Best Practices: Merkel Furniture and Carpet One – August/September 2024

By Jessica Chevalier

Merkel Furniture and Carpet One is celebrating 100 years of business in 2024-under the same family’s ownership and, in fact, within the same location it was started, a building constructed in Chelsea, Michigan in 1912 by Martin Merkel, and where his son, Ferd, launched the hardwood business, and was shortly after joined by his brother, Norb. The brothers then expanded the mix with flooring and furniture. Now under its fourth generation of Merkel family leadership, the business is both a testament to the power of passing down the ways and means that work and evolving to meet the needs of the contemporary consumer.

One hundred years of family operation also provides quite a bit of perspective. As current co-owner George Merkel recently told Michigan’s Sun Times News, “When we had to shut down in the early stages of the pandemic, there was a lot of concern, obviously, but it was worth remembering that the business also endured events like the Great Depression, stagflation in the 1970s, and the Great Recession. It was helpful to know that our family had made it through challenging times and that we could, too.”

ROOTED IN TRADITION
In the 1950s, Ferd Merkel’s sons, Jack and Bob, joined him and Norb in the business. Bob, who had studied art and design in college, tuned the business’ focus to interior design, which shaped its practice moving forward. Jack and Bob bought the business from their father and uncle in the 1960s and, in the 1970s, discontinued the hardware business and expanded the operation to encompass what became known as “Merkel block.”

Jack’s son Tim joined his father and uncle at Merkel in the 1980s, purchasing the operation with business partner Fred Zuidvelt in the 1990s. In addition, during the ’90s, Merkel established an outpost in nearby Ann Arbor, where it today has both a Carpet One and a ProSource.

In 2016, Bob’s son Howard and Tim’s son George joined the business, sharing ownership and leadership of the operation as co-managing partners.

Of linking his fortunes to the family trade, George has no qualms. “As we do this interview, I’m sitting at my desk,” he says. “One of my earliest memories is coming to the store and visiting my grandpa at the exact same desk, where he would read me joke books from the 1950s. When I was in eighth grade, one of our projects was writing a letter to yourself about what you would do as an adult, and I wrote that I would be working at Merkel’s and playing music, which is exactly what I’m doing.”

BRANCHES OF THE TREE
The Merkel collection of businesses has many irons in the fire: the Chelsea location with its flooring, furniture and mattress sales and, about 15 miles away, Ann Arbor’s Carpet One and ProSource businesses. As it has since the 1970s, the Chelsea location comprises an entire city block selling flooring, fine furniture and mattresses. In Chelsea, furniture and mattress sales amount to twice flooring sales. The store carries over 20 brands of furniture, with the largest three being Ekornes, a Nordic brand Merkel has carried for over four decades; U.S.-made Sherrill; and Hancock and Moore, also U.S.-made. Its mattress brands are Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster and Sealy.

The Ann Arbor Carpet One store is flooring only.

Both Carpet One locations in Chelsea and Ann Arbor carry a full array of flooring products, with the exception of ceramic tile. Counter to nationwide trends, more than half of Merkel’s flooring sales are in carpet. “We are really well known for providing quality, full-service carpet,” notes George. “We love selling it and installing it.” On the hard surface side, LVT has grown to be Merkel’s largest category.

Merkel’s Chelsea location has four interior designers on staff and, as such, has a bustling area rug business, both in custom-made and stocked rugs. The company carries Karastan, Kaleen, Momeni and Nourison, to name a few of its brands. George believes that both the company’s fine-furniture offering and staff of interior designers angle the business towards a better-end demographic.

The Ann Arbor ProSource location, which targets wholesale buyers, carries all flooring products, including ceramic.

Commercial flooring sales account for around 25% of total business sales.

STANDING IN SERVICE
Merkel funnels 2% to 3% of its revenue into advertising through traditional and digital mediums, but what George considers the best form of advertising is stellar service. “My approach to attracting customers is more service-oriented and word-of-mouth, especially with flooring jobs. Doing our best is the most effective form of advertising. Word-of-mouth is really important in the Ann Arbor area especially. We put a lot of focus on service, believing that will lead to more jobs.” Even service snafus, according to George, can be beneficial if they push the Merkel team toward betterment moving forward.
The pandemic years proved especially challenging for Merkel with regard to finding qualified installers. “We had a great

relationship with a lot of hard surface installers, but it was hard to find new carpet crews for those two years,” says George. “Since the beginning of 2023, things have stabilized in our market. The crews we run have worked with us on average for a decade-and almost on a daily basis. If we are looking for new crews, we use word-of-mouth. We don’t advertise. We recently found a new, young and qualified carpet crew that we are excited about through word-of-mouth.”

As other successful retailers do, Merkel works hard to keep its crews busy and likes to develop long-term partnerships that benefit both parties. Some of its carpet crews, for instance, have been with the company for upwards of 20 years.

On the staff side of the business, George believes the company has been able to retain good employees by treating them with respect and being accommodating of their needs-both personal and professional. In addition, both Howard and George are present within the business on a daily basis and work closely with new hires to get them up to speed. George notes that his staff and interior designers are also “very generous with their knowledge and helpful” with new hires.

While George is pleased with his current staff, he says that it can be difficult to fill roles that open up, particularly when it comes to finding interior designers who are comfortable and skilled in sales. Currently, three of his Chelsea interior designers have been with the company for more than a decade.

Service for the Merkel family isn’t just about solid sales and installation teams, but also about doing good in the community at large. The roots of the business and city have long been entangled, with Jack having served as the town’s mayor. Merkel’s current leadership has carried on this tradition of service; Howard is on the board of Chelsea’s Downtown Development Authority, and George is serving a four-year term on the city council.

THE TASK AT HAND
At 112 years old, Merkel’s Chelsea location has a great deal of authentic appeal with its exposed brick and classic lines, but it is due for what George calls “a generational update,” and that is a major focus for the operation over the course of the next five years.

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