Zeigler & Sons got off to a relatively hot start before business cooled off at the end of April. “We are working smarter to sell the entire home to provide a one-stop shopping experience leveraging the large breadth of products we carry.” “In Q2 our business was not as robust for what we forecast as the spring broke early due to the mild winter in our market,” said Brian Witkin, executive vice president of sales for Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Avalon Flooring, with 14 locations in three Mid-Atlantic states. Hopefully the second half will be more robust, and the industry can enjoy a bigger slice of customer demand.”īack on the East Coast, a mild spring gave some retailers reason to believe 2017 might be a banner year. “While we are up single digits for the year, it has yet to meet the expectations we had coming into 2017. That either makes me an optimist or an idiot.”ĭavid Snedeker, division merchandise manager-flooring, Nebraska Furniture Mart, called 2017 “underwhelming” to this point. So…we find it here to be middling-plus so far this year and we are mostly bullish on the rest of the year. Oftentimes at a 20,000-foot level everyone says how great it is, but it doesn’t always translate to the street. As Phil Koufidakis, owner of Baker Bros., Phoenix, explained, “As usual the economy is hard to predict. However, there are some flooring dealers who report somewhat disappointing numbers, or at the very least inconsistent sales month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter. Retail traffic and sales have been up, so we are doing our best to take advantage of this renewed sense of confidence and close as much business as possible.” Good vibes can also be felt in San Antonio, where Billy Mahone III, manager of Atlas Floors Carpet One, reports “a general sense of optimism. We are as busy as we can be with the available installers.” “Our commercial work is surging-both Main Street and contract are extremely busy. “A big surge has been in walk-in showers as the baby boomers age we see people replacing bathtubs with walk-in showers and all the design capabilities that go along with that,” said Mike Foulk, president. I’m feeling insecure and am cautious in my buying at this point.”įoulk’s Flooring America, Meadville, Pa., is another dealer seeing an uptick in residential foot traffic and a trend toward better goods. We are up in traffic the last two months and selling better quality goods. “We had a soft first quarter and a good, above-goal last two months. “Goldilocks seems very fitting to describe the business here at the Rug Gallery,” said Sam Presnell, owner of the Cincinnati-based store. A healthy economy should generate 150,000 jobs on average.įCNews surveyed flooring retailers to ascertain what is happening in their markets. During the month of May, 138,000 jobs were created. In a healthy economy, GDP growth should be around 2-3%. Conversely, gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.2% indicates sluggish movement. The unemployment rate is as low as it has been since 2001 durable goods orders are rising, which equals a growing economy and the stock market is stable, which is a healthy sign. To be sure, there are good economic signs. Viewed another way, it can be considered underwhelming. In May, for example, a record 34% of respondents to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey described the economy in those terms.īy some measure, Goldilocks is what you want because it is predictable. Economists refer to this phenomenon as the “Goldilocks” economy. Not too hot that it causes inflation and not too cold that it supports a recession.
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