Industry Leader Carpet One Scores Marketing "First" And Ups Ante With 50-State Sale Catalog

Furniture World Magazine

Carpet One, America's largest and first truly-national carpet and floor covering retailer, with stores in all 50 states, ups the competitive ante in May when it publishes the first carpet and floor covering sale catalog to be used nationally. Virtually every one of Carpet One's independent members are lining up to use the catalog and conduct their spring floor covering sales at the same time, and that too is unprecedented, said Dean Marcarelli, Carpet One's vice president for marketing. The 12-page, full-color sale catalog will be inserted in more than 600 newspapers nation-wide. "This is a milestone event and it makes sense that the industry leader, Carpet One, is the one to do it. It's the perfect example of "The Power of One," the business philosophy behind Carpet One and the strategy that makes it so successful," said Marcarelli. "The Carpet One member gets a beautiful catalog at a very affordable cost -- a fraction of what it would cost to do it himself. And he benefits from the discount that a 600-plus newspaper "buy" can get, just as he does from Carpet One's 900-store buying power for carpet and floor covering. It gives the independent retailer-Carpet One member the tools he needs to compete and compete hard with the 'big box' stores and national merchandisers," Marcarelli explained. For this event, Carpet One has scheduled sales events in every department in its stores. Participating retailers will reduce prices on top-of-the-line DuPont Stainmaster Select Invincible Carpet, America's most durable carpet, made by Bigelow, America's oldest carpet manufacturer. In addition, there will be sale pricing on the hot, new laminate flooring by Pergo including Invincible, the most durable laminate, which is backed by a triple 20-year warranty. To make the sale even more attractive, Carpet One will waive all payments and interest charges until January 1999 -- a seven-month-long grace period, Marcarelli pointed out. That Carpet One is leading the industry with this history-making national catalog shouldn't be surprising. Its co-chairmen and co-chief executive officers, Howard Brodsky and Alan Greenberg, who founded the international chain, were responsible for organizing the first nation-wide "Billion Dollar Carpet Sale" in 1984. In addition to stores in every state in the U.S., Carpet One also has stores in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Guam. There are more than 900 Carpet One stores worldwide.