Miller Janitor Supply : History

Miller Janitor Supply was started in 1972 as M-M Janitorial Service and Supply when Daryl Miller’s father and brother started a distributorship to complement their contract cleaning service. At that time, they noticed that the buildings they were cleaning were buying paper supplies and other disposable items from out of town. After asking their existing cleaning customers if they would be interested in buying their supplies locally at competitive prices and with good service, those customers said they would.

At that time Daryl started selling cleaning supplies in Bloomington-Normal and the surrounding area. He didn’t have any customers in the beginning. He was in charge of all aspects of the distribution company. Sales, purchasing, deliveries, and equipment service were all done by Daryl himself. Daryl would sell supplies during the day, make deliveries in the afternoon, and work on equipment in the evening.

If that wasn’t enough, in 1973 the Miller’s also felt that there was a need for parking lots to be swept in Bloomington-Normal. At that time State Farm Insurance was having their lot swept with a broom on the front of a truck that pushed the dirt over and was later picked up with a tractor. This process was very dirty and usually resulted in most of the dirt blowing into the neighbor’s yard. The Miller’s purchased a machine that picked up the debris and had a dust control system that they used to sweep the parking lot. At that point Power Sweeping Service was born. Several machines were purchased over the years and after 39 years of sweeping parking lots; they sold Power Sweeping Service in December 2012.

The service, supply, and sweeping company operated out of small warehouse on Douglas Street in Bloomington until 1974. They rented office and warehouse space on South Madison Street in Bloomington for a few months until they moved again to 208 Pine Street in Normal.

In 1974 Daryl and Rita Miller purchased the sweeping company and continued to run it as Power Sweeping Service. In 1976 Daryl and Rita then purchased the janitor supply business and ran it as M-M Janitor Supply Co. at the Pine Street address in Normal.

After seeing that the Pine Street location was going to be too small for their future needs, ground was purchased and a new 5000 square foot building was built in 1983 at 1817 W. Hovey Ave. in Normal. At the time of that move the business name was changed to Miller Janitor Supply. A 3000 square foot addition was added in 1988 and another 5500 square foot addition was added in 2000.

At some point all of Daryl and Rita’s children and spouses have worked at the business over the years. Today, their son Tom and Tom’s wife, Amy, continue to run the business. Daryl retired in 2013, but is still involved to offer sales advice and equipment repair. Tom makes sales calls and oversees the company’s operations. Amy works in the office as the bookkeeper. Kelly Hibbs joined the company in 2013 as our delivery driver. Being a small business, everyone helps each other with unloading and loading trucks, equipment repair, and building maintenance and cleaning.

Miller Janitor Supply still makes deliveries everyday with no minimum orders. In the Bloomington-Normal area, if an order is called in by noon it will be delivered the same day for all in stock items. Miller stocks over a thousand different items in there 13,500 square foot warehouse! They believe that “we can’t sell it, if we don’t stock it.” This includes all different types of cleaning equipment as well. All equipment that is sold is serviced in their own shop. Most equipment is returned in a day or two.

Miller Janitor Supply has grown and been successful thanks to Daryl’s vision of treating a customer the way you would want to be treated and giving great service. We are committed to continuing this tradition of selling quality products at competitive prices and providing service beyond the sale.