(Editor’s note: Following is the latest installment of a multi-part series featuring Mohawk Edge retail partners who signed on to become Edge Aligned Stores members. This segment focuses on the benefits that membership provides for Absolute Floor Covering of Grand Rapids, Mich.)
Absolute Floor Covering has been a valued and loyal Mohawk retailer partner since its inception in 2019. Based in Grand Rapids, Mich., the specialty flooring dealer is dedicated to delivering top-quality customer service.
In 2025, Absolute Floor Covering took its partnership with Mohawk to a new level by signing on as an Edge Aligned Stores member. This move opened up the retailer to a host of benefits that have not only raised the dealer’s profile in its local market but also enhanced its ability to service its customers. 
Following are some of the benefits Absolute Floor Covering is currently enjoying as an Edge Aligned Stores member:
Showroom lighting solution
Edge Aligned Stores members can take advantage of merchandising aids to help showcase Mohawk flooring samples in the “best light” (literally) to consumers. One tool is the showroom lighting solution, which allows customers to view samples under different temperature lighting. This gives consumers a better idea how the product might look once it’s installed.
“What’s so great about this lamp is you can actually put your flooring selection under the light and you can play with different shades to make sure it’s going to work in the homeowner’s space,” said Sarah Van Tuinen, co-owner of Absolute Floor Covering. “There are different types of light—natural, warm, cool, etc. We use the lamp in the showroom to narrow down the options to the clients’ top three choices that they want to see during their in-home consultation.”
For Van Tuinen, the lighting solution also doubles as a design element in her store. “It’s just a beautiful accessory in my showroom,” she said. “It’s sleek and black and has the Mohawk logo on the lamp shade. Plus, it’s really fun to play around with it. We have clients who really appreciate seeing the different tones under different lighting conditions. I love it!”
Dealer locator priority
When you’re a small, privately owned floor covering store in a very competitive market, you need all the tools you can muster in the daily battle to stand out from the pack. Absolute Floor Covering not only competes head-to-head with other local specialty dealers in the area, but also large home centers that draw high-volume, walk-in traffic. That’s why it’s so important to reach potential customers online—the starting point for many shoppers who often begin their purchasing journey on the internet.
That’s where the benefit of priority placement on Mohawk’s Dealer Locator tool comes in. As an Edge Select retailer, they wouldn’t normally be listed as the top result in their zip code, but by virtue of its status as an Edge Aligned Store, Absolute Floor Covering’s website gets the priority spot.
“If a customer in our area clicks on ‘find a retailer’ on the Mohawk website, our business is shown first,” Van Tuinen explained. “What the dealer locator does for us is it presents our store as a recommended Mohawk-aligned retailer and it lets potential clients know that when they come in here, they’re going to have a great shopping experience. Once on our website, the consumer sees that we have a nice showroom and product samples and they are invited to come visit us.”
Tuinen shares how helpful this is to a small, family-owned operation. “They really do a good job highlighting our store. It provides that extra exposure for a small, mom-and-pop store like us among the big dogs in town.”
Co-op, marketing support
Another benefit Edge Aligned Stores members enjoy is increased co-op. How it works: The more qualifying Mohawk products retailers purchase, the more co-op funds they earn—dollars that go toward marketing and advertising efforts. In Absolute Floor Covering’s case, Van Tuinen applies a portion of those ad dollars to subsidize other adjacent programs and tools Mohawk offers. “Mohawk set it up so you can use your co-op to help pay for Omnify-powered websites—which is extremely helpful for us,” she explained. “The additional co-op funds really make a difference in our overall marketing strategy.”
Van Tuinen also plans to take advantage of other valuable tools and programs available to her as an Edge Aligned Stores member. For example, she recently placed an order for a high-tech Roomvo kiosk she plans to use in conjunction with the popular visualizer. In addition, she enjoys the support she receives from her local rep as well as the white-glove concierge service available only through Edge Aligned Stores. Down the road, Van Tuinen also plans to enroll in the RSA training program, Edge Academy Experience, which officially launched earlier this year.
“They’ve set it up so that when you invest in Mohawk through their programs like Edge Aligned Stores, they help you in return,” she said.
Pathway to partnership
Most successful specialty floor covering retailers have been at it for many years—even decades in some cases. Some achieved longevity leveraging their position as members of a larger buying group, while others prospered by continuing in the tradition of generations of family ownership. Jamie and Sarah Van Tuinen, the husband-and-wife owners of Absolute Floor Covering, an up-and-coming retailer based in Grand Rapids, Mich., took a slightly differ-ent path to achieve their objectives.
After a lifelong career as a floor covering installer, Ja-mie Van Tuinen decided it was time for a cool change and opened a retail store in 2019. With Jamie’s hands-on installation skills and project management experience—combined with Sarah’s book smarts and penchant for marketing—the couple took the proverbial leap of faith SolidTech sells well at and opened up a small store Absolute Floor Covering. in an industrial area of the
city. “When we first started, we had a very small showroom, probably 100 square feet, which was built into our 1,200-square-foot warehouse,” Sarah recalled. “We tried to make it as cute as we could and then we started calling dis-tributors and manufacturers [to open up accounts]. A lot of people laughed in our face in 2019. They told us we needed to get a proper showroom. They would not open us up.”
Undaunted, Sarah continued to work the phone lines, calling on any and all vendor reps who would listen. It was then that Mohawk answered the call—both literally and figuratively. “Our Mohawk rep at the time heard our story, saw our vision and felt our passion for the business,” Sarah recalled. “He opened us up and he got us some samples. Mohawk gave us a shot, and it changed our lives.”
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