It’s been a first half of mixed results for flooring dealers who have had to grind through several months of soaring fuel prices and everyday living costs, making their jobs more challenging than ever.
To varying degrees, the inflation pressure has affected every flooring business. Some have seen slower traffic as a result; others have turned to adjacent segments of their business to make up for the weakness in retail. What everyone can agree on is that earning the business was difficult at every turn.
“The first half of the year has been slightly ahead of last year, but achieving that required significant effort,” said Bruce Odette, president of Denver-based Carpet Exchange, echoing a sentiment shared by many of his brethren. “We’ve had to stay focused on every opportunity and maintain urgency and consistency to close deals. What we’ve seen from consumers is a pattern of hesitation and postponement. Homeowners are more cautious with their spending as they navigate everything that’s happened this year—including the war, rising interest rates, surging fuel prices and everyday living costs. As a result, consumer confidence has softened, and many people are putting off discretionary purchases. Flooring often falls into that category, so this remains a factor.”
Over on the East Coast, About All Floors, with two locations in Pennsylvania, had a better than expected first half, thanks in part to a shortage of housing that helped drive the first-time buyer market in Pennsylvania. “We’ve also seen what I would call steady traffic on the retail side of our business,” said Tom Heffner, owner. “Overall, we’ve had to work hard for our business and commit more resources to advertising. The net effect has been double-digit growth; it’s certainly been a challenge, but the business is there if you go after it.”
Several dealers said the year started off well but began to turn with the onset of the U.S. war in Iran, which started Feb. 28. Since the conflict the annual inflation rate has jumped from 2.4% to 3.8%. Gasoline prices, meanwhile, have spiked approximately 50%. Everyday items have increased as well, and mortgage rates, which had dipped below 6% for a brief period in the spring, was around 6.5% as of June 8.
The totality of these costs has had a trickle-down effect, dealers say. “We started off the year fairly strong, ending Q1 up over 5%, but then the protracted nature of the Iran war coupled with a softening in consumer confidence put the brakes on purchases for consumers who were on the fence about buying,” said Eric Mondragon, division manager/flooring buyer, RC Willey, Salt Lake City. “We ended April flat, and we gave our increase back in May, so we are flat for the year.”
A similar refrain was heard from Ted Gregerson, CEO of Ted’s Floors & Beyond, Anniston, Ala., who said business through May 31 is down 5% compared to the year-ago period. “Traffic has not been great the past 18-24 months, but when gas prices shot up a few months back, it has come to a screeching halt,” he said. “People are experiencing real fatigue when it comes to the price of groceries and other things, and now with gas costing as much as it does it has caused most people to just quit spending money on things that are not essential. When people are spending $125 or more to fill their tank up with gas, it causes sticker shock and makes people afraid to spend money.”
At times like these, Gregerson has turned to other sectors for salvation. As he explained, “Some big commercial jobs have really saved us so far this year or our sales would be really down. At this point, if we could somehow get it back to us being flat by the end of the year, we would definitely take it. Every sale is a struggle right now.”
Sluggish best describes the climate at The Flooring Partners, which operates Barrington Carpet & Flooring Design, Carpet Country Flooring & Design Center and Young’s Floor Covering, all in Ohio. That’s especially true of this spring selling season vs. last year, according to Craig Phillips, executive advisor. “One of our stores is near Lake Erie and traditionally during the spring they see an uptick in their business as people ready their summer/second homes for the summer season. We have not seen that uptick yet this season. Our other two stores have seen less traffic, and that is definitely affecting our results. It is hard telling what the drag could be contributed to. Ohio’s weather this spring was terrible, and we are hoping now that the weather has turned the business will start seeing the spring rush.”
Then there’s the impact of inflation. Extremely high gas prices in Ohio, Phillips noted, along with high mortgage rates, are not helping bring customers in for flooring projects. “Overall, our retail business is off from last year, but we are cautiously optimistic that the year will turn positive.”
Exceptions to the rule
The first half has already been positive for several dealers who say they have benefited by being in the right market or being diversified in their business—sometimes both.
A case in point is Sackett’s Flooring in Kalamazoo, Mich., which is currently showing delivered sales up 10% over last year and written sales up 30%. Growth is so robust that owner Ryan Boender has hired additional staff in the last six months to keep pace with the work.
“In the Kalamazoo area, we are still seeing consumers wanting to spend money to improve the value of their homes,” Boender said. “I do believe they are mid- to higher-income consumers that want to add value to their home. They see their home as their best investment and are improving on that to get a greater return if/when they decide to sell.”
Boender has also seen an increase in cash and carry sales. “Consumers are buying just materials from us and either installing it themselves or hiring a contractor to install for them,” he noted.
The fact that Sackett also services the multifamily, residential, commercial, restoration/insurance and builder markets helps. “Doing this has really allowed our numbers to grow over the years,” Boender explained. “When one area isn’t busy, the others pick up. We have landed some very large commercial jobs in the last few months which has really increased our written sales over last year. We have also had a lot of weather events in Michigan this spring. The restoration/insurance work has been very busy in the last six months, with more in the pipeline for the rest of the year.”
Scott Browne, who runs Macco’s Floor Covering Center in Wisconsin and Hadinger’s Flooring in Fort Myers, Fla., reported that all his Wisconsin retail locations and Fort Myers have seen increased foot traffic year-over-year. “The first six month of 2026 has been strong but not without challenges,” he said. “Our retail business is up year-over-year primarily due to strong builder business. Our commercial business is up significantly over 2025 due to large contracts and general contractor relationships. Economic headwinds including material and freight increases have proven to be our biggest challenge of 2026. Maintaining profit margins while our partners increase drop fees and implement surcharges has been a struggle, but as we did with tariff increases, we’ll persevere.”
As with other bellwether industries, the affluent consumer class continues to drive the flooring market. “I’m still seeing some very large sales orders coming through,” RC Willey’s Mondragon said. “So, as long as we can give the consumers reasons to invest in their homes, we believe we can weather this slower time.”
