We have looked at the younger crop of customers out there shopping for floor coverings for the last couple of months and how they are in the process of driving a wholesale change in the way business will be conducted in this industry in the future.

With the advent of the Internet, U.S. consumers have seen more change in the past 15 years than any equivalent time period in our history and the changes that are yet to come are not only mind boggling they are potentially life threatening for some floor covering retailers.

Millennials are the group that follows Gen Xers and there appears to be no exact dates as far as I can tell as to exactly when this generation starts and ends, but depending on who you ask people in this group were born somewhere around the early 1980s to somewhere around 1995.

If you haven’t had the chance to go to Domotex asia/ChinaFloor (DACF) you need to add it to your bucket list. I just had the opportunity to attend this show for the fifth time and I never cease to be amazed by the energy, the evolution and the innovation this event demonstrates each year.

After interviewing hundreds of retailers over the years I walked away with the idea that many are unaware of the effectiveness level of their websites. 

Cleaning and maintaining carpets and floors for the most part is not an everyday topic in most quarters of the floor covering industry. 

Certainly there are exceptions to the rule and we had an opportunity to visit one of those when we were in Philadelphia recently to attend the Greenbuild expo and conference.

To me, a conversation about lighting would normally draw a very big ho-hum. But LED lighting, I have learned, is groundbreaking and will definitely be a part of your future and mine.

We’ve talked with lots of retailers over the years: Some who have taken over stores from their parents; some who bought a location from a previous owner; some who left one operation to open another; some were installers and wanted to get off their knees, and some others who were mill reps and got tired of moving around.