| Who isn't
looking for a better deal on some of the very high
priced hand scraped hardwood floors today? We did a
comparison in December of 2007 on some products
manufactured by Naturally Aged, Garrison Collection, and
Anderson's Virginia Vintage.
Imported Hand Scraped Hardwoods
Both
Naturally Aged and Garrison are imports. They must buy
from the same manufacturer because the product lines are
identical. Same appearance same specifications. Why
Garrison wants a large premium for the same thing is
beyond me. Having dealt with the Naturally Aged people
and their local sales rep for two years through internet
sales I found the company to be very responsive. I
didn't even have to ask for new product samples, they
simply arrived Fed Ex. With Garrison I could not even
get a sales rep to call on me when I had a retail
operation, so I'm assuming that may be an indication of
the company as a whole. Mind you this is only an
opinion.
Comparison Today (2008) Versus Five Years Ago
Asking me
five years ago what I thought of imported Chinese
hardwood flooring, I would have looked the other way. I
knew American consumers would not accept the marginal
quality. Times have changed. Quality control has
improved dramatically. Placing some of these products
side by side with the likes of Anderson Virginia Vintage
and the Garrison Collection (same as Naturally Aged -
different name) one cannot see the difference in their
heavy distressed lines.
In
comparing the Virginia Vintage with these two, Naturally
Aged offers their Heavy Chatter line and Garrison
names it Carolina Classics. The importers are
trying to get a piece of the action at lower prices, and
it's working. Appearances are practically identical, but
look at those price tags! We do not have any Garrison
pricing, but browsing through dealer showrooms places
prices $ 2.00 to $ 3.00 per square foot higher than
Naturally Aged... for the same product! |
