As is so often the case, greed and a lack of knowledge is dangerous. But again, without the benefit of a true kitchen designer. The lucrative kitchen cabinet market has lured other retailers besides IKEA such as Costco into selling kitchen cabinets. Cabinet pricing from an independent cabinet dealer must be similar, when the independent dealer carries the same cabinet lines. In fact, they are sometimes more expensive. And home centers are generally not less than 5% from their competitors in price, even with sales. These sales drive closings on kitchens often before it’s sensible to be ordering. Pressuring customers to buy now or miss a sale that is manufactured on a regular basis. Lowes and The Home Depot also continue to have disingenuous sales. Home Depot kitchen measures that were once quite detailed and took over an hour are now routinely under 20 minutes. Contractors are expected to verify all measurements and take responsibility for any discrepancies. Designers can no longer measure their kitchens, move walls and doorways as needed, or even take responsibility for their designs. The Home Depot has been less aggressive in their devaluation of the kitchen design profession, but they have continued to undermine it, and under pay their designers. First that no good kitchen designer will continue to work for Lowes and second that any experienced kitchen designer still working for Lowes will be insensitive to their customers’ needs and angry with their employer.
So now a designer that might have been making 70K in 2014 now makes 35K. Shockingly last month Lowes told all those kitchen designers still working for them that they were going back in time and reducing their pay by the 50% they gave them 5 years before. Main Line Kitchen Design’s phone rang off the hook with kitchen designers looking for work following this cruel decision by Lowes Corporate. So, a designer that might have made 70K was suddenly making only $52,500. At that time, their best designers earned double their salary in commissions, so to avoid a complete employee walk out, Lowes agreed to increase the salary of their experienced kitchen designers by 50% of their commissions from the previous year. About 5 years ago Lowes eliminated commission for their kitchen designers. Lowes, in particular recently made sure that no experienced kitchen designers would work for them. This policy makes sense when you decide not to employ good kitchen designers, as it limits your liability. Despite the fact that over half of all kitchen renovations today involve removing a wall.
#LOWES CABINET PLANNER INSTALL#
Both home centers also recently decided not to design or install kitchens that remove load bearing and even non load bearing walls. For example, both locations no longer allow the person designing your kitchen to ever see your home or measure your kitchen. Because of this quite often kitchen designers at both home centers were paid in line with department managers.Īs time has gone by home centers have continued to decrease what they are willing to pay kitchen designers and both Lowes and The Home Depot have tried to limit their responsibility in designing and managing kitchen renovations.
Knowledge of complex kitchen cabinetry, countertop specifications, kitchen design, and of all types of construction is a must.
Unlike selling retail merchandise where only a limited knowledge of the products you sell is required, designing kitchens requires far more expertise. The reason for the lack of support by home center management is that designing kitchens is very different from retail sales.ĭesigning and helping organize a kitchen construction project requires a great deal of knowledge and experience. In the past, home center kitchen designers worked around company policies that hindered doing their job effectively. The corporate environment at home centers has always been at odds with what is required to design and sell complex kitchen renovations. However due to a combination of poor decisions made at the corporate level, I now feel that particularly Lowes, but also The Home Depot, are poor locations to design and to buy a kitchen.
And contrary to what many people believe both Lowes and The Home Depot sell well made cabinets if they are upgraded as needed. I have often defended home centers as not a bad place to work with if you are designing a kitchen and you do a good job finding the most experienced home center designer in your area. Homeowners often use home centers like Lowes and The Home Depot to design their kitchens and to buy cabinetry.
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