Medina Black arrived (with friends Atlas Gray and a new color Medina Sage along with Medina Gray and White). Currently $10.95 a Square Foot and Free Shipping.
Cement Tiles or Concrete Tiles are popular there is no escaping that fact from Property Brothers to other sightings on other HGTV and DIY network shows Cement Tile is proving to be the darling bold look of the 2020’s. Or the end of the 2010’s. It is going to be that look that we look back on and think that just looks good, brighten up a laundry room floor, add to a bathroom or really anywhere, the traction on the surface of this Encaustic Cement Tile is a huge plus. The Coefficient of Friction or COF (the anti-slip factor).
Even if you just use it in a shower pan the anti-slip surface is impressive. It is afterall concrete. But Handmade and with incredible endless looks. Some are clearly more popular than others and this black and white look is a bold look a great pattern but not “overwhelming” it is a step into the bold but not into the crazy.
Medina Black on a Pallet in the warehouse (no Photography trickery, just as it arrives). Love the real pictures that show the products as they arrive. We can show it as it arrives because it arrives in our warehouse. The majority of other US suppliers are shipping from 3rd Party Warehouses, so they can only show installed product pictures or the occasional tile picture.
Amazing the amount of names this tile is called and it is exactly the same pattern likely from exactly the same factory: Atlas, Medina, Estrella and more. The is all designed to stop the customer going online and looking it up. They want to charge you $20, $30 or $60 a Square Foot. They cannot have you going online and finding a company selling the same product for $10.95 a Square Foot and Free Shipping! (Valid thru 2018).
Sage Cement Tile. A new color to the Atlas range.
More Cement Tiles being made for us Circulos Gray to go with our Circlos Black.
Medina Gray and White $10.95 a Square Foot and Free Shipping.
Tips for Buying Cement Tiles or Concrete Tiles online and what to look out for. As one of the oldest online Tile and Stone stores in the USA and the highest ranked Google Trusted Store in the Industry we come from a good place to talk about buying safely online. We have made it our goal to provide the best possible experience. Reducing every conceivable cost to get the product to the end user at the best possible price. But that does not mean we sacrifice quality or how we approach our business. We have an incredible logistics operation and the best no stocking fee return policy in the industry.
Return Policies. If you find a really good online price they will probably not have a return policy. All sales will be final (so I have read on so many websites). There are only so many logistical costs you can cut. Warehouse and storage is a cost for nearly all companies.
Our business is different we own our 14 loading dock 6 acre warehouse facility. We own it! So we do not have a fixed cost to add to the product price. Every other “Pop up” Cement Tile company does. Most are going through 3rd Party warehouse locations (called 3PL). The 3PL will pick, pack and ship the Cement Tile order for them. No sweat equity going into their business model.
3PL’s are good for tennis shoes, T-Shirts, simple manufactured products (not Handmade Encaustic Cement Tiles). Simple mass produced manufactured products are boxed and barcoded. A robot can take the employee to the warehouse location with a scan of the barcode on the pick order form. The employee can follow the robot and then pick the order off the shelf. The employee can pretty much put their brain in neutral.
Handmade Cement Tile (also called concrete tiles) have lots or variation. The lots cannot be mixed. A 3PL will not care about lot mixing. You can pay them to care, but then you increase your cost and dramatically. Many will simply refuse to do it as the rise of online sales has given 3PL’s so much work they can set the terms.
Returns…. a 3PL will not take returns. A 3PL will not be able to understand if the return can be shipped back out (go back on the shelf) or if it is damaged and has to be written off. The 3PL does not going into that much detail. They are not going to open and check each box.
So when you see the return policy on a company “All sales are final” it is because the person you are talking to on the phone is not going to pack your order (ask them!). Does not know the person who is going to pack your order and can actually be absolutely nowhere near where the product is. They may even be in Canada (that is the person you are on the phone with). It is because they are using a 3PL to ship your order.
We stock our own inventory. We pay cash upfront for our own inventory. We pick and pack our own orders and yes it is hot! But we do this because it is the only way to strive for excellence, at 4.9 Stars out of 5 on Google we are pretty close to catching it.
A company shipping from a 3PL will not have a ‘review’ system. They do not want you to leave reviews because they cannot control what or how your order ships and that is a problem and always will be for a 3PL based online company.
You have to start small and work hard. Pack the orders yourself, yes this can be humbling you can go from being a Vice President to warehouse worker, but it is great cardio! You can make sure everything is excellent and overtime invest that sweat equity into people and the company. It will be hard, exhausting, frustrating and hot. But you will create a solid company that is built on a strong foundation with a solid balance sheet. Not something that will collapse if the next 2008 comes along.
