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: How would you assess 2023 heading into the home stretch?
Here are their responses:
“The reality of 2023 is the COVID-19 boom is over. This year has been steady; we are seeing average ticket sales up but the number of jobs sold down. Consumers are still intoxicated by waterproof floors but are more willing to consider higher-end carpets to stay in their budget.”
—Reagan Echols, IQ Floors Colorado Springs, Colo.
“Although business has been on par with ‘22, this year has exceeded our expectations as inflation and rising interest rates had us pessimistic/worried about ‘23. We’re experiencing a slight increase to keep up with the rising costs, which has been a welcome result.”
—John Bretzloff, Barefoot Flooring Castle Hayne, N.C.
“Our expectations for this year were very mixed. We were not sure how the customer was going to react to inflation and higher interest rates. However, we have been pleasantly surprised with our traffic and sales throughout the year. We are finding customers are choosing better products for their home.”
—Jon Dauenhauer, Carpet World Bismarck, N.D.
“It’s been a good year. We are still busy and expect the fourth quarter to continue along OK. Our traffic has been consistent all year, and home remodeling business is strong as well.”
—Joe Elder, Hiller’s Flooring America Rochester, Minn.
“We had very low hopes at the beginning of 2023. However, in August we wrote more business than in any month in recent memory. I have high hopes through the November period. Landing a few larger-than-average commercial jobs helped, too. We stopped shooting for the same forecasted annual invoice number, increasing that number by 12.5% to allow for the increase in material costs to help make sure we are still on the right track.”
—Ben Case, Carpet Collection Lockport, N.Y.
