You would do better to contact him via his email, which is listed on his Gardenweb My Page page (I'll link below). I understand you want answers, but the Forum frowns on posting for sales purposes which would put Dave in an awkward position if he responds to your posting here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daveinorlando's Gardenweb My Page

I am not afraid to give my opinion on here. I imagine many others who make a living on kitchen and bath products that read this site do not like my posts I am willing to tell you what you need to know where you and the retailer both win on price point of brands I know the costs on.

Kabinart is a 10 year warranty cabinet made in the USA from a family owned cabinet company. They are easy to price cause they only offer the cabinets in plywood construction.

Dealers are normally less then the Woodmark and Shennandoah brands at Lowes and Home Depot if the cabinets are sold @47% of list price. That is where I start my quotes to one time buyers but honestly I will go as low as 39% and still feel it is worth the sale.

In the Glazed Cabinets the cost goes up 15%. The good news is you can have glazes or paint finishes for 15% extra but you get glaze for free on painted finishes if wanted.

54% of list price is where I shoot for on paint with glaze 45% of list price is about as low as I will go. A typical 20-30 ft kitchen when I go as low as I am willing translates to about $1,000 to $1,500 profit as a store owner. You can stay in business as long as you are involed in at least 1 kitchen a week like that.

Interstock cabinets are ok. IF it is your dream home I would consider other alternatives first that have better warranty's first.

I know most garden web readers jump from the roof tops to save you from a Chinese product! I do not honestly know where Ikea cabinets are made but I bet it is not in the USA! Sunco is a company you should consider. They are based in the Boston Area. They import their products pre finished and put them together professionaly with machines clampls and all kinds of tools to glue them together the american way before shipping them. Their elite series is not RTA. A great cabinet for the money. You can not choose your stain color because they buy on large scale to stock the items they sell pre finished but you can not beat the price.

6 square cabinets offers an awesome cabinet for the money. Their products are based on the same model. They offer limited Lifetime warrranty and the finish in my opinion is unbeatable. You should be able to get a price of 39% of list price or less on a 6 square cabinet. a 100% mark up on 6 square is 52% of list price. You should be able to do the math from that to figure everything out you will ever need to know to negotiate.

Independent dealers who carry the allwood brand cabinet sold in Costco get the cabinets at 50% less then costco does. I have no idea how much costco marks it up I have not taken the time to figure it out. I will in the coming week or two. I did a price for possible customer this week with 32 lineal feet of base and wall cabinets and came up with a price of approx $8,500 to the consumer with 36" wall cabinets with crown in a raised panel with glazing. 5 piece drawer fronts with dove tail and soft close drawers, soft closing door hinges, plywood construction and limited lifetime warranty. My dealer cost was approx $5,500. I would be happy to negotiate with the customer if I feel I will be taken seriously. I marked it up exactly 50% so I know I will be less then Costco who is the biggest competition on that product. I will always be less then them at 50%. Go to their website and find a independent dealer in your area that sells it 36% of list price leaves 50% profit for dealer which should be more than enough to keep them happy and give you a better price for a product with longer warranty and great finish.

Interstock is a good product. Their cherry hill door is the best value for the door style. It is the most elegant. Interstock has different multipliers for each door style so I will not get into the math on their products.

If you are looking to consider RTA cabinets I would look at all of the following if I could in your area.

Fabuwood is in NJ they are have a large selection of door styles and colors for being RTA. I do not know if they sell to the public out of a show room as the company that stocks them. A 100% mark up is 60% of list price most cabinet companies try to sell the RTA cabinets for 50-100% mark ups. If you pay 100% it should be assembled and delivered as a minimum. 50% markup is in line with companies on the internet some slightly higher some lower. Fabuwood has to be glued and stapled together so it is a little better quality over a cabinet that has plastic parts that fit together to assemble it. Fabuwood offers a 1 year warranty.

Look at JSI before you decide also since you mentioned this is a home you want to stay in long term. JSI finishes are pretty good and there are several door styles to chose from. 68% of list price is a 100% markup. JSI offers a 1 year warranty.

River Run in Harrisburg Va is an excelent cabinet for the price which is RTA and glued and stapled. Each cabinet has a different multplier of list price to arrive at dealer cost so I will skip teaching you where to bargain to to get a good price and leave enough money for the dealer to stay in business. 1 year warranty

KCD in Raliegh NC imports cabinets from the same cabinet maker as River Run with a slightly lower cost to the dealer. 100% mark up on their Lenox and Tahoe doors style which is excelent price is 68% of list price. 1 year warranty
Remeber 100% mark up should not upset you out of principle in rta products. The overal cost of the cabinets is much less than Made in the USA cabinets so the total dollar amount is generally lower than a semi custom cabinet. Generally I shoot for 50% mark up on the semi custom lines I have with the intention of providing better prices then then the starter brands at the big box stores. Conventional wisdom in our industry tells us that Lowes and Home Depot sell 50% of all cabinets Nation wide. I have no way of knowing if that is indeed true but it is considered to be true by most people I have ever talked to. So if you can beat their prices you are priced right to half of the total competition. I shoot for 25% markup on my custom cabinet products. Generally if my price on a custom cabinet product is $9,000 - $15,000 at a 25% mark up I am making $3,000 -$4,500. At this time I do not ever give out quotes that are much higer then that. I do not attract people that are looking for Wood Mode and other brands like that which are so much more expensive.

TSG is a great company in NJ that imports cabinets they have 10 to chose from to be in competition to interstock. 1 year warranty. 100% mark up is 78% of list price.

IKS in South Carolina is another cabinet company with a few nice door styles to chose from that has a good finish when price matters most. 1 year warranty also. 100% mark up is 68% of list price

Sunnywood sells a great inset cabinet line in RTA if you are looking for that. 1 year warranty is also par for the course! Without my books I am thinking 100% mark up is about 78% of list price also.

Adornus in Miami is a great price for Frameless RTA also. I do not remember their dealer cost of MSRP as I write this. 1 year warranty

Panda kitchen and bath is another frameless company that imports cabinets and sells their own inventory thru panda retail stores. I do not know dealer cost for them. They have a lot of accessories as a general rule also.

Smart Cabinets is an awesome made in the USA cabinet for the money when you are on a budget and want to get something nice if you are ok with flat slab Euro look, Shaker, or Raised panel. I am doing a kitchen for my friend of 20 years He got a quote from Home Depot for $30,000 to reface his cabinets. I got him full overlay shaker cabinets with dove tail drawers (plywood with laminate instead of solid wood) Plywood box construction 36" wall cabinets, shaker crown, super susan base corner cabinets, 32 lineal feet of total cabinetry, pull out spice rack, slide out trash can, roll out drawers in all other base cabinets, 24" pantry with 4 roll out trays,2 30" pots and pans drawer base cabinets built im space saver microwave on the counter next to the pantry, glass diaganol corner cabinets with interior stain and soft close full extension glides on the all the drawers. My dealer cost for his kitchen was $4,050 including shipping. I gave it to my friend for $5,000. Smart is a little known product line in the world of kitchen and bath dealers in the US. Look them up and find someone in your area that sells them. 100% markup is 72% of list price.

Many stores in the Mid atlantic sell norcraft and aristokraft cabinets together. Those stores will also have access to aristokraft's bargain hunters line they call contractors choice. The door styles and finishes are basic but ok. You can not chose to have soft close at this time. I think that is a mistake on the part of the the management of the product line. None the less if you are considering interstock it may be worth a look for you.

If you are going to consider kabinart you should also consider Brandom from Texas. Brandom has a nice selection of door styles but offers 39" wall cabinets and life time limited warranty. 100% dealer mark up is 68% of list price. General rule of thumb is 51% of list price should be less then Woodmark and Shennandoah. Any dealer in todays economy should be willing to sell it for less than that if they are a smaller company without huge overhead.

When you get into the higher end door prices from Kabinart or Brandom Bridgewood Custom becomes a better deal. They offer 10 year warranty on their cabinets. 73.8% of list price is 100% mark up.

Door components in Alabama is another great brand that is customizeable at semi custom prices. They make their own doors so changing door sizes for custom arrangements is not problem for them. 100% mark up is 44% of list price.

Do not expect to get cabinets at less than 25% mark up in made in the USA products and 50% on imports as general rule of thumb. Those percentages leave enough money on the table for the a small cabinet company to stay alive. If there is a designer on comission and base pay and a store to pay for expect higher mark ups.

I hope this is helpfull to someone. I gain a lot of insight in the mind to the consumer when I read the posts which is why I check the site regularly. I am happy to give back to help you learn reasonable price points and info for products I am familar with so you can go shop with confidence in your area.

Wow! Thanks so much for all the info! The dealer who gave us the Kabinart quote also sells Fabuwood so I will check that out with him as well. I have heard of JSI - I thought they were just Interstock under a different name! Tomorrow morning we're going to take a run and see the Interstock. We found them under closeoutcabinets.com. My friend said for an extra 10% they will assemble all the cabinets. I figured it was worth a look, but the Kabinart price I got wasn't too far out of budget, and I think I picked the most expensive door! The dealer had said to finalize the layout first, then we could work on lowering the price by changing doors, features, etc...
Thanks again for the advice - we are taking our time researching to find the best value so this will definitely be useful!!

Prices go way up for the Bradford and Fairfield and the Prescott door style in Kabinart. I did a quote last week for a family with the Bradford and Fairfield door styles which are same price. I gave them a quote for 50% mark up their kitchen was 32 lineal feet and the cabinets came to $12,020 Brandom in a like door style was $12,151

Allwood cabinet with lifetime warranty was $8,543 and KCD was $6,087 So the imports many time do end up about half the cost on cabinet lines priced to be competitve to Woodmark and Shenandoah. At the 12,000 price point I can probably offer bridgewood custom as well.

So shop around some more before you decide what to do. I have given you the % of MSRP to know if you are getting an honest price.

*Bump*

There are recs here to negotiate to a percentage of list price. Any advice on where to find list price and how to negotiate cabinet price? I am ordering through my KD, and didn't think there was any room to negotiate the price of cabinets - I will certainly try if it's possible!

Thanks!

How do I get in touch with daveinorlando to purchase cabinets?