How Consumers View Independent Flooring Retailers & Big Boxes” is a four-part series put together by the World Floor Covering Association and executed by Benchmarkinc in order to provide a true analyis of how consumers differentiate the shopping experience at Big Box stores vs. the independent flooring retailer. The Secret Shopper case study went through the four steps of the flooring purchase process at 108 flooring stores across the nation, including independents and Big Boxes in six markets: Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Phoenix. In each of the markets, metropolitan, suburban and rural stores were included.