Measured against the benchmarks set in the 2001 and 2002 editions of the study, little has changed in the U.S. vinyl flooring marketplace. The vast majority of dealers still consider vinyl floor covering a profitable alternative to ceramic, wood and laminate products. Seventy-four percent of this year's respondents characterized vinyl as such -- an incremental increase over the 72 percent and 71 percent who said vinyl was a profitable alternative in the 2002 and 2001 studies, respectively.
Likewise, dealers' reported vinyl sales volume has remained virtually unchanged over the past three years. In 2002, our survey determined that participating dealers logged a median 11 vinyl floor sales per month. This year, that median dropped slightly to 10 sales on a monthly basis, a figure identical to the results of our first vinyl survey in 2001.