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As with any prefab cabinets, they are built to standard sizes, which when put together in an open area, were they are no (out of plumb and out of square) walls look very nice. Now in the real world, when these type of cabinets are installed
the fit is not as neat as the displays. I can walk into a kitchen and in an instant tell the difference between a custom cabinet job and a prefab installation. Not that all prefab insatallations are unattractive, infact I have seen some that are better than some custom jobs, but for a truly custom kitchen with tight fitting
cabinets that hug crooked walls there is absolutely no way to get a better job than hiring a craftsman who takes pride in his work.
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Have learned a few ins and outs at this HD department. First off, their people are quite helpful, but they sell what management gives them to sell.
1) The lines carried are on a store by store basis. Store 1 may have lines A,B & C and store 2 a few miles away may have lines X, Y & Z. Compare stores.
2) Some stores seem to be switching from certain national brands to certain local or regional manufacturers. Particularly at premium price points. Check out those local manufacturers. See #3.
3) Priced two national brands (low and middle price points) at HD. Asked about another brand I hadn't heard of and they said 'we can price that for you but it will be about double the mid-point brand you've already priced. On the drive home I saw a billboard for that brand: "Brand X, Factory Direct Showroom." Turns out they manufacture right nearby and the HD markup appears to be at least double what you can walk in off the street and get at the factory showroom. No charge for site visit, no charge for delivery. Premium construction and materials.
*Interesting! Sounds like HD doesn't want to buy Brand X, is confused, or most likely has a discount deal with the ones it does carry not to promote others.
*No, I was not clear, sorry. Brand X is the one they DO carry and are marking up double or more from what Brand X will sell to the public for at their factory right across town!I posted in the other HD thread about after market faucet repair parts being double at HD the price for OEM at the plumbing supply.I don't know if this is an anomoly on a few items out of the thousands you find in HD or the start of a pattern that having established a reputation for low prices they start boosting their margins hoping no one will comparison shop. Hey, I own some HD stock and that's what business is about. I hope they boost their margins. But for a buyer, the moral of the story is 'know what your shopping for and shop around if the extra time makes the potential saving worth it!' On a faucet kit it may not be. On a kitchen it sure is.
*Well, there you have it; the ol' retail marketing concept. Only now they call it "wholesale" to the public.
*Maybe the margin is the same on all their cabinet lines, and the price difference is that the lower and mid levels are garbage. never been inside a HD, but thats what I see in all the other 'box' stores. one of the cabinetmaker trade mags mentioned in an editorial that when they set up a new office, they bought their cabinetry from a very well known firm whom they had profiled, and praised their customer service, get everything right policy. What they got was crap, badly made, missing parts, long delays replacing missing crap parts, and a real awakening as to how factory cabinets get mismade. I wouldn't wish this stuff on my worst enemy. I'm not against using technology to make affordable products, but consider the markups when you look at the prices.
*The constant margin may be true. In all fairness, HD's low and mid-priced lines are not necessarily garbage, they are just made with non-premium materials and come in stock sizes. I'd guess the factories that produce this stuff 10,000 units at a clip aren't going to sell to you or me so there's no way we get it without somebody's markup.The "Brand X" I talked about was only "X" so as not to mention a real name. It's a finely built, premium product. 5/4 hardwood faceframes. 3/4 veneered plywood cases and shelves. Solid maple drawer boxes. But it seems that HD is adding their margin to the same price you and I can buy it for at the factory showroom, because it's a small local factory. So there's an economy you and I can recognize with this type product that we can't so easily and the lower price points. I was just lucky enough to stumble on the factory and recognize the trademardk from the HD display.I learned something else at another local shop today. Most of the doors, even on big name brands (except for real small shops or super premium lines that do their own) come out of 2 or 3 big factories, so there another layer of markup there.
*We purchased some Kraftmaid cabinets, simple doors but the better drawer construction & hardware, from HD fairly cheaply. I must say everything about the cabinets except the face frames looked like it was assembled at 5 minutes to quitting time on a Friday. It wasn't hard to "modify" the cabinets here and there, then fix some of my, uh, excesses with the 5/8" particleboard cr*p boxes; yet once installed to each other and the wall they are quite strong. But people who focus on saving money on the cabinets may lose more than a bit on it with the installation -- on-site labor ain't cheap, and i wouldn't trip over myself to get this kind of work for someone else. The rectangular cabinet i customized into a full-depth corner cabinet was an extra pain because the cabinet material was too fragile to join reliably even with biscuits. (Chuckled at what a fine woodworker would say to see me attack a new cabinet with a circular saw, nail gun, and construction adhesive .. hey, i had other things to do. It now looks great, honest, with the miracle of oak veneer and that lovely shellac.)Very annoying. But then I'm not sure if more solid construction would be worth much -- as long as the doors stay on and the drawers do their thing ... the junk behind won't matter much.
*Probably a good lesson in how these chains do business. They price some items low in order to create the perception that everything is low. These are typically the things people check prices on most often, like OSB and studs. You never know about the rest of the stuff, wether it's cheaper or not. And you almost NEVER get good, intelligent service at one of these stores.
*I go back and forth in my mind about the quality of the boxes. Once install and tied together, as you say, there OK. Yes, I can tell the difference between faux wood grained melamine and veneered plywood, but with stuff in fron you reall don't see it. The issue is if you need to do any modifications or hang a microwave off them or x, y, z then plywood cases are nice. At a 10% upgrade I'd do it in a heartbeat. At 50% I'll think hard. I'm finding that I may be able to get close to that material cost only upgrade going direct with local manufacturers.As far as attacking a new cabinet with circular saw, been there done that. Had to do a small kitchen once and the measurements had been done at the front of the old cabinets. The end wall was out of square and the room was 1.5" narrower in the corner. Had to take 1.5" off the width of the sink base, box was so flimsy I had to build a 2x frame to put it back together. .75" off each door and reface the cut edge.
*As with any prefab cabinets, they are built to standard sizes, which when put together in an open area, were they are no (out of plumb and out of square) walls look very nice. Now in the real world, when these type of cabinets are installedthe fit is not as neat as the displays. I can walk into a kitchen and in an instant tell the difference between a custom cabinet job and a prefab installation. Not that all prefab insatallations are unattractive, infact I have seen some that are better than some custom jobs, but for a truly custom kitchen with tight fitting cabinets that hug crooked walls there is absolutely no way to get a better job than hiring a craftsman who takes pride in his work.
*Amen.
*Oh yes, craftsmen do better work than generic carpenters. If ONLY they charged the same!!!