9 Downfalls Of Buying Carpet From A Big Box Chain Store
If you are considering buying carpet, then you know this is a very important investment you are going to be making. Read this report on the dangers of acquiring carpet from a big box chain store before you start your search for the perfect store!
A “Big Box” store refers to the mega stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s. They’re what popular with flooring customers because they have convenient hours (they’re open seven days a week and evenings), they look like they have competitive pricing (due to their high marketing and advertising budget).
Flooring is a long-term investment that can increase the value of your home, if it’s purchased and installed right. If not, however, it can lower the value of your home. Imagine a home with cracked tile, warped wood floors, or carpet lifting at the seams.
These are the nine pitfalls you need to be mindful of before buying floor covering from a Big Box store:
Pitfall #1
The Do-it-Yourself (DIY) community is who the Big Box stores are in business to help. If you have the skill, time, special tools, training, design background, and patience to do it yourself, then a Big Box store may be a good choice for purchasing flooring products.
Shopping for floor covering at a Big Box store will cause frustration if you don’t fit the handyman category or if you don’t have enough time or patience to do it yourself.
Pitfall #2
You waste too much valuable time. Their carpeting departments may be disorganized, messy, cramped, and not well merchandised, making it hard for you to find what you need. It also means you’ll be forced to make repeat visits for the littlest things.
Pitfall #3
No in-house designers. You have no professional helping you select the right products and combinations for your needs and carpeting area. This makes your job much harder and takes you much longer to complete your project from the get-go.
Pitfall #4
Big Box store employees obtain little or no instruction. These stores are not committed flooring experts and the workers often can not respond to your simplest questions.
Pitfall #5
They will up-sell you. It is typical for these stores to promote low cost, loss leader floor covering to get you in the door. However, when you arrive at the store, the advertised flooring products are either sold out or there aren’t enough for your project. That’s when they’ll up-sell you on the more expensive products, even if it’s not right for you.
Pitfall #6
They will attempt to pile up undesirable or discontinued products on you. Big Box chain stores are under heavy sales pressure by contracts that require them to sell inventory from certain manufacturers. This is not good news because they’ll put the pressure on you to buy flooring products that may not be appropriate for your needs.
Pitfall #7
In stock products tend to be on the low end of the quality spectrum. Your floors are the second most abused part of your home (after the roof). It’s not good practice to make buying decisions among low-end flooring products.
Pitfall #8
Usually, Big Box stores have a long waiting period for installation. Their business isn’t installing flooring. You might have to do this yourself, which causes more problems for you.
Pitfall #9
They’re not structured to offer quality floor covering service. Flooring is an investment. Choosing the right merchandise and accurately installing it is critical to your flooring’s function, aesthetics, and durability.
If you aren’t a handyman, builder, contractor, or don’t have spare time to do your flooring project on your own, a Big Box store is not a good choice to purchase your carpet.