When considering your flooring purchase you must first look at your daily use of the area to be covered. If you are going to be covering a dining room floor that gets little use you will have different considerations than someone who is covering a heavily used kitchen. The internet is begining to get into the floor covering game. There are some obvious benefits to the purchase of flooring over the web. There are however down sides as well. When buying from a large internet flooring provider you will be purchasing your material through a sales person who will be spending their day in a cubicle working for a commission. They will have little knowledge of real world flooring installation procedures or installation techniques. You will be able to save money going this route as the sales people general work for a smaller commission and are working for a large company with a lot of buying power. One advantage they have is if you need your materials quickly they can literally shop worldwide for that flooring and get it to you quickly. The thing that I have found is that the quality of the wood that is coming from the big flooring providers on the web is not as good as what people can buy locally. The finnish is usually six coats compared to ten and the milling specs. or tolerances of the manufacturer are not as stringent. In other words the tounge and grooves are not as tightly fit and the over all smoothness of the finished floor are therefore not as good. A brick and mortar store these days are having to rely on the reputations of their services and that of their installation crews. this is leading to an increase in quality from both the flooring provider and the installers. The big internet companies are able to sell their product based on th e convenience of buying at home and the money they save buy selling a lesser quality product knowing that it won't be looked at up close before the purchase. I don't want to come across as an internet flooring basher because I believe that it is a good thing for the right consumer. Not every floor is purchased with the utmost in quality in mind. Some floors are bought strictly with price and resale as leading considerations. If you are looking to save time and money and are willing to sacrifice a little quality to do so then the net will be a good fit for you. If you are the kind of consumer who is looking for a high quality wood with a craftsman to install it then you might want to visit your local flooring provider. If you go the second route the next step will be checking the credentials of the installation crew and references from the store where the purchase is made. A little thought and communication can make a big difference in your flooring project. Remember no matter what sales pitch is thrown at you that the old stand by still holds true. You get what you pay for.