Best Practices: Carr’s Floor & Home and Carr’s Flooring America – October 2024
By Jessica Chevalier
Jeff Carr recently opened his fourth retail flooring store in Florida, building upon the business his father, Michael Carr, began in 1998. The new location is Carr’s first Carpet One, as his three Orlando locations are all Flooring America. Under both names, Carr holds true to the strategies that have brought him success: seeking opportunity and investment in his stocking program, which focuses on medium to higher-end product.
A BURGEONING BUSINESS
In 1994, Michael, formerly a regional manager with flooring distributor Cain & Bultman, and Rusty Carr opened Georgia Carpet Outlet (a Carpet One business) in Sebring, Florida and, by 1998, had several locations around the Orlando area. (Michael and Rusty ended their partnership in the late 1990s.)
As a teen, Jeff helped out in the family business, working in the office and warehouse during summer vacation from school. When he turned 18, he began training as an installation helper and, during college, transitioned to the sales side. In 2001, he joined his father in the business full time, and in 2016, he bought his father out and took ownership of the business.
Around the time Jeff bought the business, he began to consider the benefit of adding additional finishes to his product mix. While visiting a kitchen and bath showroom in St. Louis, Jeff observed that kitchen and bath materials are a “passionate purchase,” which command a high level of value in the customer’s mind. In addition, Jeff believed the one-stop-shop factor to be a business boon and observed that high-end kitchen and bath finishes elevate the showroom.
Jeff launched his original Kiba Studio, a CCA offering, in his North Orlando store as a pilot in 2021. He rolled Kiba out to a second Orlando store in 2023. And he’s now built a third Kiba Studio in his new store, located in The Villages in Lady Lake.
“It’s not the same old store with the same old displays,” says Jeff. Today, the Kiba component drives an estimated 25% of walk-in traffic, so flooring remains the main driver of customer visits, but the bump Kiba brings is certainly advantageous.
Jeff believes it’s imperative that flooring retailers who are considering a jump into kitchen and bath bring on someone who knows the category in order to make the transition palatable. Jeff’s installers are divided between the product categories-one group dedicated to flooring and another to cabinets-and one of the advantages Jeff benefited from in bringing on a designer who knew cabinets was their connection to local cabinet installers, a pool that would have been challenging to tap into otherwise.
The Villages Florida, a 57-square-mile community in central Florida, is home to more than 150,000 retirees. Jeff opened his store there just last month, after weighing his options for three years. In that effort, he contacted CCA’s expansion group, expressing his intent in adding a location, as well as CCA members in certain areas of Florida, asking if they were willing to sell their operations-of any CCA brand. When the Lady Lake Carpet One territory came open, he jumped on it.
Jeff reports that there is one unique challenge with The Villages’ location. Prior to the location’s opening, the first two interviewees-both “Villagers,” as they are called-couldn’t meet him for an interview in Orlando, an hour’s drive by car, because the only transportation at their disposal was a golf cart.
STOCKING & STRATEGY
While many flooring retailers leave ceramic to ceramic specialists, Jeff loves the tile business. “We import tile from all over the world,” he says. “We find most of our competition hates it because it’s hard to find good tile installers, but we love it.”
Jeff’s businesses stock around 30 SKUs of ceramic, including gauged panels imported from Italy. His bestsellers are 2’x4’ formats.
Jeff does not stock hardwood. However, during the first three months of 2024, hardwood was the top-selling product category in his business. Why? “Probably because of us,” Jeff explains. “The customers don’t necessarily come in asking for it, but we are always telling them why they should want it.” The bulk of hardwood sales are medium- to higher-end engineered wood. The company does only a couple solid hardwood jobs annually.
After hardwood, vinyl is the company’s second-best-selling flooring category this year.
Unlike many retailers’ stocking strategies, Jeff isn’t focused on bottom-barrel pricing. “We offer good value because we are stocking dealer that imports container-loads and truckloads,” says Jeff. “We always explain what the customer can get with a little more investment.
“Plus, we are a one-stop-shop with a good selection, without being too much. All our stores are 12,000 square feet or bigger.” Also, his stores have incorporated CCA’s Retail 2.0 merchandising system, which is called Room by Room under Carpet One and Room to Explore under Flooring America.
In terms of area rugs, Jeff no longer stocks premade area rugs because customers wanted too many different sizes, but instead offers rugs manufactured from broadloom. He estimates that 95% of Retail 2.0’s broadloom offering can be made into area rugs through the manufacturer.
In terms of offerings besides flooring and kitchen and bath, Jeff reports, “One of our best practices is that we sell labor. Any retailer that warranties labor needs to focus on educating the customer on how it is a differentiator. There’s a good profit on it.”
The key to selling labor, of course, is having quality installers. “We hold onto them by keeping them too busy to go looking around,” Jeff explains. “We don’t pay the highest or lowest in our market, but we take care of them. They are our partner in the business.”
In addition to his retail offering, Jeff’s operation has been expanding its commercial business. “Our commercial operation is really one man who is amazing and does it all. He is growing our commercial business, which accounts for about 10% of the total now. We do a lot of hotels around the nation. We just did a job in Hawaii. We’ve worked in the Caribbean and Bermuda.” Jeff’s commercial manager previously oversaw an Emser showroom in Orlando, so he knows both flooring and the local market.
Jeff reports that he is “spoiled” by using CCA’s Hire for Success program, wherein CCA does the first round of interviews and passes along any candidates that score 8 out of 10 for Jeff to follow up with. He’s also found good employees by asking product reps for referrals.
Regardless of how he finds a new employee, he uses CCA University’s Fast Start program to get them up to speed. The new hire then spends two weeks working with Jeff directly, going over product as well as the “meat-and-potatoes of stock and our story.”
It’s important to Jeff that new hires visit each of the company’s locations. In total, it’s a two- to three-month ramp-up before new employees are on the floor working with customers directly.
OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK
Earlier this year, “I was a little cocky on being up,” Jeff laughs. “Now we’re closer to even.”
In challenging times, Jeff believes it’s important to stay hungry and not cave to the pressure to focus on price. “We opened a new location in a year when most people are staying put,” he reflects. “We are seeking growth in all areas, as long as it makes sense. We are ready to bounce on good opportunities.”
Jeff’s wife, Celeste, is vice president of operations for the business. The pair have three children. Their 18-year-old son has been driving a box truck for deliveries since the age of 15, with his grandfather riding along. Their 12-year-old son sometimes drives the forklift. Their daughter, 10, has not yet joined in due to her age.
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