Dalton Georgia Carpet Outlets

This post is more about competition and competitor pressure than about touting Dalton, Georgia and Dalton Georgia's famous carpet outlets. It is well documented that to save big bucks when you buy floor coverings, you need to buy carpet or buy flooring from one of over one hundred shops along the I-75 corridor thru North Georgia. Again, I must mention that is so documented that "The Today Show" broadcast live from the area a few years back. They did not broadcast from any one outlet or recommend any one carpet outlet over another. Simply stated, if you want to buy floor covering cheap, then a Dalton Georgia Carpet Outlet is the place.

Most of the flooring outlets in the area peacefully coexist. Unlike a floor store in any particular local market where a competing carpet store may be miles away. At multiple exits on I-75, a shopper can literally choose from scores of stores within walking distance. No matter where a floor covering store or carpet dealer is located in our great country of free enterprise, they will never see competition this strong. Yet we all tolerate each other with minimal animosities. 

Although most floor dealers in the area provide excellent customer service and support, our main attribute is discount carpet prices or wholesale flooring. If a carpet dealer in Anywhere, USA provides a great turnkey solution with very little customer participation, then that is their strong point and that is what they need to sell. What we do in Dalton, Georgia requires a great deal of consumer participation and is, quite frankly, not for everyone. Our customers are more demanding and extremely price conscious. 

In my years of retail carpet sales and management career outside of Dalton, Georgia, I cannot remember a single instance of losing a sale to a carpet outlet in Dalton. If a consumer gave me any indication that Dalton, Ga. was my competitor, that is when I quit selling price and started selling my store's attributes. Most consumers would rather deal locally, unless they know the outside entity to be trustworthy and stand behind the products they sell. 

Want to see what competition is? Check out my next post.

It was July - So what happened?

For as long as I can remember, July has been the worst month of the year for floor covering sales. "It's July, you may as well take a vacation," was the phrase most oft used in our industry. In years before the whole town of Dalton, GA shut down. Restaurants, dry cleaners, tire dealers, it did not matter. The whole town was on vacation. There are over 100 carpet outlets here, and the majority closed for the week of July 4th. Sales were miserable and the state of the economy was not a factor.

Dalton Georgia Carpet Outlets have long been famous for floor covering discounts and wholesale carpet prices. So famous in fact that "The Today Show" broadcast live from the area as the place to buy floor coverings. People would drive from 100's of miles away to buy floor covering. But not in July.

Normally when the calender shows July 1, I go into a state of depression. There are only meager sales but the overhead keeps on rolling. This year was no different July came and I made adjustments to expenses to try and minimize the pain. But wait, the first week was good and then the second week was OK. The third week was great and so was the fourth. This was something I had never witnessed, a great month of July! In fact I had to go back 2 years to find any month that American Carpet Wholesalers had more sales. So what happened to make July 2008 such a great month?

Nothing really stands out. No single product really stood out as the reason. No extra large sales. I spent less on advertising. The only thing I see at present is we had a tremendous amount of customer referrals, which relates directly to my previous post about customer reviews and doing the right thing.

Accolades must be given to our whole team. Sales, customer relations and order fulfillment. I have previously stated our team was the best and this just reaffirms my belief. Needless to say, I am a happy camper and so are my creditors!