Best Practices: Verhey Carpets – Oct 2025

By Jessica Chevalier

Verhey Carpets celebrated its 75th anniversary in December 2024 as an enterprise founded and still operated by the Verhey family. The business, which claims to be the oldest flooring retailer in western Michigan, has found success with a focus on better goods and customer service. 

Family Foundation

Neil Verhey worked in the wholesale flooring business with Morley Brothers in Michigan, then launched Verhey Carpets in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Wealthy Street in 1949. By the time Neil’s brother Bob came home from the Korean Conflict, Neil had decided that he did not enjoy the retail business of the flooring business, so Bob took over Verhey Carpets, while Neil returned to the wholesale side. 

Eventually, Bob’s son Dave also joined Verhey Carpets, moving into leadership in the mid-1980s. Bob passed away in 2006 at age 83, and Dave’s daughter Melissa Verhey Euker began working in the family business in 2008. Like his father, Dave loves the business, working daily and continuing to measure jobs in clients’ homes. Melissa has her hands in many aspects of operations, including sales, design and human resources. 

In addition, Karla Wischmeyer plays an important role in Verhey Carpets. Wischmeyer first joined Verhey in 1986 for a college internship in interior design, then moving into a permanent position. “What’s great,” she says, “is that I didn’t have to change companies to change careers. I started in interior design but since then, I’ve also worked in merchandising, marketing, sales training and management.”

A second location

Almost 20 years into Verhey’s existence, riots shook downtown Grand Rapids, scaring shoppers out of the area, so
Verhey’s leadership opted to open a second 30,000 square foot location about eight miles away in a design center. 

The design center location is ideal, with neighboring furniture, appliance and kitchen and bath locations creating a one-stop shop for builders and renovators.

One of Verhey’s backbone strategies is its specialization in interior design. The company offers free design services for builder clients and homeowners alike. In addition, Verhey supports the interior design community by offering them a commission on products sold. 

Today, both locations are open and thriving. 

An eye for product

“I’m not a plastic and polyester girl,” says Wischmeyer, who does the buying for Verhey today. “No one tells customers today what they are actually buying, but we do.”

As its name suggests, Verhey started as a carpet dealer and, early on, also sold linoleum, paint and roller shades.

Today, the company is focused on better-end goods, with a special love for hardwood. “Mirage is our go-to wood company,” says Wischmeyer. The company is currently expanding its design center showroom to bring in Mirage’s Vintage line, which offers a variety of species (oak, maple, birch, hickory and walnut) and more traditional aesthetics. The expansion will open shortly. Of the decision to add Vintage, Wischmeyer explains, “Everyone is selling the clean look, but we have lots of clients interested in classic design.” 

Verhey also sells ceramic, which it does especially well with at its design center location due to a neighboring kitchen and bath purveyor, as well as laminate. “We cut our teeth in laminate,” says Wischmeyer. “We were big Wilsonart retailers. There is a place for it in the market. Manufacturers have done a great job making it more waterproof, but there is still a sound issue.”

In addition, the company has an extensive high-end wool carpet offering with products from Nourison, Stanton, Prestige Mills and The Dixie Group’s Fabrica and Masland 1866. The company also sells Rebel Carpet & Rugs products, which is “not what everyone else is carrying,” notes Wischmeyer.

At its design center location, Verhey operates Studio V, a rug studio that it conceptualized about 15 years ago. The studio contains five lines of stocked area rugs and also offers rug fabrication, which it completes in-house. Wischmeyer notes, “We recognized that hard surface was on the uptick about 15 years ago, so we decided that we needed to jump on that with the rug studio.” On the fabricated front, Studio V offers a significant number of options with borders and even carving. As for the stocked rug collection, she says, “I have been buying so long that I have an eye for it. I originally wanted to go into fashion.” 

With regard to all new products, Wischmeyer reports that she does a lot of research before introducing anything into the Verhey showroom, never simply accepting a display because it is free. 

In addition to flooring, Verhey Carpets sells window treatments, coinciding with its philosophy that “it’s better to sell a lot to one person than one thing to a bunch,” says Wischmeyer. “Oftentimes, our designers are working with clients on a whole-house renovation, so we pull a lot of products. We don’t sell paint, but we keep paint decks in the showroom. We’ll help them choose this rug, this window treatment. We want to package it up. When I started in this business, it was rare to have a designer in the showroom and rare to have customers come in with designers. Now, one in five has their own designer.”

More than residential

In addition to its residential business, Verhey services the mainstreet commercial market and much of this business comes from residential customers who own companies in the community and comes to Verhey for help with their flooring. 

The company also has a strong senior living business. Explains Wischmeyer, “We have roughly ten senior living properties in our area. Eight are government-funded, but two are not, so the people moving in there are spending a ton of money, opting for hardwood floors and quartz countertops. The facilities are age-in-place, so residents never have to move and are guaranteed care for life. We have been working with them since the 1970s.”

Business standards

Employee-wise, Verhey Carpets operates on a salary system, which Wischmeyer believes creates a more customer-centric sales atmosphere, “selling the right products to the right people,” she says. 

In addition, the company does weekly sales trainings, so its staff is knowledgeable and well-informed. 

Verhey’s carpet installers are also company employees, while its hard surface teams are comprised of subs, many of whom have been in partnership with the company for decades. 

When problems do arise, the Verhey team works to fix it as promptly as possible. “We try not to stop a project unless the problem is due to a faulty product,” explains Wischmeyer. “The minute you walk off a job site, it leaves a bad taste in the customer’s mouth.” Verhey has a former installer dedicated to quality control, who is deployed to diagnose challenges as they arise and find solutions.

Customer service is a key aspect of the Verhey Carpet experience. “We give customers the opportunity to check out samples, offer free estimates, pick samples up at the customers’ door-anything for customer satisfaction,” says Wischmeyer. “Pricing isn’t the biggest part of this business. This morning, I was teaching an 80-year-old couple about QR codes, explaining to them how hardwood is installed. We take the time to be helpful.”