We had granite counter tops installed this spring in West Alton. We dealt with Connie Grant at Kitchen Encounters in Laconia. She was very knowledgeable and straight forward to deal with.
http://kitchen-encounters.com/
We brought in a dimension-ed diagram and photos of the kitchen that showed cabinets, walls and floor. She then made some suggestions and gave us samples to take home. A few days later we dropped off the rejects and picked up some more followed by Connie coming to the house a few days later. By then we had made a choice which she thought a good match and she checked the dimensions to give us a price. It was about $62/sq ft for our chosen color.
Then she scheduled a viewing at Stone Creations in Northwood which was very worthwhile. We needed 67 sq ft including an island so two slaps were required and they were lined up for us to look at.
Overall the process was smooth and we are very pleased with the final product
So why go through all of that as opposed to just picking something in the store and just scheduling the install? Well a good sum of money is involved and the end product will right there in front of you for a long time. It will pay to take your time and get it right. We found that working with Connie helped us zero in on a choice.