Price, Perception and Performance... Price is often the hook in advertising. For years carpet ads have stressed price instead of quality. There is a certain Perception of value anticipated by the buyer regardless of what they pay for their carpet. Performance does not always meet their expectations. The 3 'P's are followed by the 3 'R's.

Results, Regrets and Retaliation... Results such as bad installation, especially when there is seam peaking, take time to show up. Slow delivery or product substitution cause immediate Regrets. Next time around the disappointed consumer will buy from another store or worse yet, they will buy hard floors.

I believe there is a whole lot of pent up Retaliation in the dose of bitter medicine the CRI calls "de-selection." They say the carpet cleaning community is at fault, not shoddy carpet sales practices, faulty installation or manufacturing defects. That probably makes the folks in northwest Georgia feel better even if it's not true.