Bianco 2″ Hexagon Honed • $11.25SF and Free Shipping • 42 Stones to a sheet • Still a full Square foot sheet (actually slightly over) • 3/8″ Thick (10mm)
It should come as no surprise that we purchase samples from our competitors. We want to be sure what we are offering is the best value for our customers. We want to be sure that if a customer orders samples from the ‘market’ that we would be at the top of the list of who to buy from.
We ordered samples (actually a full sheet) of 2″ Hexagon from a competitor. The price was slightly better than ours, now we know the cost of the product, we buy this from Italy. Italy is very stable on their costs, they are not competing with anyone else, they own the mountain and when you speak to anyone of the 300+ quarries the prices are pretty identical, yes they are in cahoots 🙂
But Centuries of digging this beautiful rock out of the mountain, generational businesses handed down through they families. It is easy to understand why and lets face it I doubt anyone wants to rock the boat no one wants to wake up one morning with a block of Carrara in their bed (think Godfather).
Back to my point, I ordered the sheet and this is what I found (and how they are able to charge less than us):
- The sheets are smaller, they have just 36 Hexagons per sheet (they take off an entire row).
- The Hexagons are smaller, so you loose a row and then the Hexagon itself is smaller making 17% less coverage than our sheet of Hexagon.
- It is thinner, I measured it and it was 6mm which is 1/4″. That is thin. In our opinion too thin for a floor tile (which is where most people use this mosaic).
In Conclusion, buying samples is a great way to make us feel proud of what we offer our customers. If all things were equal our price is actually less and you get a thicker tile, not only thicker but the actual recommended thickness of a floor tile.
