Turkmen Carpet Weaving Center

I was at the Turkmen with my daughter during an EF Tours trip to Greece in April 2014. It was Tues. April 21^st, and I almost bought a beautiful silk carpet for my daughter but declined. I think they thought I would not become a customer as I am sure they have people tell them they will come back. When I said it-​I meant it. I have booked another cruise and trip back to Greece/​Turkey in Sept, and plan on purchasing carpets from the Turkmen for my lakefront Canadian AB home during my stay.
I recommend them to anyone! They are efficient, create beautiful carpets and have an impressive set-​up. I will be connecting with them but if they read this review and can provide additional contact info for us, it would be appreciated.
Junella
965 East Chestermere Drive, AB, Canada
1−403−569−1617

My guess is that a lot of cruise ship-​related Tours stop here before heading back to Port. Gayle and I were were on an Ephesus excursion off our Norwegian Jade ship (from Izmir) and after Lunch, we were off to this Cooperative to see how Turkish Carpets were made.
The folks who work here appeared to be Pros, starting with the public weaving room demonstration, sitting us in the cool big carpet room with drinks, wowing us with Rug 101 and the examples of each, and then selecting us out of the room for the hard sell at the end of the flying carpet twill. The 2 comments that kept running through my head during all this time were:
— Time to Pluck a Pigeon!
— Wow! These rugs are gorgeous!
I quickly got used to the high pressure «Turkish Bazaar» sales pitch, although there wasn’t much bargaining going on. The Salesmen could quote you the price in any currency and the package includes «free» shipping to your door and with all the customs stuff covered. There were also several rooms of carpets, and I was interested enough to be led into one of those for more «focused» one-​on-​one customer service. At that point, any idea was quickly matched by a rug in cotton, wool, or silk, and in a variety of sizes for our approval. I was particularly impressed with the blue carpets that appeared to change colour when they were turned around.
I almost pulled the trigger on a nice blue patterned rug that I thought was nicely priced at $ 650. I didn’t because:
— I couldn’t imagine where in our current house layout where I would put it,
— I didn’t trust how my 2 cats and 2 dogs would react, and
— I was unsure of what I was buying and its value in the short period of my visit.
I did appreciate that the sales guy stopped his pitch immediately after I told him that I was going to withdraw. I also thought about that damn rug for the rest of the trip and wondered how my friend Toni made out with her previous purchase under similar circumstances.