Article Number : 1174 |
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| Date | 7/5/2006 9:35:07 AM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=1174 |
| Abstract | I always enjoy Kelly’s articles in Floor Covering News but the timing on this one really hit me (FCNews, March 20/27)... |
| Article | I always enjoy Kelly’s articles in Floor Covering News but the timing on this one really hit me (FCNews, March 20/27). My husband and I have been in the floor covering business for about 43 years. We currently own a store in a medium-size village in upstate New York about 20 minutes from Buffalo. We have always been customer oriented and really don’t dwell much on price but concentrate on quality and service. We try to price fairly and sell the customer a product we would be happy to have in our own home. We have our own installers and are proud of the way they look and the way they install. We have made many friends over the years and always look forward to seeing them since we have no regrets about the work we have done. Lately, however, we have been having an ongoing discussion with ourselves and with sales reps about the way business is. Not only do we have competition from the large stores between us and the city of Buffalo (still advertising free pad and labor), but we have The Home Depot and Lowe’s selling cheap and advertising huge. And, now we have a new enemy—the Internet. Anyone can go to IFloors or any other Web site and purchase products cheaper than we can afford to sell them with a low delivery charge and NO SALES TAX! Our sales tax here is 8.75%. It’s unbelievable but it’s happening every day. After all these years of attending seminars and educating ourselves and our employees, we are being undersold by a computer. To add insult to injury, all our suppliers want to be paid for displays, samples and programs plus constant updates to units we have (I just received invoices totaling over $1,500 from a distributor for updates for our hardwood, laminate, vinyl and tile displays). It’s an ongoing expense from all our suppliers that we can no longer afford. What’s a retailer to do? Our expenses keep increasing and our profits keep decreasing. We should be thinking about retiring but we have put so much back into our business that we really can’t afford to stop working. On the other hand, we wonder how long we can survive in business. It amazes me that 40 years ago we sold 20 square yards of carpet for $10, and people still expect to pay that today. Everything in the marketplace is so much more now than it was, except carpet! For a while we thought laminate, vinyl and hardwood would be our salvation, but now those prices are regressing as well. Our industry has a huge problem—I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. It makes me angry, sad and disappointed that the industry we devoted our lives to has turned on us. I wish I could project that things will get better but I’m convinced that the writing is on the wall for small stores like ours. In closing I must add, I have Kelly’s books as well as most of the ones by other columnists. I have been to many of their seminars and think I have a pretty good idea of how to conduct my business. However, in a time like this when sales are down and sample cost and delivery charges continue to increase and the cost of doing business in general is soaring out of control; I have to reiterate my opinion that the future of a small store like ours is grim. Bonnie O’Brien O’Brien Floor Covering East Aurora, New York |