30 years ago - wife and I needed new floors on our main floor.
- and shag rug in the hallway, living & dining room...was an eye sore
- cheap vinyl in the kitchen, even worse
The old house was a handyman special, and we gutted the floors.
- new plywood sub floors to start, to remove all the squeaks
- next a combination of new commercial carpet and Armstrong solarium (high end vinyl)
It took us a year to find a killer deal on the vinyl.
- always came back to one sample...it was $44/yard, while the $10 stuff looked cheap
- finally one day, we went to the next city over, and Sears had the exact same solarium on sale
- purchased it for $26/yard, got their best installer and it looked amazing
Months later went into the local store that never had a sale / their showroom had the same $44 flooring.
- wife asks for their best cleaner and she had a $20 rug to purchase
- the FM owner said: "what kind of floor do you have"
- wife said: "same as the one we're standing on"
- she said: "that floor is to expensive for you guys""
- we said: "we purchased this exact flooring from your competition & saved 1,000 bucks
- this identical floor is already installed, in our house"
- owner didn't know what to say...wife said: "keep your mat, we won't be back"
A few years later, she ran the flooring business into the ground.
- the 2 other flooring business in town said: "the old witch, was their best advertising
- she turned many customers into their direction"