If there’s one thing we take for granted in automotive parts retailing, it’s store floors. We shouldn’t. Your customers don’t.

Floors are critically important to a customer’s first impression. Logic tells us that when someone walks into an environment, whether home or business, people are aware of the flooring upon which they first step. A friend’s home has a marble tile entry — her first-time visitors always “ooh! and aah!” about it.

People are viscerally conscious of where we step when we first step into a different environment.

That’s the first reason why store floors are important.

The second is that floors are a comfort factor for customers and store associates.

Concrete is hard on both. Besides the discomfort, concrete floors 1) are dusty, 2) seldom look clean, and 3) soak up the light value from a store’s lighting fixtures without reflecting on the merchandise.

Third, floors are an extremely important part of a store’s décor. A theory running amok in the aftermarket for some time predicates that reducing the floor’s material and appearance to something nondescript, either concrete or dull composition tile, sends customers the message that they have entered a low price operation.

The well-meaning intent was to send the message that auto parts stores could be like Sam’s or other warehouse stores regarding price. While that approach may have been acceptable for the big box stores for a while, they are now rethinking that practice. They’re thinking about floor as more than standard equipment to walk on.

Drugstores and grocery stores are already in that mode of thinking. These categories of retailing are doing a good, and getting-better, job of using their floors as in-store selling platforms.

I’d like to dispel any thought that dull, funereal, cheap-appearing floors are appropriate for our aftermarket stores.

Floors can set up the mood of any retail customer upon entry.

Why would any retailer intend to make the floor uncomfortable? Or make the floor something which deters from the intended effect of all the store’s other in-store marketing investments — lighting, graphics, fixtures, merchandise.

And there are lots of new materials in wood, imitation wood composition products, vinyl composition products, and so called composition sheet or roll goods with which to build your in-store stage.

These are all durable. Maintenance and wear-out are no longer an excuse for not using the newer materials.

The wood or imitation wood materials are warm. Think about how you feel when you walk in a Gap store. Warm, eh? You probably didn’t realize that that warm environment and the glowing merchandise begins with the wood floor.

Rolled, or sheet, goods come in many varieties. Lonseal®, a vinyl composition product line, is so strong it is used for factory flooring in jet engine-making environments, and is also used in outside environments like basketball courts and decking. Lonseal has a wide variety of products and styles suitable for auto parts stores. (Also, check out their material wonderfully suited for counter tops.)

Mannington and Armstrong, two top rated brands, have hundreds of styles available in one-foot square tiles, and many other choices.

When it comes to flooring other than concrete, you can pick and choose, according to your budget, style, and the statement you want to make because of that style.

There are many wonderful choices, colorful and stylish. There is no one right answer to your flooring needs.

Think out of the box, think pizazz for your floors, even if you decide you must have vinyl composition tile.

The right floor for your store is the correct first step for you to begin your relationship with your customers!

Floor graphics add to your in-store marketing theatre. Some wise suppliers, such as Pennzoil and Fram, who recognize the power of looking down have floor graphics such as floor decals to place near their products’ facings. These graphics really drive sales.

Why is our industry so monogamously married to steel fixturings? Our products can benefit from wood and plastic. But that’s another column or conversation.

Stephen J. Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing, Inc., is a member of Aftermarket Business’s Retail Advisory Board. He can be reached at his Sanibel Island, Florida headquarters, phone 239-395-9203, or e-mail salexander@autoinstore.com.