The Face of Competition

As promised in my last post I will show you what floor covering store competition looks like. There are many, many reputable companies in Dalton, Georgia and I am going to show you just a few.

Myer's Carpet Company has been a fixture in the community for over 50 years and offer many high end products such as wool and custom area rugs.




Beckler's Carpet has also been around for the
better part of half a century. Beckler's is also a
family owned company offering honesty, integrity and a wide assortment of floor coverings.

Next we have Carpets of Dalton, long established as one of the largest in the country. Not only do they offer all sorts of floor coverings, a wide selection of high end furniture and appliances can be found under "The Big Sign".

Georgia Carpet Industries is owned by a
friend and has experienced tremendous
growth over the last couple of decades. GCI
offers a huge inventory of carpet, vinyl, and other floor coverings mainly to dealers and builders, but sports a full
showroom for the retail customer.

Another decades old company and also a friend of
mine is Owen Carpet Company. They, like the rest of us, maintain a huge inventory of floor coverings to service their wholesale carpet customers.


One of two Carpet Express locations in the area.






ifloor.com (a Washington state company)
felt they needed a store way down here in
the southland.





And of course American Carpet
Wholesalers of Georgia. We needed more of a warehouse location to accomadate many trucks on a daily basis. Although many customers come to our showroom on a regular basis.

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.

Stainmaster and Shaw Carpet Cushion (Padding)

Much has been written about the importance of quality carpet cushion. Good or better carpet padding provides both acoustical and insulative properties as well as adding longevity to your carpet investment. Some carpet cushions will go a step or 2 farther by increasing your carpet manufacturer's warranty.

Stainmaster carpet cushion (when used under stainmaster carpet) will add years to the Stainmaster carpet wear warranty. It will add 3 years wear protection to carpets made of Stainmaster nylon and 5 years to the wear warranty of carpets made of Stainmaster Ultralife nylon.

Shaw Industries produces 2 exceptional carpet cushions. Premium Touch 6lb carpet cushion and Ultimate Touch 8lb carpet cushion. If you use either of these carpet pads under a Shaw residential carpet, Shaw Industries will double (that's double) the wear warranty of that particular carpet. Shaw apparrently has great condidence in both their carpet and carpet cushion.

Carpet cushion by both manufacturers are available at American Carpet Wholesalers. When purchasing carpet, be sure to ask about these carpet life saving paddings.

INC Magazine Recognition

For the second year in a row, INC magazine has recognized American Carpet Wholesalers of Georgia as one of the fastest growing companies in America. Last year we were number 4060 on a list of 5000 and this year we improved our market position by coming in at 3489 on the list.

With so many bankruptcies and company failures, how did we manage to not only stay on the list, but also improve our ranking. It is the attitude of our team members. They believe without question that our company is the best. It is our customers who have given us such great customer reviews and recommended our company to family and friends. It is offering a great value on name brand floors at a time when getting the most for your dollar is important. It is our suppliers who have continued to support us. It is all of these things and more that helps this company continue to thrive and outpace the competition.

Last year we were honored to be named to list. This year we are honored, humbled, and very thankful for the recognition. It would not be possible without great team members. Congratulations belong to them.

Questions about Carpet Brands and Styles

Some customers get confused when shopping locally at local home centers and at different retails stores on mill labels:

Karen S. of Sioux City, IA wrote:

I'm looking to carpet 3 bedrooms in my home. I found a great color at a local home center (name omitted) and at another(name omitted), It had the same manufacturer's name but the pattern names were different. I know it was the same because the color was so unique. Why were the names different and why can't I find either on your site?

Karen S------

Hello Karen,

The manufacturers do this so as to give each dealer a unique product to prevent price wars and protect the profit margin of not just the home centers but also of the retail flooring stores that do battle daily with the big box stores in your area. It is understandable from a cost of inventory standpoint of the manufacturers. They use a master inventory number for the product and when an order is placed, simply label it for the ordering stores sample name. It is a common practice and all mills do it. From a consumers standpoint, it hinders comparison shopping. This is referred to as a "Private Label".

Why can't you find it on our site? It's probably there or on one of our price lists, but as the name assigned to our account. Usually, but not always, there is nothing unique about the carpet. Manufacturing specifications of a carpet are limited. With enough specifications and our experience in dealing with carpet, we can usually identify it as one of our products and provide you with a competitive price quote.

I hope I have cleared up some of the confusion and I our staff is available to try indentify the carpet and give you the best deal for your money.

Regards,

Jerry Bryson
ACWG, Inc.

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!

Don't Be Afraid of Customer Reviews

........... unless you have something to be afraid of.

A customer review system is the single most important way to improve any business. We love to know when we have fulfilled an order in such a way that the customer wants to tell the world. Be it good or bad. We have two separate independent review portals that give us a good barometer of what kind of shopping experience our customers had. On one, our satisfaction rating is 4.6 out of 5 ,and the other it is 4.8 out of 5. I will not be happy until they are both 5 out of 5.

I do not have time to respond to each and every one of them, but I do respond to negative feedback. Not to make excuses, but to make the customer believe we appreciate the feedback and to promise we will do better. We have kept those promises. Since our last negative feedback we have raised those scores from 4.3 out 5 and 4.5 out of 5 respectively. I am proud of my crew that is in charge of maintaining our customer relations. They are Monica Cunningham, LeAnda Seay, Shirin Rana, and Tammy Anderson.

Improving those scores was not just a simple matter of delivering the order on time. It involves staying in touch with the customer all thru the order process. Let them know if there will be any delays, what day to expect the delivery, and make them aware of what to expect and what to do in case there is a problem. One customer gave us a 4 out of 5 for one simple correctable reason. She got the order a day early than she anticipated, she saved a lot of money, the product was beautiful in her home, so what was the reason? We failed to notify her that the order was shipped and it caught her not prepared to receive the order. We acknowledged our shortcomings and promised to do better. She has since placed another order and this time we received a 5 out of 5 from her.

We are not a perfect company. Our team is made up of human beings, computers, and third party vendors and transportation companies. We do our best to keep orders from falling thru the cracks. But when one does, we try to identify the crack and seal it.

Sometimes it hurts the bottom line to do what is right. but as a service company, if we or any other company are not prepared or willing to service a customer's needs, there will soon not be any customers to service.