Every two weeks, FCNews seeks out flooring retailers across the country to offer their advice on hot topics of the day. This week we asked: What was your most pleasant surprise in 2022?
Here are their responses:
The rapid fall in shipping and solid wood costs was a pleasant surprise. We expected the prices to come back down eventually but not as quickly as they have over the last few months.
—Tim Hosea, Arizona Hardwood Floor Supply, Tempe Ariz.
The biggest surprise for me was consumer spending despite the doom/gloom of the media—including spending during election season. Our sales for 2022 will finish above our average and we were blessed with some very nice projects, both commercial and residential.
—Carlton Billingsley, Floors and More, Benton, Ark.
We had two pleasant surprises. The first was the freeing up of product availability to give us relief in getting materials to our customers. Our distributors and suppliers substantially increased their inventories to help with this relief. We were also pleasantly surprised that our sales held up. I was concerned consumers would significantly tighten their buying decisions but that wasn’t the case.
—Janice Clifton, Abbey Carpets Unlimited Napa, Calif.
Our pleasant surprise for 2022 was the strength of Main Street and heavy commercial work demand. Both categories were strong and remained strong through the fourth quarter.
—Mike Foulk, Foulk’s Flooring America, Meadville, Pa.
Our most pleasant surprise was that 2022 was better than 2021 in terms of sales. We grew our builder business quite a bit this year.
—Brad Nelson, Leicester Carpet Sales Asheville, N.C.
