Kansas City, Kan.—Shaw Floors and Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM)—one of the nation’s largest floor covering retailers—have partnered to launch the second Anso Gallery here. The novel showroom-within-a-showroom concept, the first of which was launched in October 2022 in the Omaha flagship store, creates an elevated, in-store carpet buying experience. The high-impact destination—which is about 25% larger than the original gallery—features both Shaw Pet Protect carpets and high-styled Anderson Tuftex products made with Anso high-performance fibers.
“Not too long ago, we launched the Anso Gallery at NFM’s Omaha store and today marks the celebration of our Kansas City location’s gallery opening,” said Tony Boldt, president and CEO, NFM. “Shaw’s outstanding products have made them NFM’s No. 1 flooring vendor. The gallery we’re opening today is unique, not only in its implementation, but through the products it will showcase. Shaw is renowned for creating floors that are not only durable but innovative.”
Boldt added this is all about providing solutions for the consumer. “NFM is focused on helping people improve their lifestyles,” he said. “It is my hope that the products featured in this gallery will do just that by standing up to the toughest challenges life has to offer. A great foundation is needed for any project to go off without a hitch. So alongside Shaw, our customers can start building a better home from the floors up. The gallery itself will be a modern shopping experience that customers can only get at one place.”
Benjamin Liebert, Shaw’s executive vice president of residential business, touted the strong partnership with NFM as a clear benefit to consumers. “As we talk about this word partnership, I think this is a word that is easy to say and hard to live up to,” he said. “I think this is one of the best examples in the country of what it means to partner. And as we think about our future together in the flooring industry in general, there are three major tasks that we have to address together through partnership:
- The journey. The consumer journey takes about six months from the moment she starts this process to the moment she pulls out her credit card and pays. I can’t think of another category that is a six-month journey. So there’s fundamentally something happening here that we together have to address.
- Up to 40% of the people who start their journey to buy flooring decide to defer or bail out of the process. Again, there’s something fundamentally happening in this process that we have to address together.
- In the last 10 years, flooring has lost share of wallet to other interior finish goods. Ten years ago, it was 11% of the share of wallet when people were doing remodels. It’s 6% now. So I think these are a call to action for us.
How do we together leverage our brands for deeper partnership? I think deeper partnership means truly curated experiences. It means fewer, more impactful selections and a delightful in-store experience. I can’t think of a better example of those three things in what you see with the Anso Gallery in partnership with Nebraska Furniture Mart.”
If the initial Anso Gallery is any indication, the Kansas City location is in store for an uptick in business. In the 30 months since NFM launched Omaha, the retailer has witnessed tremendous success and has taken market share off the floor. “It’s been two and a half years, and it is still exceptionally successful,” said David Chambers, flooring director, NFM. “And over the first four months of 2025, Omaha is seeing double-digit growth in the Anso Gallery from 2024. So we’re excited for what’s going to come out of Kansas City.”
When NFM launched the Anso Gallery in 2022, it was billed as an elevated in-store carpet buying experience. “I think what is most elevated about it is that you come in and you’re excited about carpet from the lighting, from the big swatches,” said Carolyn Haicl, Shaw’s senior vice president of marketing and brands. “You envision it in your house, you’re excited about everything you’re going to do to your home, what you’re trying to create—and flooring is a huge part of that. So the elevated part is the curating of the line, and it’s not overwhelming. The gallery does a really nice job of keeping you in that excitement mode. Then the RSA can walk you through the choices, pick your pattern, then look at colors so you’re not making all those choices at once.”
What NFM set out to do is redefine how a flooring showroom should look, Chambers said. “Too many showrooms are overwhelming, unorganized. They don’t tell a story. This is the polar opposite. We are continually trying to change that experience for the consumer to make her more comfortable, more confident about what she’s looking at and what she’s about to buy.”
The proof is in the pudding. NFM witnessed an increase in carpet business after the gallery was launched. “We’ve continued to see carpet take back share in Omaha and Kansas City,” Chambers said. “It is outperforming hard surface in year-over-year comps.” More telling, NFM has seen an increase in Shaw business. “Besides the carpet business as a whole, Shaw was definitely the benefactor of was happening on the floor because of the gallery. And we’re already seeing it here. Our carpet business is up in Kansas City, but not as much as Shaw is up right now.”
Why? Customers gravitate toward the gallery. “The RSAs are absolutely already in love with it,” Chambers said. “Consumers are drawn to it because of the lighting, the new fixtures. They’re different colored fixtures than the rest of the floor. So people are [curious]. ‘What is this new space over here? This is interesting and it’s exciting.’”
Not to rest on its laurels, Shaw sought to improve upon the first Anso Gallery. For example, stair runners are shown on an actual stair display so the consumer can envision it in her home. “It’s really designed to inspire the consumer to invest in her home,” said Elizabeth Hurley, vice president of retail and national accounts. “I think with such a bright space and the help of the RSA, together they can navigate through to ‘yes, let’s invest.’ And with interest rates as high as they are, people are investing in their homes as they age in place.”
Hurley cited brighter spaces and illuminated room scenes as other improvements from the pilot. “There are wide open spaces for people to walk through and see the large patterns,” she said. “And then my favorite change this year was the rotating display so you can see carpet and turn it around to see a completely different look. So just the ability to have this open and bright space to inspire the consumer really elevates the brands.”
Chambers noted that the fixtures have evolved too. “It’s about continuing to elevate how the product is displayed, how it is engaged with differently than what’s out in the market,” he said.
Chambers said the Anso Gallery is just one example of how Shaw partners with NFM for the betterment of both companies. “They are a strategic collaborator with us,” he said. “We are constantly talking about our businesses together. We’re constantly sharing feedback. What are we seeing? What are they seeing? What do we need to be doing? One of the best things is we take risks together. We try new things together. We enhance things together. We learn. There are just not many other manufacturers that are capable of executing those kinds of strategies. Shaw is one of the first ones we go to with any idea. And it makes sense for them to do it at NFM because of the scale, venue and traffic we’re going to get. And it’s fun. You want to do business and be successful with people you enjoy working with.”
Hurley acknowledged the collaboration and friendship but also cited the valuable exchange of information. “When we are together, we are constantly asking each other questions about how we can do better,” she said. “What works? What isn’t working? Because that not only helps both of us, but it also gives us consumer insights. What are the consumers liking? What are they gravitating toward? How can we make a better experience for them? It’s that collaboration along with wanting to try new things that really makes it fun.”
The Anso Gallery is dominated by products under the Pet Perfect moniker, but there is also a sizeable focus on Anderson Tuftex, Haicl said. “We’ve gotten a lot of traction as we move that brand toward building that sanctuary in your home,” she said. “The [large samples] in the gallery draw people in. They may not wind up buying them; maybe Pet Perfect is better because they have a family and pets. But the Anderson Tuftex line really draws people in.”
As such, the gallery serves what Chambers described as “the masses and the classes.”
“We have products in the Anso Gallery for the consumer who can’t afford the high end but still wants a quality, durable product,” he said. “And we have products all the way up to the most high-fashion, on-trend patterns you can put into your home.”
The plan to build upon the two Anso Galleries already in place. Talks are under way for Dallas, and Austin, scheduled to open in 2027, is already slated to have a gallery.
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