our Web site.

This Web site takes every precaution to protect our user's information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, your information is protected both on line and of-line.

When our shopping cart asks for sensitive information, that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry -SSL When on a secure page (ie. shopping cart checkout), a locked icon appears on the bottom of the Web browser.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our user's information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our store. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personal identifiable information.

If you have any questions about the security of our Web site, please e-mail us at infinitypp@aol.com.

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our home page so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users via e-mail. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

We want you to be satisfied with everything you buy from rayssewingcenter.com. If you are not pleased with your purchase of our products, please return them to us with in 20 days for a full product refund. We are sorry but books and patterns are not returnable. All returned items must have original packaging and are in resalable condition. Items returned after 20 days are subject to a 25% restocking charge. When returning your purchase please indicate if you want a refund or your credit applied to your next purchase. All return credit card sales will be credited back to your credit card. We ship UPS. If your merchandise is delivered damaged please save all packaging and contact UPS about your damaged merchandise.

Ray's Sewing Machine Center has made every attempt to avoid errors in pricing and product information. If a mistake occurs, we reserve the right to correct it, and we apologize for the inconvenience it may cause.