The new Horton’s Carpets is now open at NewMarket North just north of NewMarket Square on Maize Road, but co-owner Jesse Sauer prefers not to call it his second west-side store.
He has another on the west side near Maple and Ridge Road and another on the east side near 13th and Greenwich.
He says Wichita is no longer simply an east or west side kind of town. Sauer says the northwest part of Wichita is its own place, which is why he says it needed its own Horton’s.
“It’s a third location in an area where there really isn’t anything other than the big-box stores to get new carpet and flooring,” he said.
“Now Wichita’s developed so much, it’s really a completely different area — a completely different community. . . . That says something about the areas of town.”
The new Horton’s is next to Barre Forte Wichita and just down from HomeGrown.
Carpet is Horton’s main focus, and the store has employees who install it. Horton’s does also sell hardwood, vinyl, laminate and tile floors, but it uses guaranteed subcontractor labor for installation for those.
Sauer says the in-house carpet installers set his store apart.
“They’ve worked here for decades. They’re specialists.”
He says having installers who know what they’re doing, and who will move heavy furniture, “does make it a lot more enjoyable.”