ᐅ Strategy for Buying a Kitchen / How to Negotiate Effectively?

Unfortunately, the kitchen market often relies on deliberately opaque sales practices.
I find it quite odd that @Shiny86 or any kitchen buyer even needs a thread like "Tactics for Buying a Kitchen," which clearly arises from this intentionally created lack of transparency toward the customer.
When someone here says they saved money or negotiated a deal, they are really just expressing their personal satisfaction—not reflecting any objective reality, since that would require knowing a real "normal price." However, this is deliberately obscured by juggling packages, cabinet fronts, appliances, etc., or by using inflated original prices or “0% financing” offers that make pricing almost arbitrary.
The kitchen sector is somewhat different from other areas of homebuilding, where comparisons are easier based on the description of the offer or specific inquiries. For the average consumer, a true comparison when buying a kitchen is almost impossible.
I find this prevailing situation quite troubling because as a customer, I have to distrust the person on the other side or otherwise live with the great risk of being taken advantage of if I’m too compliant.
When I asked at the end what the large kitchen would cost without appliances, things suddenly got strange. I told him to simply calculate the kitchen as usual and sell it to me without appliances… what a mess. When he then brought up his “guarantee” for just inserting the oven and plugging in the appliance, I was done.
I have no problem paying a high price for good quality and workmanship, but lack of transparency and sales pressure always make me want to walk away.
That is why I believe it is important to find those “hidden gems” who offer good advice and performance and to pay the price that is truly justified there.
Since my acquaintance unfortunately no longer sells kitchens and because of my recent experiences, I switched to IKEA and appreciate their pricing transparency and quality; I also furnish the kitchen with appliances of my choice.
If I find a supplier here again who does not rely on sales pressure, inflated prices, or bait offers, things could change once more.

We wanted a specific brand (Häcker), then checked where it was available and went to the first of two stores. The planning was okay, but the person was not very likeable.
We planned everything online ourselves, emailed it to the second store, and at the appointment it was already finalized. Slightly more expensive, but the owner was more likeable.
We signed, and that was it.
Who made what profit now – no idea, but we thought the price was fair.
All appliances were purchased separately with employee discounts.

I really don’t understand what you mean by lack of transparency?!

If you get quotes for the exact same kitchen from the same brand at three different studios or furniture stores, you end up with an average price.

What is a realistic “normal price”?

What is a realistic “normal price” for a car? Or for landscaping?

Do you also go out to eat and negotiate with the waiter over the price of a glass of cola just because you know a liter costs 0.9 euros (about $1.00) at the supermarket?

Or do you tell the fine dining restaurant that the schnitzel priced at 30 euros (about $33) is way too expensive and the pricing isn’t transparent?

Have you ever bought something in a furniture store and then seen it later offered at a 50% discount? Didn’t that annoy you because it shows the kind of margins those industries work with?

Still, you would never have managed to negotiate that 50% discount at the time.

Just buy the book: "Smart Kitchen Buying." We’ve gone through it completely, and by the end of the year, we’ll get started with it. I can’t guarantee it will work perfectly 100%, but the industry is really intense, and it teaches you exactly what you need to watch out for.

If you want a better price, you need information, negotiation skills, and a lot of knowledge.

Acquire that, otherwise you won’t be able to negotiate. If that seems like too much work for you, then you’ll have to be satisfied with whatever you get.

It takes much more than just saying: "Give me 3%, how much room do you still have?"

exto1791 schrieb:

It takes much more than just saying: "give me 3%, how much leeway do you still have?"

What does the book say you should say?

@Alessandro
The kitchen is not a never-ending story for me. I’ve had fairly clear ideas for a long time. But these have become more precise through the four visits. Also, you obviously have to spend a lot of time on this topic. The open kitchen will be the heart of the house. And if I hadn’t insisted that the cooktop should be flush-mounted and that I wanted an undermount sink, no one would have suggested that. Also, no one would have planned a base cabinet with a waste bin system, meaning the trash can under the countertop, by themselves.

And I don’t think about pricing when I’m at a restaurant. But there, I’m only paying a small amount extra—one or two digits more—which I can live with. With the kitchen, I feel like people are often charged several thousand euros too much.

I can understand well why @pagoni2020 prefers to buy from Ikea.

Alessandro schrieb:

What is a realistic "normal price" for a car?

Here we are talking about buying a brand-new kitchen, and with cars, there is already an established price published.

Alessandro schrieb:

What about landscaping?

I can agree on an hourly rate or a fixed price and I commission the work exactly as I want it; if I replace the pansy with a tulip, I pay the extra cost for the tulip, the stone, etc., which I can find in a price list.

Alessandro schrieb:

Do you also go to a restaurant and try to negotiate the price of a glass of cola because you know a liter costs 0.9 Euro in the supermarket?

Calling others completely stupid is, of course, an option; but in an exam, this kind of polemic would likely be marked as "off topic." You equate cost- and quality-conscious behavior with stinginess or even foolishness. Besides, I do not drink cola—

Alessandro schrieb:

Or do you tell a fine dining restaurant that the schnitzel for 30 euros is way too expensive and the pricing is not transparent?

…adding another example does not really improve the previous one, even if the aim is probably to make me look even more foolish. Do you really eat "schnitzel" in a fine dining restaurant? You should reconsider your choice of restaurant or the classification of that establishment—

Alessandro schrieb:

Have you ever bought something in a furniture store that was later offered at a 50% discount? Didn’t that annoy you because you then see what kind of margins industries like that work with?

Here multiple things are mixed arbitrarily to present another point positively. By the way, not only "such industries" work with margins—that is actually the purpose of selling: to generate a margin, right? Stores without margins usually don’t stay in business very long.
If I want a pricing breakdown that I can understand, which can be readily explained to me as a customer when I ask, I don’t think that necessarily means stinginess or foolishness.

Alessandro schrieb:

But you would never have been able to negotiate that 50% discount back then anyway.

Maybe I could have—but that’s not really the point here.

The market in general, unfortunately, has evolved with attitudes like "being cheap is cool," inflated prices that include hidden tactics, aggressively operating comparison platforms, and so forth, which we have all been affected by to some degree, whether we admit it or not.
No, @Alessandro, I have always paid for my purchases fully and without deduction, but I simply don’t like having to haggle to get a fair price or realize that something is being hidden in the price. That is why I choose my sellers differently: based on quality and transparent pricing, and I personally don’t have many problems with that. However, this concerns the question of the original poster, who understandably feels uncertain.

As mentioned, I have a friend who has worked in this industry his entire life, and even he explains that nowadays the "good" providers have to resort to more opaque methods due to this aggressive market evolution in order to survive; not least for this reason, he stopped working in it.
By the way, I built my house without ever receiving a price quote for anything and without signing contracts with any of the tradespeople. I paid every invoice exactly as it arrived and was completely satisfied with the construction. I relied solely on the quality of my tradespeople and paid whatever it cost—simple and without comparing.
The general categorization of kitchen customers into those who behave quality- and decency-conscious versus the stingy bargain hunters who want everything for free and don’t "allow" a fair margin for service providers does not really hit the mark.
There is a deliberately created lack of transparency in large parts of the kitchen market (also furniture and to a large extent prefabricated house construction), which can be verified in sources regarded as reliable. If you know this, you can orient yourself accordingly and adjust your behavior.
Simply claiming that this is not the case at all is, of course, an option, but labeling those who think or act differently as foolish (see comparisons) is not necessarily appropriate.