At the 2025 Shaw Flooring Network convention, Floor Trends & Installation editors gathered flooring retailers from diverse markets to discuss their businesses, the industry's challenges, and their takeaways from the event. From family businesses spanning generations to newcomers bringing fresh perspectives, these retailers offer valuable insights into what's working in today's market.

Meet the Retailers

Rusty Williams is president of Fantastic Floors, which has locations in Orange Park and Saint Augustine, Florida. His business serves a mix of clients: 60% residential, 30% real estate investors and builders, and 10% commercial customers. The booming Northeast Florida market, fueled by strong demographics and affordable living, provides a solid foundation for growth.

Angie Whitaker works in sales at Hughes Floor Covering, a 48-year-old family business in Charlotte, North Carolina, now in its second generation, with the third generation already working in the company. With locations in North and South Carolina, her operation primarily serves residential retail customers (75%), with some Main Street commercial work. The banking industry in Charlotte creates a thriving market with continuous population growth.

Joseph Burton started as an installer in 1972 before founding Burton Flooring with his wife 26 years ago in Port Angeles, Washington. Their small-town operation emerged from frustration with the quality of local flooring installation. Today, their family business (with 80% residential work and 15-20% commercial) employs several family members and maintains an old-fashioned, family-first approach.

Kyle Voreis works alongside Joseph in their family business, serving a county of about 100,000 people in a competitive market with numerous flooring retailers. Located west of Seattle, their market benefits from tourism, vacation properties, and wealthy transplants from California and major cities, creating a diverse customer base with extreme price points.

Nick Schuck is a newcomer to the industry, having recently purchased Tazewell Floor Covering in Morton, Illinois ("the pumpkin capital of the world") just two years ago as part of a building acquisition. With a background in project management and restoration, he transformed the outdated store (established in 1964) by modernizing operations, renovating the showroom, and expanding into kitchens and baths.

Floor Trends & Installation: Are there any additions to technology or investments in technology that any of you are making this year?

Angie Whitaker: We are already a part of Velocity [SFN’s digital marketing solution, powered by Cyncly]. We want to add the email blast, which will go out once a month to the people that are in our database that will feature different things you have going for the month. It puts your name at the top of your existing customer email list. 

Nick Schuck: We invested in Velocity this year, and we're super excited. I did radio last year, and then I hired a digital marketing manager. 

Floor Trends & Installation: Are there specific challenges this year in your businesses that you want to solve?

Rusty Williams: My biggest issue would probably be cash flow. I have aggressive savings plans. People owe me X amount of dollars, but then you have bills to pay. My installers are paid up to date, so I try to keep a good name, I pay all my bills on time, and sometimes my checking account doesn't always reflect as good as my company appears to be doing.

Nick Schuck: In our area, I struggle with finding good installers, finding younger people who actually want to work and not just come to the store every day to collect a paycheck. Some tough issues that I run into is finding the younger generation actually that wants to install carpet or just show up. It’s crazy how disconnected some of the younger people really are, and that's where I struggle—at the install site. 

Joseph Burton: We have seven full-time installers those are our guys. They're all young. Our oldest guy is 39, and two of them are 22.

Floor Trends & Installation: How do you handle business operations differently than other retailers?

Joseph Burton: Our business, it's very old fashioned in the fact that we open Monday through Friday. If we want to be gone for a week, we just put a sign on the door. People know this is a family business. 

We do schedule two weeks a year. We take the week of July off. We love everything about that and want to have family time. And then the week between Christmas and New Years, we want off, want our employees to have time with family and time with their kids.

Our cards say, “We’re more than floors.” We want to help people. And so our whole goal is when people come in, what can we do to help you? We're not here to sell you anything. That's the very first thing we tell people. What can we do to meet your needs? And we give a lot of stuff away. We never advertise.

Rusty Williams: I pay draws rather than commissions. When you pay a draw system, it's a better life for my guys because they can budget. They're getting their money weekly no matter what, and we settle up at the end of the month.

Floor Trends & Installation: What were key takeaways from this convention that you plan to implement in your stores?

Kyle Voreis: They talk about the power of the network. I've met some very genuine people in previous Orlando shows, and they reached out to me prior to arriving here and they ask, “Hey, are you coming?” We get together, talk about business, talk about problem-solving. There’s always something to learn from others. That’s the connection where you become friends with people from all over.