i have been negotiating with cabinet suppliers. semi- custom experience: i found one place that represented a variety of cabinet lines, picked the two i liked and have her quote me on them. then compared to my budget and was over on both. so told her what my budget was and could she match it. we had to do some nominal tweaks on some extras to get the price down but she was able to.

now getting quotes on custom cabs. have been able to reduce the price by $900 so far by price comparing, aiming to reduce another $500 if i can....

I have no experience with this, but there is never any harm in trying as far as I'm concerned. Easier to do if you have a couple of comparable custom or semi-custom quotes from other companies though (I know, there aren't that may henry-built-like companies out there). It might be worth getting a custom quote from a local cabinet maker before making the final decision on HB. Good luck.

If you want advice from anyone who has bought the Henrybuilt cabinets I suggest you give more info on what you have. Do not take this personaly but it drives me nuts on here how so many posts are always asking price driven questions asking the equivelant of is a ford cheaper than a GMC and Toyota? The only way you can put this in relvant context is to say how much did you get off the sticker price of the car?

I suggest you state what was the discount from MSRP you were given or the revers which is what was the % of the MSRP you were charged. All dealers have the same Discount from MSRP. If people on this board would share the nuts and bolts of the transaction your comparisons would be much more useful. I personally as a owner of a honestly small kitchen and bath store can not stand the MSRP system and having to sell products with a mark up as a percent of the product. If you look at it the typical job description of the retailer is to promote the product the retailer is comfortable with for a combined number of reasons. Generally we invest our money to open a location, we make suggestions of products, measure and make design suggestions and calculate the cost of a material list base on the said design. That job description only changes with complexity of extras on more custom choices. Other than that your amount of work is the same whether the product costs $5,000 or $50,000. I much prefer a fixed fee per item over a % of product cost. But consumers become upset when you have a higher price on smaller items and a lower price of larger ones and want a discount on the smaller items when you provide a detailed line item breakdown. You can not win.

Reality is you do not know the dealer multiplier (a % of MSRP) The best way for you to figure out how to negotiate is to see who got the cabinets from Henry Built at the lowest Multiplier or discount from MSRP how ever you look at it. MSRP X .60 = price or MSRP - 54% = price. Find the average of either of those formulas for the same Brand and you will see where most retailers are willing to sell it. This is not rocket science. Find out who got it at the lowest of those 2 ways of looking at it and you will see who sold it the cheapest in the US and you make that your offer and go back up from there to the Average number you found in comparing with consumers on the board. Do not think that because you live in an expensive area that your discount must be lower. That is BS Money is money. If you know the average of the consumers you know most stores in the US were willing to take it. Wake up on this board and share real information which will make your time much more worth it.

HB does not have dealers. There are two showrooms in the country. The entire factory works out of orders from those two showrooms. The entire company has only tens of employees. This is a very small boutique cabinet manufacturer.

the principles of how I explained the cabinets are sold still apply the people who have bought from them can compare notes to find the averages and then know how to negotiate with any company of any size.

The only time it does not wrok is if the consumer gets a straight price with no relation to a msrp. In that case you need to divide your cost by the lineal feet of your kitchen and then you compare notes that way if you want negotiating advice from fellow consumers.

Small boutique makers have lesser margins than do large well advertised multi location big factory brands. They also have higher overheads as a % than do larger production cabinetry, which doesn't lead to much "discounting". However, they generally produce a higher quality product, albeit at a longer lead time. THey also are American made, which pays a part in their higher price when compared to imports. The streamlining of production by larger manufacturers and their larger market share can lead to the ability to accept deeper discounts on their product. They make it up in volume.

Mass produced Chinese brands will have a lot of markup figured in, simply because they are so cheap to produce. They pay their workers almost nothing compared to US wages. At least American made products provide a decent living wage to their workers and keep that wage here on our shores. THey also don't ship stuff half way around the world and then back again before it shows up at your door. But, that's an only tangentially relevant rant. ;)

The bottom line is that you are free to ask about a better price, but the smaller the line, the less wiggle room there is. In the scheme of things a $500 "savings" on a kitchen doesn't amount to much over 10 years time if you absolutely LOVE the room everytime you walk into it and the dealer was a pleasure to work with. And, if $500 makes a big difference in your overall budget, perhaps it's not the time to start your project or you are in a different product bracket than your overall budget will actually allow.

Let me give you an example of specifics and how they are helpfull. Generalizations help no one. Read this and you may see what I mean.

My store and another in my town have some of the same products to sell. We both are given MSRP numbers for all the products we sell. I as a newer store starting in a new state am more agressive with my pricing to get established with reputaion and sales to become stable. I lost a sale to the other store last month because the perspective buyer did not want to be the first for me to use some installers I have no previous references for in this area. I sell the product the customer was interested in for a 50% mark up of my cost. The factory charges me .26 of MSRP. If I want to make 50% on the product cost you take .26 x 1.5 =.39 I can say the customer I will charge them 39% of the MSRP or offer a discount of 1 -.39 =.61 or 61% of MSRP. The other dealer in my town selling the same brand name kitchen cabinet states in his advertising that the store is having a 50% off sale. Since the retailer has no stated prices from month to month the sale is not 50% off the normal ticketed price it is 50% off the MSRP. Remember, if I sell it at 39% of MSRP I have a 50% mark up. If the cabines cost $5,000 I charge the customer $7,500. My competition sells the cabinets at 50% msrp. Remember my cost was 26% of MSRP. .26 x 2 = .52 That means my competition is selling the same product for almost 100% markup. When you look at our invoices mine shows a discount of 61% of MSRP while his shows a discount of 50%. The 11% spread numerically nearly doubles the markup. A 13% difference would be double my mark up.

This is why companies and retailers use MSRP systems. Advertising happens all the time stating 75% off retail. What really is said is 75% off msrp. As I just showed you a small difference in discount from MSRP makes a huge difference in dealer profit.

This is why I state on post after post that the members of Garden web intrested in comparing notes on what things cost need to stick to the specifics of the quotes they are getting and compare the stated discounts or % of MSRP charged to compare if you were given a motivated price. If you were given a line item cost you have to translate it to a cost per foot to average the price out. Cost per foot prices are very relevant when comparing things. You can not assume you got a good price on a Lexus per foot and then compare it to an F150 per foot. You have to stick with like products in a price per foot basis. If you want to compare 2 f150's it works. You should get the idea.

All independently owned kitchen and bath stores generally can set the price of their products. I am working with a family I will meet tomorrow where I have proposed a custom made cabinet for a 25% mark up. The customer does not know that is what it is. The sales rep of the cabinet maker today said "you are giving this kitchen away" meaning other dealers in Florida sell the product at higher prices. I wanted the sale at the original time of the quote as an extra sale for the month to give me investment income. They did not purchase at the time. They have come back after doing research for a few months. We will see what happens. None the less I have the right to sell the product at what I chose. Normally I would want a 35% to a 50% mark up.

So do not be fooled by a bunch of generalizations. Get specific if you want to compare notes on garden web over price. This does not hurt any one on the buying or selling side. It gives consumers more info of the average discount of MSRP which helps you know if you have found a dealer who is selling for whatever reason on the high side or the low side of the information shared. Dealers like myself if we see what people are comparing it shows us what our competition is doing and we can see what mark up others around the country are using. With a free economy in action everyone still wins!

How much are you willing to give up to get it lower? Not one needs all plywod. Get rid of that straight away. That’s 9-20% right there. Glass in cabinets? Source your own. That’s a good chunk. Integral decorative sides everywhere? Give up all but the island.