ᐅ Electrical Systems and Built-in Appliances

I had the exact opposite experience at the kitchen showroom. Initially, I had a kitchen planned without appliances because I originally wanted to keep my old ones. After hearing the price, I asked them to calculate the cost including appliances. In the end, the kitchen with appliances was only 300 EUR (about 320 USD) more expensive. When I asked how that was possible, the salesperson explained that since they have good margins on the appliances, they can "subsidize" the rest of the kitchen a bit more when appliances are sold.

Well, kitchen salespeople have quite a reputation. Years ago, used car dealers were considered the most shady businessmen; today, it seems to be bankers or kitchen salespeople.

I would never buy anything at trade fairs. We also visited one and considered buying there. But what you’re told there is unbelievable.
We had already contacted several kitchen studios in advance and requested quotes. All offers ended up around 20,000€ (about $21,500) with Siemens appliances.
Online, the appliances alone would cost about 7,000€ (about $7,500).

After some negotiation, we usually only managed to get around 3,000€ (about $3,200) off.
All designs in the kitchen studios used the same appliances (where possible), and all kitchens were Nobilia units with the same cabinets and special features.

In the end, we visited a partner company of our house provider (a 300 km (185 miles) drive) and got the same kitchen for 10,000€ (about $10,750), including all appliances. The house provider sponsored 2,000€ (about $2,150).

That shows just how high the margins are.

Regarding the appliances: We also asked a dealer (a premium partner of one manufacturer) for a quote. He was able to come close to the online price…

They have huge profit margins. When buying a kitchen, you need to negotiate until the salesperson says they have to check with their manager. That’s when you’re on the right track. We negotiated down from 9,000 to 6,000, and they still made a good profit.

That's correct – my parents once bought a Poggenpohl kitchen at dealer cost through my grandmother (who was an interior decorator at the time). It would have cost 35,000 DM (around 17,800 USD) at the kitchen showroom, but the dealer’s purchase price was about 10,000 DM (around 5,100 USD) less – so don’t let yourself be overcharged.

In China, there is a rule at markets that also applies here. No one will sell you anything if they don’t make a profit. And if the seller ends up smiling, you have clearly lost.
If you want to practice negotiating, you definitely have to visit one of the huge flea markets in Beijing. You’ll stand there for half an hour trying to negotiate a 2€ (about $2) discount. And you don’t do it because you have to, but because it’s a matter of principle.
Prices are often easily multiplied by ten for Europeans.
I can read Chinese numbers and always had to pay three times the price when buying a bottle of water from a street vendor. Well, at 20 cents (about 20 US cents), I don’t bother negotiating...

Topic: Kitchen Appliances:

We bought a kitchen on Saturday. I requested two prices: one with appliances and one without. In the end, the price difference was about the same as if I had bought the appliances online. The problem was that the individual prices he quoted were significantly higher. So I asked: how can that be? Then the mysterious term “block calculation” came up, which every kitchen salesperson seems to hide behind. The argument: when you calculate a kitchen with and without block calculation, the influencing factors and discounts naturally change... Aha... After some back and forth, we bought the kitchen with appliances, since in my view it wasn’t worth the effort to get the appliances from the internet. It’s also important that every larger showroom works with ITS supplier, where they can sometimes sell the appliances at really low prices. We were lucky because our electrical appliances matched the brand we wanted.

Topic: Negotiating until the manager comes:

We requested quotes from eight showrooms and knew from the start what we wanted in the kitchen. This allowed us to compare all the prices. We negotiated until only two remained. All the others dropped out. Even on Saturday morning, the day we bought the kitchen, we were still negotiating with the second on our list until the manager called and said, “Sorry, this is our best offer! Buy the kitchen from a competitor.” Then I knew, okay, there really was no more wiggle room.

So we turned to the last one remaining. We had already been negotiating with them for four weeks. Five times during those four weeks, I sent the salesperson to the sales manager... Last but not least, the sales manager himself came and said, “Sorry, it’s either this price or nothing at all; we can’t give any more discount!” Then I knew it was time to sign.

In short:

We searched and negotiated for 8-9 weeks until only one option was left.
The very first price we were given was just under €26,000.
We signed on Saturday for €18,500.

And I’m sure they still made a fair profit on our kitchen...