You’re ready to buy new flooring for your home. What’s the first thing that you do? If you’re like most people in the world, then you hop on your computer or smartphone and do a quick search for the term “carpet dealers near me.” This brings up a number of different options, ranging from big box stores to even online flooring shops that don’t have a brick and mortar store. Which one do you choose? Let’s go over the options here in order to come up with an answer to that question.
Big Box Stores
These are major national chains that you’ve no doubt heard of. They have a lot of buying power, so they’re able to command some of the best prices for carpeting. However, they usually have a limited selection, because they have a small amount of space for each type of home improvement item that they sell. For example, they might have an aisle or two for flooring of all kinds, which means that only about a fraction of that space is for carpeting. They also have contracts with certain manufacturers, which limits their available options as well.
Chain Shops
Chain shops are smaller stores that specialize in flooring. They are staffed by flooring experts, and often have good sales prices on their carpeting and other options. However, they only sell flooring made by certain brands, based on the contracts that they have. This is very similar to the setup that you’ll see at the big box stores. In some cases, the chain shop might be owned and operated by a certain flooring manufacturer, so you’ll only find their flooring in it. The chain might be regional or even national. The bigger the chain, the better the pricing, because they have the same amount of (or close to the amount of) purchasing power at the big box shops.
Independent Flooring Companies
Next are the independent flooring companies. These are also specialty shops and they employ people who know quite a bit about different types of flooring. These flooring companies usually only have the one retail location, and they are usually smaller than the chain shops. However, since they don’t have loyalty contracts, you’ll find flooring from many different manufacturers in them. The downside is the fact that these shops tend to charge a bit more for flooring because they can’t command the discount prices that their larger competitors can. With that said, you’ll receive good service in these stores, because they are able to personalize the buying process for each customer.
Online Options
Did you know that you can buy flooring entirely online? Do a search for “carpet dealers near me” and some will pop up. There are whole websites dedicated to selling carpeting that isn’t connected to one of the brick and mortar stores. These stores tend to have very good prices, as well as a large selection of carpeting because they don’t have to worry about retail space. One of the largest downsides, though, is the fact that you can’t touch the carpeting before you buy it.
