Retailers React: What are your biggest takeaways from the first half?

Every two weeks, FCNews seeks out flooring retailers across the country to offer their advice on hot topics of the day. This week, we asked: What are your biggest takeaways from the first half of the year?

Here are their responses:

“The customer traffic we are still missing are people living week-to-week financially that do not have the money on-hand to purchase flooring. Whenever that dam breaks loose, there is going to be a lot of business coming to us that we have been missing for quite some time.”

—Ted Gregerson, Ted’s Floors & Beyond, Anniston, Ala.

“The most notable is the switch from hard surface to carpet. Carpet has taken market share back from hard surface in Q2. Carpet was off 7% in Q1 and now is up 7% in Q2 as of the end of May. I like seeing the carpet numbers grow even though I am the hard surface buyer. Carpet is the most profitable.”

—Eric Mondragon, RC Willey, Salt Lake City

“Our biggest surprise has been the consumer demand to upgrade living room spaces in 2024. In previous years bathrooms and kitchens were a larger share of our business.”

—Carlton Billingsley, Floors and More, Benton, Ark.

“We’re experiencing our first seasonal slowdown in several years, which feels odd. We are being as aggressive as possible for each opportunity, and our salespeople are being pushed to win the confidence of our customers early in the process to prevent them from shopping [elsewhere].”

—John Taylor, Taylor Carpet One Floor & Home, Fort Myers, Fla.

 

“Retail traffic has been choppy for us. There are slow days followed by busy days with really no logic or reason behind it. Larger tickets are compensating for fewer consumers in the market … The retailers who put the work in will earn the business, while retailers who have been propped up by the benefits of COVID-19 will be exposed.”

—Eric Langan, Carpetland USA, Davenport, Iowa

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