Are there any fans of “The Office” out there? If you are one, you’ll get the reference to Diversity Day, the second episode of the show’s first season. Today’s conference was like that in that it was all across the board–in a good way. Diversifying a store was one of the key ideas here in Baltimore to keep retailers profitable by dipping a toe in a few different spots in the industry. Commercial building is down? No problem. A retailer can still find profits in retail sales. What, now retail sales are failing, too? No worries; the retailer has his hat in the remodel segment, too. This kind of encouragement is what was heard today at the convention, even promoting do-it-yourself sales.
There were also new green products and a focus on how dealers can capture environmental sales. WeCork is the distributor’s new cork manufacturer and Wellmade is the new supplier of bamboo flooring.