Amid the tit-for-tat trade war between the United States and China, flooring retailers are figuring out ways to take advantage of their domestic roots and promote American-made goods.
FCNews asked several dealers for their thoughts:
“Every year we run a Made in USA sale. We find our customers love a good sale and love American made, especially with what is going on with tariffs right now. We are finding customers wanting to purchase because of the sale even if they don’t want it installed for three to four months. I pay attention to the country of origin and since COVID-19 have pulled away from foreign products, although not all of them. My store mainly focuses on and sells products made in the USA. So many times world events affect freight costs, availability and pricing that it is too volatile for me to manage. We find the products to be better made here, and the costs are more manageable.”
— Typhannie Harker, Carpeting by Mike, Somerset, Wis.
“We will be making clients aware of the Made in America products, particularly with LVP. If price increases are a concern, we are showing the value of products that are not imported.”
— Elisabeth Stubbs, Enhance Floors & More, Marietta, Ga.
“Luckily, we had started to look into—and bringing in—American-made products the last two years. IFC has a great line of Made in America vinyl plank. This has been our go-to for the Made in America [segment] and to avoid tariffs and shipping delays we had on so many other vinyl plank products.”
— Mike Montgomery, Montgomery’s CarpetsPlus Colortile, Venice, Fla.
“It’s probably never been as important to leverage products Made in the USA because of the current tariff situation. We recently got with Mohawk and asked for a list of products made in the USA, as these will be our go-to products. From a customer perspective, made in the USA emphasizes superior standards and supporting the local economy, which is important to people; now it will also impact the bottom line because of the tariffs, so we feel it’s incredibly important to market and promote Made in the USA. This will promote our commitment to quality products, while at the same time making us more money.”
— Aaron Johnson, Johnson & Sons Flooring, Knoxville, Tenn.
“We will be putting greater emphasis on selling American-made products. There have been a few companies that have moved part or all their manufacturing of LVP to the U.S. Not knowing exactly what impact these tariffs will have on the various products just yet, these U.S. manufacturers will be great options for flooring dealers.”
— Tom Norris, Wholesale Floorcoverings & Cabinets, Bridgeville, Pa.
“We have done our best to prepare for the upcoming tariffs by pre-ordering large quantities of our proven sellers. Most of this material has already landed and is warehoused until we are ready. This was our strategy during the last tariff episode, which paid off for us.”
— Lupe Brookhart, Sterling Flooring, Anaheim, Calif.
