Wow, I remember Empire Today (was Empire Carpet) in the Chicago area when I was growing up. Who can forget that jingle and the Empire Carpet Man? :)

If I remember correctly, they weren’t selling the bobble heads, but had Empire Today Day promotions at Chicago Cubs games where fans got their own Empire bobble head for free.

LOL, thanks for the memories!

We used Empire for our basement. They came right out to show us their samples and were about $1000 over our budget. However we were able to negotiate WAY down. At first they said that they didn’t have the sample we wanted so they would reduce the price…. Then when we said we really wanted the one they didn’t have but was willing to wait, they responded with “Well…. let me see if we have any in.” After a quick phone call they magically had just enough on the roll to do our basement! uh huh… And to have them install next day we saved 10%. You also save if you move the furniture before they get there.

So my advice: negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. You can pretty much get your budget price.

We had them come out and give us a price on laminate (not hardwood) floors in a large area of our house. They were WAAAAAAYYYY overpriced. Like, really bad. Not sure how they are with carpet. Home Depot is running a great deal now, though, where installation $199, I believe, no matter how large the job. That may be a good option.

We used them for our 2 bedrooms (the rest is laminate HW).

I thought their carpet prices were reasonable, BUT, one gripe… I had wanted a certain kind of carpet and the guy only had the boring pile kind. We basically had 2 kinds of different textures and about 12 colors to pick from. If you want carpet, they are good. It you want pizazz, you are better off going with another company.

GL!

I also thought they were overpriced. Lowe’s recently had a $99 installation sale for any number of rooms, which is a great deal(we did 3 rooms). The $99 also included tear-out and haul, and furniture moving. I know Home Depot & Lowe’s do these occasionally (not very often though) so if you’re really looking for a deal it may be worth the wait.

I had a much different experience with them.

Since Empire Today does not charge for installation, I was really satisfied with their pricing, which was either the same or better than Home Depot and Bill’s Carpet.

Furthermore, I really needed the carpet installed on Christmas Eve and the salesperson came to the house on the 23rd, took the measurements, then around 10 am on Christmas Eve the Empire crew came in and carpeted the whole house in about 2 hours. Talk about next day delivery!

Home Depot and the other guys said it would take a week to get the carpet in and installation done.

They moved the furniture around and did not charge anything to do it, but I did give them a couple of beers when they were finished. Heck, it was Christmas!

Thanks for all the feedback and advice, everyone. I guess – just like with any vendor – it’s a mixed bag of experiences. Although, Helen I’m pretty impressed with your Christmas story.

Let me know if anyone’s got a spare bobblehead laying around. I don’t have the luxury of picking one up at a Cubs game like Janna mentioned.
-John

I had a guy come to clean my carpets and said he used to be a salesman for Empire. He told me how he used to rip people off regularly. Look them in the eye and lie about things to get them to buy. Then Empire started cutting their commissions, so he quit. The guy was odd, but I’d still take the advice by Sarah above: NEGOTIATE HARD. My impression is that there’s a lot of wiggle room in their pricing.