Floor Coverings Stores

The retail floor covering industry includes sellers of rugs and carpets, linoleum, asphalt tile, and ceramic tile. Floor covering retailers include specialty stores, department stores, home improvement stores, and mass merchandisers. According to a 2009 industry report by Dun & Bradstreet, the industry consisted of 36,234 firms with total revenues of $16 billion and employment of 128,883. Retail locations identified as floor covering stores accounted for the bulk of industry revenues, generating almost 60 percent of sales. Other significant segments included stores specializing in carpet (28 percent of revenues), rugs (9 percent), and floor tile (3 percent). Stores specializing in vinyl floor covering and linoleum generated the smallest portion of revenues.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, approximately 70 percent of U.S. homes were carpeted. Traditionally, floor covering retail stores dominated industry sales. However, throughout the 2000s, they rapidly lost ground in the carpeting sector to big box outlets such as Home Depot and Lowes. By the late 2000s, flooring retailers held less than 50 percent of the flooring market. Another threat to the industry was sales by Internet vendors, which was the fastest growing sales sector. In response, traditional flooring outlets began to focus more on hardwood, marble and other hard floor surfaces.

During the late 2000s, the flooring industry was suffering the effects of a significant economic recession. With consumers limiting their overall spending, of particular interest to the industry was the decline in the housing market. In 2008, U.S. housing starts fell to their lowest level since 1959. The flooring industry reacted by focusing on reducing inventory, selling their stock, and downsizing. Floor covering retailers also made space for complimentary items to draw in customers and categories that were less susceptible to market changes, such as bed and bath and door mats.

While the industry waited for the economy to rebound, the introduction of new, environmentally carpeting continued to emerge in the marketplace.

The largest floor covering retailer is CCA Global Partners, a privately held company established in 1984 as Carpet Co-op of America. The cooperative has seven flooring affiliates, including the retailers Carpet One, Carpet One Canada, and Carpet One Australia, which together offer more than 3,600 retail stores in every U.S. state, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Aggregate 2008 sales for CCA Global Partners, which also included firms involved with mortgage banking, lighting products, formalwear, and biking, totaled $10.2 billion.

Abbey Carpet, of Bonita Springs, Florida, which has a network of close to 800 independently owned and operated stores across the United States, as well several in the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, is another leading floor covering retailer. Abbey Carpet, a privately owned company, sells carpet and area rugs, hardwood, laminate, and vinyl floorings, ceramic tile, and window coverings. The company posted sales in excess of $20 million in 2008.