Homeowners often use home centers like Lowes and The Home Depot to design their kitchens and to buy cabinetry. 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. And contrary to what many people believe, both Lowes and The Home Depot sell well-made cabinets if they are upgraded as needed.
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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. I’ll explain in detail below.
Lowes
The corporate environment at home centers has always been at odds with what is required to design and sell complex kitchen renovations. Designing kitchens is very different from retail sales.
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Designing and helping organize a kitchen construction project requires a great deal of knowledge and experience. Unlike selling retail merchandise where only a limited knowledge of the products you sell is required, designing kitchens requires far more expertise. Knowledge of complex kitchen cabinetry, countertop specifications, kitchen design, and of all types of construction is a must.
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However, as time has gone by, home centers have decreased what they are willing to pay kitchen designers and limit their responsibility in designing and managing kitchen renovations. For example, both The Home Depot and Lowes no longer allow the person designing your kitchen to ever see your home, or measure your kitchen. And despite the fact that more than half of all kitchen renovations today involve removing a wall, both home centers also recently decided not to design or install kitchens that remove load–bearing and even non–load–bearing walls. This policy makes sense when employing less experienced – read lower paid, kitchen designers, as it limits your liability.
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Lowes, in particular recently made sure that no experienced kitchen designers would work for them. About 5 years ago Lowes eliminated commission for their kitchen designers. 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. So, a designer that might have made 70K was suddenly making only $52,500.
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Main Line Kitchen Design’s phone rang off the hook with kitchen designers looking for work following this cruel decision by Lowes Corporate. 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. So now, a designer who might have been making 70K in 2014 now makes 35K.
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This guarantees two things. First, no good kitchen designer will continue to work for Lowes. And second, any experienced kitchen designer still working for Lowes will be insensitive to their customers’ needs and angry with their employer.
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The Home Depot
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. Designers can no longer measure kitchens, move walls and doorways, or even take responsibility for their designs. Contractors are expected to verify all measurements and take responsibility for any discrepancies.
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Lowes and The Home Depot also continue to have disingenuous sales that pressure customers to buy now or miss a sale. These monthly manufactured “sales” drive closings on kitchens often before it’s sensible to be ordering. And home center pricing is generally not less than 5% from their competitors in price, even with sales. In fact, they are sometimes more expensive. Cabinet pricing for the same cabinet brands at both home centers and independent dealers must be close, otherwise each location couldn’t compete.
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The lucrative kitchen cabinet market has lured other retailers besides IKEA such as Costco into selling kitchen cabinets. But again, without the benefit of a true kitchen designer. While the stores profit, homeowners lose way more than they save when the resale value of their home plumets from a poorly designed kitchen.
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Kitchens are far too expensive and complicated not to have a professional kitchen designer advising you on the important decisions you have to make during a detailed renovation!! And investing in a poor kitchen design not only waste money – it can actually devalue your home. Buying poorly made cabinets like IKEA is no longer even inexpensive, as many better constructed import lines are available. IKEA has also recently downgraded their cabinet construction making them a particularly poor choice in kitchen cabinetry.
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If you are within our service area of 50 miles from Center City Philadelphia, call Main Line Kitchen Design anytime to speak with a knowledgeable professional kitchen designer, get answers to your questions, and find out about our design process.
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OR, call in to our recorded Podcast 2-4 pm Fridays Eastern Standard Time to ask cabinetry and design questions. Have designs ready to email for layout advice. Call 610-500-4071
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Here are some of our related blog posts:
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Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all our customers and blog readers.
. . . and of course. . .
Bon Appetit!
Paul
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