Roberts Carpet & Fine Floors opened its 10th store here last month, it was a little different than previous store openings for the retailer that has been a fixture in the Houston metro area for more than 40 years: It was the first location completely designed from the ground up by Alex Roberts, who took over the business from her father, Sam, two years ago. And safe to say, the layout reflected the vision of a 39-year-old female rather than that of her legendary dad.
The new store, located in Meyerland, a fast-growing, upper-end neighborhood in Houston, emphasizes fashion, a dedicated focus on higher-end collections and takes a less-is-more approach. “My dad has always done a really smart job of utilizing the space,” said Alex Roberts, CEO. “He is all about the ‘real estate is expensive. Let’s make sure we’re showing enough of what we need to show in the right places.’ I would rather sell fewer brands and make what we do show more enticing. There’s no right or wrong. It’s just different.”
The moment the customer walks in the store she notices this location has a much more open feel than the other Roberts Carpet locations; the higher-end, fashion-centric brands are up front; and a new welcome desk is positioned directly in front of the door to greet customers.
Upon entering, the customer is greeted by what amounts to a dark gray and white custom mosaic tile “welcome mat” that says, “Love your floor.” It also has the only transition in the showroom, which is a flat brass shooter. Roberts intently avoided using transitions throughout the showroom as a way to keep everything level. “It’s important to me that everything looks clean. I wanted everything to be level with no transitions anywhere.”
The next thing that’s apparent is the higher-end soft surface brands are immediately visible. Those displays include Masland, Fabrica, Couristan, Stanton, Karastan Black Label, Kane and Nourison.
“This is fashion carpet, mostly rugs and runners,” she said. “I wanted the same customer to be in the same places and also have the eye candy up front. You can always work your way back, but you start up front with the most beautiful products. If you’re never shown this stuff, you don’t know it exists. You think we’re just a carpet store, but we’re so much more. This is really a design center. And it all has to look cohesive. Everything has to make sense together. That was important to me.”
Identifying with shoppers
The fact that Roberts fits the prototype demographic of her customer serves as an advantage. “I think like a shopper,” she said. “I want to see the pretty things up front. Also, these are items that may be add-ons—a rug, stair runner, backsplash, etc. Customers may not be aware we carry them. And if a customer is going to be left alone for any portion of time, I want her to know where she can find everything. I want it to be an easy shopping experience.”
Once the customer walks through the fashion carpet area, she finds herself toward the back of the store where she turns a corner and discovers the true wall-to-wall carpet. But again, it’s not for the price-conscious customer.
“These all make sense together, too,” Roberts explained. “We have some more Karastan here, which is our bread and butter, our biggest seller. We also have more Stanton, and the new Anderson Tuftex displays.” (Roberts actually handpicked the samples that went into these racks.)
Customers will also find a pair of workstations in the center of the floor. Roberts did not want big displays sitting in the middle of her showroom blocking her Shaw Floors ColorWall or Karastan display.
Turn another corner and Roberts has a Dreamweaver rack for more price-conscious customers seeking carpet for an apartment or maybe their first home, she said. Dreamweaver from Engineered Floors is strategically placed near the Shaw ColorWall because both are solution-dyed PET.
The hard surface merchandising mirrors that of the soft surface with hardwood up front and laminate and rigid core toward the back. Even her laminate and vinyl are higher-end brands, like RevWood from Mohawk and COREtec from Shaw.
“I want customers to be able to walk through and not love a synthetic when they were actually wanting hardwood,” Roberts said. “I just want the showroom to make sense and be an easy customer experience. Also, vinyl tends to have bigger displays, so I put them in the back.”
Roberts also has two Daltile Statements boutiques, this location being one of them. “It’s a central area,” she said. “The area floods. Tile can withstand the water. Plus, there was also no one in this area with a Statements showroom. Since I was starting from scratch, I had the opportunity to really think about what I wanted to put in my showroom.”
One thing Roberts wants in her showroom is the Roberts Carpet private-label brand. “If it were up to me, everything would be in a Roberts Carpet display. It makes the showroom look cleaner and less intimidating to the customer, just more appealing. It makes sense, especially at the high end.”
Most of the products in the Roberts Carpet display are Karastan branded. “Those are some best-sellers that I really wanted to show up front,” she said. “Karastan and Roberts are really sister brands. We do a lot of business together and always support each other, so it made sense to put it front and center.”
Roberts chose to display her fashion carpet in the Roberts racks, like Karastan Black Label. “Runners, rugs for special rooms, a little more high end,” she said. “The Karastan display is our bread and butter. It’s the Lexus of flooring. Everything in there, looks good everywhere.”
Showroom design is not the only stamp Roberts has put on the company in the four years since she came on board with technology among her biggest focuses. “I brought us into the 21st century,” she said. “We’re late adopters, and I’m trying to gradually bring these things on rather than all at once. But I don’t want to be behind. I got us on Google Suite. In the future, it will be bar codes, different estimation software and more.”
The store opened mid-September. As a testament to her efforts, the day after she put the sign up, her first customer walked in, and a week later the installation was completed.
The sale was the first of what will be many, especially given the Class A location. “This is a very hot corner of a busy intersection in an affluent neighborhood,” she noted. To increase exposure, Roberts raised the facade of the building to make the Roberts Carpet’s logo five feet bigger. She also put signs in the back of the building to gain visibility from the other major cross street. “And I wrapped the windows so you could see the Daltile Statements center and a list of all the things we offer, which is carpet, hardwood, laminate, LVP, customer service and installation. You have to tell potential customers the entire story and that is wrapped on the windows. I also put the mosaic wall tiles in the window and added some extra lights that are on a timer that shine at night to bring attention to the tile in the window.”
This will not be the last store Roberts opens. “I may move stores; I may open stores.”
Only time will tell.
