The Floor Store is southeast Saskatchewan’s choice for expert and experienced staff to help customers find the right products for their home.
And it’s not just flooring that brings people into the business, which has locations in Estevan and Carlyle.
Chris Tarnes, who has owned the business since 2008 with his wife Deanna, said they didn’t know what to expect this year.
“With people not being able to travel to where they wanted to or liked to, it’s certainly promoted people working in their homes and making improvements,” said Tarnes.
The Floor Store has a variety of flooring products from different brand names. And their flooring products have proven to be quite popular, particularly vinyl plank, carpet, linoleum and hardwood. Tarnes believes vinyl plank is popular because of the ease of installation for the “do it yourself” types.
Specialized products don’t leave a lot of margin for error, but the Floor Store has the experts who can install them.
Paint has also been a hit this year, as he believes they have sold more paint than ever before.
“I think paint sales would probably get a bigger boost than anything else this year, just because it’s a relatively inexpensive way to improve how things look, inside and outside, anywhere in the house,” said Tarnes. “Just about everybody can tackle it themselves as well.”
He expects that any other retailer in Estevan that sells paint had similar sales growth this year.
The Floor Store also sells blinds, and Tarnes believes the demand has been similar as in past years.
As for the Carlyle location, it has a fairly large trading area. Tarnes points out there is some new home construction happening in the Kenosee Lake and White Bear areas, and it’s cottage season, so the Carlyle location has had a lot of activity.
Between Estevan and Carlyle, The Floor Store has about 16 employees, including installers.
For those who aren’t the do it yourself types, The Floor Store has a full crew who can complete the work. They cover most of the southeast region, extending west to Weyburn, north to Kipling and east to the Manitoba border.
The customers are very appreciative of the work that they do. People know that they can count on the Floor Store to do the work properly, so there’s a trust factor even before they enter people’s homes.
“Having a store front versus online shopping helps,” Tarnes said. “You can come in, you can see the stuff, you can feel stuff. You can know what you’re buying. It doesn’t just show up.”
Customers don’t have to worry about not getting what they wanted.
Tarnes said he and the Floor Store staff enjoy interacting with the customers. Some haven’t been out a lot the last few months, and so shopping at the Floor Store would be one of their first outings.
The Floor Store was able to remain open while businesses were closed since it is considered an essential service, thanks to its work with the construction sector. They had to make changes to ensure safety for customers and staff members alike.
And they still venture into people’s homes when needed.
“We do offer in-home consultations. We can bring samples to your home. You can use our website as a resource. Everything that’s on our website, we should have samples of in-store. There’s a lot of ways to do it.”
The Estevan store is on the Highway 47 South service road. It’s approximately 8,000 square feet in size, with 5,000 square feet in the store front and 3,000 more in the warehouse.
The Carlyle site is on Highway 13 in the heart of the community, and has 2,600 square feet for the store front, and another 600 in storage.
