Full-page advertisements for Carpetright offered 50 per cent off carpets, another ten per cent if you bought today.

Carpets for about £3 per square metre. How do they do it? Lord Philip Harris is no Father Christmas.

I thought of my old friend Rob Yelland, who has been in the carpet trade for 42 years, and decided to get in touch with him. He runs a family business.

I had a pleasant surprise. He has moved from his old shop in Elm Grove, Brighton, to new premises in Sutherland Road.

There, he has converted an old church hall into a splendid showroom which is light and airy.

He presents an extraordinary range of floor coverings, including parquet, hardwood, sisal, cord and linoleum. And carpets in traditional style or in modern, vibrant colours.

For customers, there is expert advice on hand from Rob and his sons who have grown up in the business.

There is no "bargain of the week" at Harmony and no black-suited youngster advising that the canary-yellow nylon carpet from America is resistant to cigarette burns.

"How is business?" I asked. I was told Harmony had done really well these past five years and the company was very busy. "How do you compete with the national chains?"

"We have a different type of business. We give our customers more choice and carpets are only 40 per cent of our sales."

"But what about price?" I asked. "Of course, the chains will buy better but we have a good reputation. We have our own fitters and a policy of quoting an all-in price for the job.

"Many of our competitors break up their invoices -

fitting, delivery, underlay, door-easing, gripper rod, all extras and in the end that big bargain is not what it seems."

"Sometimes we have demanding customers but we all do our best to give everyone a first-class service. Mind you, it's not always the customers who are at fault.

In my early days, I worked with an expert fitter who was a smoker. Coming to the end of a job, he found he had lost his cigarettes from his top shirt pocket.

"Looking round, he saw a little bump in the middle of the carpet he had just laid.

Cursing, he bashed the bump with his wooden mallet until the carpet was flat. He soon found after all the cigarettes were in his bag.

"As we left the house, the customer came to the door -

'Have either of you seen my budgerigar'?"