MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Lumber Liquidators suspended the sale of all laminate flooring made in China a week after disclosing that the Justice Department was seeking criminal charges against the specialty retailer in an investigation over imported products.
The flooring supplier said Thursday that it decided to suspend the sales while a board committee completed a review of its sourcing compliance program.
The CBS news show “60 Minutes” reported in March that the company’s laminate flooring made in China contained high levels of the carcinogen formaldehyde.
And that claim left many customers floored.
Janice Crawford from Memphis was amazed when she discovered the beautiful wood laminate floor throughout her house could be poisonous.
“It’s exactly the same thing,” she told us.
She had the box to prove it.
Crawford said she found out about the problem after watching WREG’s report on it.
Afterwards, she said she immediately called the company trying to figure out what to do.
Lumber Liquidators provided Crawford with an air sample tests to check for dangerous amounts of formaldehyde.
She received her test results back just before we spoke with her.
They came back within the legal limits, but Crawford was still skeptical.
“Because one room was like 0.0239, the other 0.029. I just don’t really think those are really good accurate readings,” she told WREG.
So far, Lumber Liquidators has sent thousands of these air reading kits to customers since March.
They claimed more than 97% fall within World Health Organization Guidelines.
No one would speak with us at the store’s Cordova location on Thursday.
Instead they directed us to corporate.
Company shares fell nearly 3%, or 75 cents, to $26.48 Thursday before markets opened.
The stock has shed more than half its value since approaching $70 per share in late February.
