I’ve been harping about the fate of players in the middle. That shrinking space between Amazon and end users.

There are examples of successful sustainable players in the traditional retail space post Amazon and Mayfair. But they’re special. Today, I’m going to discuss what a Boulder hardware legend can teach us about winning there.

In a recent article, I wrote about telling you to go to Texas Roadhouse yourself; this is the EQ side of that context. I’ve discussed the importance of tech stacks, your investment in digital tools that actually bring value and sustainability to your business. Not really optional anymore if you want into the game. I’m talking about the culture of your place that brings in business. The humanity for as much longer as it lasts. In Naisbitt’s “Megatrends”, the common thread throughout the book is what shapes the future. The high-tech, high-touch model where considerations of caring should be somewhat proportional to investment in tech. A dying language today? Probably. But the contingent that cares about that is a rare jewel worth mining.

The McGuckin Hardware case is more than a feel-good local business story. It’s a blueprint for defying gravity in a commoditized, convenience-driven, off-the-rack world. Flooring retailers, listen up: if you want to stop bleeding share to online platforms, big-box chains, and install by Thursday aggregators, you might need to stop being just a showroom. Try becoming a McGuckin. A caring place in a desolate landscape. No digital firewalls and AI-implemented chatbots blocking you from humanity here. Admittedly, it's a bit of a unicorn. But what a magnificent one it is. Aspire to be them.

Here’s how to inject McGuckin DNA into your flooring business:

From Product Provider to Local Authority

Flooring stores are often caught in a self-imposed identity crisis. Are you selling fashion, function, or finance? The answer is yes. But more importantly, you’re selling trust, the next scarce resource.

McGuckin Strategy: Their employees don’t just sell, you’d think some of them wrote the instruction manual.

Flooring Playbook:

• Train every associate to be a flooring therapist. Someone who doesn’t just ask for square footage but asks, “Do you have pets? Kids? Radiant heat? Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year?”
• Be the store where local realtors send their clients and contractors bring their moms.

McGuckin is a sensory experience. You don’t go there to buy, you go to be there. Like Casa Bonita.

Your Turn:

• Turn your store into a home design playground. Show some hospitality. Serve coffee. Play background music for the generation of your prime demographic.
• Bring in a local A&D design partner once a month. Let shoppers walk on installed floors in an AR simulated living room. Make a yoga room. Have one for the next wave of innovation, smart floors. It will notify your ER contact if Nonna falls.
• Offer Flooring 101 classes once a quarter: educate first, quote second. Rent a community center classroom to present it and post it to your YouTube. Or, do it in your new Yoga room. I like the company that ran a YouTube flooring install channel and collected the metadata of those that visit it as lead generation.
• Let customers bring in their dog. You’re not a warehouse, you’re part of their lifestyle.

I could go on.

If big-box stores are Tinder, your shop needs to feel like a second date that turns into a marriage.

Curation = Conversion

You don’t need 7,000 SKUs of LVP. That’s not choice, it’s paralysis. McGuckin wins by making the right product choice call before the customer gets overwhelmed.

Your Turn:

• Curate 12 hero products in each category (LVT, hardwood, carpet) that serve 80% of your market’s needs.
• Build a story around each: who’s it for, why it works, what makes it unique. McGuckin sells snow shovels.
• You sell resilience under 12 years of muddy cleats.
• Leverage private label or exclusive products to build margin and mystique.

Curation is how you turn a 900-square-foot flooring store into a cathedral of confidence.

Green Vests = Gold Culture

McGuckin’s secret sauce isn’t square footage. It’s institutional loyalty and staff empowerment. The people in those green vests own the customer.

Flooring Strategy:

• Punch above market. Train beyond expectation. Empower like your survival depends on it.
• Make it cool to work at your store. Celebrate employees. Turn them into influencers.
• Replace “sales goals” with “home transformation wins.” You’re not selling floors; you’re building sanctuaries.

Own the ZIP Code

McGuckin is synonymous with Boulder. Not serving Boulder. Not shipping to Boulder. But, Boulder. Become your town’s Flooring Mayor.

• Sponsor the high school booster club. Host design nights for new homebuyers. Run Instagram contests with local pet shelters (“Best dog-on-a-hardwood”).
• Offer same-week installs for your zip code. Be the store that shows up before anyone else can even bid.

A flooring retailer with community roots beats a faceless e-commerce algorithm every time trust matters. (Which is always.) Plus, all of this, exhausting as it is sometimes, is getting attention. It’s like tagging your selfie posting. Go ahead and roll your eyes, boomer, while your new demo looks at you like you’re a TikTok drunkcle as they walk on by.

Final Word: Don’t Compete. Connect.

The flooring business is not really about planks, tiles, or glue. It’s about permanence, safety, pride, and trust. It’s emotional real estate. And in a world of beige, flat, margin-choked retail, McGuckin reminds us that a well-run, high-touch, instructive culture-first business isn’t a relic, it’s a rocket.

You want to win? Be the flooring version of McGuckin. Summary for Flooring Retailers:

• Be human, not transactional.
• Curate, don’t clutter.
• Train staff like they’re running the place.
• Make your store a destination.
• Love your zip code like it’s your last name.

Because in the age of digital dominance, local relevance is the last real unfair advantage.