ᐅ Kitchen Price Comparison – Fair or Unrealistic?

Sascha aus H schrieb:
Of course, we did a test drive and inspected the product at the dealer in town.
And precisely because they provided good service there, we decided to buy from them.
After negotiating, it cost us about €1,000 more than ordering online would have.
Why? Because it’s not just about the cheapest price for me, but about fairness.

I think that’s good! At least that’s how it should be! Often people take the online price but expect convenient local service.

Sascha aus H schrieb:
But in the end, you can always determine the value of a diamond! If I take it to a professional appraiser, they give a single figure. That value is concrete, not arbitrary or varying from customer to customer.

But you won’t get that value back – not even from the appraiser.

Regarding the kitchen again:
I wouldn’t accept paying a price y for a value x either.
However, I don’t have experience with bargaining at markets. Maybe back then we could have negotiated and ended up with a discount of, say, €2,000. Maybe.

Here’s how it went for us: I designed our house layout myself, including the kitchen design. So I knew exactly where to place each wall, and where wall cabinets – if any – would go.
We also planned the kitchen using an online kitchen planner. I even considered an IKEA kitchen because I enjoy DIY projects and planning. I also like to save money!
I checked IKEA prices including assembly...
But I know from personal experience with our old kitchen which IKEA cabinets tend to sag after the first use, look unattractive, and IKEA also has limitations with appliances. Since we have an open kitchen, botched improvisation was not an option.
So we ended up at the aforementioned kitchen studio, with a budget higher than IKEA's, because I was willing to pay more for AI—a well-rounded, polished solution for a coherent price! *after visiting several furniture and smaller kitchen studios. There was always something: sky-high prices in showrooms, no available salespeople, or unattractive designs on display...

Our preferred cabinet fronts were available there, so we approached the salesperson who asked for our budget expectations. Now I must admit: he said that with the specified front on offer, the price would be about 50% appliances and 50% furniture. The fronts were Nolte brand.
So I showed him my plan, and he designed matching cabinets with nice drawers. About the pull-out pantry cabinet, he immediately said, “That’s not possible within the budget.” He was similarly critical of another feature.
Appliances were discussed. They needed to be stainless steel finish, visually appealing, with features like a steam oven, very quiet, and of course AAA or at least A+ energy rating. He recommended Neff over Miele and AEG for built-in appliances. We were shown the original price catalog. Seeing those prices gave me palpitations. The salesperson kept reassuring us not to worry about the prices; about 30% would be discounted right away during ordering. Okay, so we chose... My husband then added an extra-thin countertop, which of course was more expensive than standard... and after the computer-aided design, the total came out slightly above our set limit: €10,400 (US $...)! That was quite a sum, and since you hear a lot when buying kitchens, we went to the next town in the following days.

There, a typical kitchen specialty store (at the town entrance of Lüneburg) immediately offered us a good-value brand based on my drawing and budget info. Unfortunately, their door heights had very little flexibility, so my requirement of no horizontal offset in the doors was ignored completely. “That’s not available in this price range.” The salesperson typed into the computer without including us (she had my plan), and the price came to over €13,000 (US $...) WITHOUT appliances, which would be added later (it was close to closing time). If I imagine she had used the high-quality Nolte, at maybe around €17,000 (US $...) without appliances, I would have been sick.
We didn’t go back there.
Without hesitation, we accepted our €10,400 price and even negotiated a set of induction cookware, which normally costs several hundred euros. Four months later (when we had a better overview of other building costs), I made some kitchen adjustments, adding about €1,500 (US $...). The fridge was purchased separately as a showroom model, which we picked up ourselves five months before moving in.

If this kitchen had been cheaper somewhere else or if someone had told me we should have bargained more, I wouldn’t have cared — I got my dream kitchen at our desired price.

77.willo schrieb:

What is listed at the top on billiger.de, caused by wages that others call unfair?

Again, the only difference between kitchens and all other consumer goods is that you can’t compare prices online, only in the store. That might be outdated, but as long as customers accept it, this profitable model probably won’t change.

Are you reading what we’re writing? This isn’t about bargains or the cheapest option. It’s simply about transparency. No one here is saying they want everything cheap! I’m happy to pay a premium at a specialist store, as long as it stays within a reasonable range.

The issue is that the exact same kitchen can cost €10,000 (about $11,000) at one showroom and €30,000 (about $33,000) at another, and as a customer, you have no way to evaluate these prices. Many customers get taken advantage of because they don’t know any better. For every other product, I quickly check online and at least have an idea if the price is somewhat realistic (which doesn’t mean I necessarily buy online!)

And what does “as long as the customer accepts it” mean... since (with few exceptions) all manufacturers follow the same system, you basically have no other choice but to accept it. You have to find one of the very few good kitchen studios that act fairly. Fair for both sides.

It’s possible, it worked for us too, but it requires effort... time that, in our digital age, feels like a waste and that I would have preferred to spend on more meaningful things.

77.willo schrieb:
Usury is a legal transaction in which someone, by exploiting the distress, inexperience, lack of judgment, or significant weakness of will of another person, promises or obtains financial advantages for themselves or a third party for a service that are in obvious disproportion to the service provided.

So that definitely does not apply here.

I would say that exactly applies here.
The average customer is inexperienced, and exorbitant prices only serve to enrich oneself without offering a reasonable additional service for the higher price. But we are getting off topic...

ypg schrieb:
The salesperson worked on the computer without involving us (since she already had my plan), and the result was a price of over €13,000 (without electrical appliances, which would be added later—it was nearly closing time). Imagine if she had used the high-quality Nolte brand, then the price might have been around €17,000 without electrical appliances—I could have gotten sick myself (literally).
We haven’t gone back there either!

Good example. And until now, my experience has been mostly with your second kitchen showroom. That’s why I started this thread — because I wanted to find a dealer without outrageous prices.

Tego12 schrieb:
Studio costs €10,000, next one €30,000, u

I strongly doubt this difference; then it wouldn’t be exactly the same kitchen. There are already differences like the kitchen manufacturer, side panels made only of plastic (standard, even when lacquered fronts are chosen) versus lacquered side panels. Slightly different cabinet heights, different materials, and so on. As an occasional kitchen buyer, you won’t notice these differences at first. Only when you start to learn about the subject do you recognize them.

A perfectly planned kitchen is never a standard product. “Perfect” also means that drawers and cabinet fronts, especially in tall cabinets, are adjusted to create attractive height lines, while the oven is installed in a different position for a person who is 150 cm (59 inches) tall than for someone who is 190 cm (75 inches) tall. These details cannot be planned by a kitchen salesperson with limited training; it requires skilled professionals familiar with the options of the three to four manufacturers usually offered.

Exactly! I want to pay a fair price, and to find out what that is, you have to get the same kitchen quoted at several stores. This takes a lot of time, and in the end, you still don’t know whether the price is reasonable or if you just aren’t good at negotiating. I’ve read that some people have negotiated their kitchen price down from 15,000 to 6,000–7,000 euros. It doesn’t seem right that someone who is less skilled at negotiating ends up paying twice as much. Why can’t there just be an honest price from the start?

Best regards,
Sabine

I think the answer is clear: when posts or discussions get out of hand, they become off topic.