In recent years, the retail flooring industry has become extremely polarized. On one end are the large home centers and the large shop at home companies that saturate your TV screens with incredible installation offers. Most of those offers sound too good to be true and you know what they say about things that sound too good to be true. Even the most sophisticated consumer has to be impressed by the offers…Buy one room, get another room free; Buy two rooms and get your whole house free.

Okay, so how do they do it? Actually, they don't. Carpet One and its affiliated members are actually a larger customer to manufacturers than any of the home centers or shop at home companies; therefore their costs from the manufacturers aren't any lower and in some cases not as low as Carpet One's. The difference is the home centers and shop at home companies have very high margins on their products and they charge additional for lots of things that most full service flooring stores include. If you charge twice what you should charge, it is pretty easy to give a second room away free, don't you agree? Bottom line: when everything is done, there will be very little difference between the prices of the home centers / shop at home companies and full service flooring stores. This is why they will push you extremely hard to sign on the dotted line immediately. They do not want you to have an opportunity to compare their prices.

On the other end are the Full Service Flooring stores such as Arcade Floors Carpet One. Since the products are provided to all of us by the same manufacturers, what are the differences?

• Sales Associates - Ours have received hundreds of hours of training and are professionals. All of ours have received their CFS, Certified Flooring Sales Consultant. Not only are we firm certified in lead, we have several RRP's on staff. Ask the guy in the Orange Apron how many hours of training he has had in flooring or if he has passed the test to earn his CFS?
  Our Sales Associates have been tested and licensed by the Maryland Home Improvement Commission.
  
  
• Installers - like our sales associates, all of our installers have been to manufacturers' schools and industry training. We require that all of our installers attend a minimum of 16 hours annually to maintain their certifications. We think it is important that our installers be able to speak the nation's language in order to communicate with our customers. Quarter after Quarter, our installers earn 98% and 99% Customer Satisfaction scores from our customers on our customer surveys.
  
  
• Warranties - No one, absolutely no one, can match Carpet One warranties. In every case they exceed the warranties given by manufacturers on their own products. Our warranties give you NO EXCLUSIONS Stain Protection for the life of your carpet and similar type protections on hardwood, laminate, ceramic tile and vinyl floors. Ask the guy from Luna this. "If I don't like the color after you put it down, will you replace it for me…Free?" If you have purchased a Carpet One product from Arcade Floors Carpet One, we will! It's called the Beautiful Guarantee and only available from Carpet One.
  
  
• Peace of Mind - This is a biggie! Suppose you do have a problem with your installation and you say, "I want to talk to the owner!" How are far do you think you are going to get with Empire, Luna, Next Day Floors, Home Depot or Lowes? With Arcade Floors Carpet One, if you want to talk to the owner, you talk to the owner!
  
  
• Customer Satisfaction - Everyone claims Customer Satisfaction. It just sounds good. Arcade Floors Carpet One, we put our customers' words where everyone can read them. In our showroom at the table where you sit is a book…What Our Customers Think of Us! It contains the verbatim comments from all of our customers' surveys…the great ones and the good ones. Occasionally we don't live up to someone's expectations and those comments are there as well but you can bet we've gone above and beyond in an effort to satisfy them. Before you make that final decision on flooring, perhaps you should see what their customers say about them.
  Home Depot Compaints / Empire Today Complaints / Luna Complaints / Lowes Complaints

You do have a choice! All we ask is that before you make that choice, take time to educate yourself. Don't assume that theirs is your best deal because they tell you it is over and over again.