I have been doing a lot of kitchens lately , and the cabinet supplier is always messing up the order , or delivering late , or having any number of problems that makes my job harder.
So… I’m thinking that maybe I should contact Kraftmade , or Aristocraft , or Merillat and set up an account and supply my own cabinets , maybe sell a few too. Has anyone else gone this route? How did it work out? What pitfalls should I look for?
Thanks in advance for any info!
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Replies
You'll have to do serious volume. They will want you to have a bona fide showroom.
Some manufacturers do allow you to purchase directly from them but you need to qualify as a cabinet shop and go through one of their sales reps who are higher up on the food chain than a dealer.
Frankie
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In my travels, I've noticed that east of the Mississippi, factory made cabs are the norm.
West of it, and continuing further west, custom cabs become more and more prevalent.
It seemed as if only custom was available in California. Here in Denver, about 50/50.
From now on, only custom for me. Cheeper and better.
A lot of these manufacturers especially the ones in Pennsylvania are overloaded with orders and don't seem to care about the quality of their services which are getting worse and worse and slower and slower to respond to problems so I doubt you as a very small dealer will do any better ...probably a whole lot worse because they don't want small dealers to deal with IMO.
I did three big kitchens in the past year which included mine and had the same problem with all of them and they all were from different manufacturers.
My kitchen came from Plain & Fancy and they ain't cheap but the way they put my order together was amazingly bad. thank god it wasn't for a customer!! I had to send cabs back several times and had to wait and wait and...One door was on upside down and couldn;t be fixed due to the screw holes. One cab was reversed...had to send that back...one cab had the outside edge w/ a sharp corner(edge of carcass) and the rest of the cabs had eased over edges,,,,sent that back...wrong hinges on ALL the cabs....thank god it was all in writing but if this was for a customer....gulp!
If Blodgett says, Tipi tipi tipi it must be so!
TipiFest 06~~> Send me your email addy for a Paypal invoice to the greatest show on earth~~>[email protected]
PS....I have two cabs hung in my shop now that cost probably $500 if I had to buy them...they didn't even want them back.....they could care less...
If Blodgett says, Tipi tipi tipi it must be so!
TipiFest 06~~> Send me your email addy for a Paypal invoice to the greatest show on earth~~>[email protected]
We're going through a nightmare right now with Showplace cabinets in a customers home.
Anyone else ever use Showplace cabinets?
and the cabinet supplier is always messing up the order , or delivering late , or having any number of problems that makes my job harder.
The sad fact is likely that, if you become your own dealer, then all that blame winds up on you anyway, just sooner.
About 80% of the companies out there use a nomenclature which is about 80% identical. However, the differences are killers. Forget to add the special suffix for full-extention slides, or euro-undermounts--well, you get to eat those cabs.
The dealers I know aren't getting the cases any faster than you are, either--so you'd still have the late deliveries (or you'll need a warehouse to store the boxes in).
That being said, the quick google search I just did suggests that it's not a huge problem to become a dealer, you just have to ask the company you want to rep for--who may then make you do things "their" way.
If you can get a cabinet quote per cabinet and piece you are a God.
I have found that qoutes are only given per job... and there is a slop factor built in to offset screwups and bad designs.
If you want to be a cabinet dealer plan on being perfect every time or just another face in the crowd.