Magnet Kitchens Dishonesty

JHawkins

Hey people,

Just bought my first house and I'm looking to do it up a bit, I watched a program on channel 4 called Britain's Secret Shopper in which they were comparing kitchens. The thing that struck me in this program was both the incredible price difference between the two companies, (Think other one was a Wrens) and the discount Magnet gave. If they can afford to sell it for £5000 cheaper than the original price, how did they come up with their pricing? I think the other company only dropped £200 which came across as they were already giving not far off their best price.

I've since tried to get a quote with a similar discount from Magnet and of course had no luck. It was obviously just trying to look good for the camera and I think it backfired quite badly. Also the Wrens reviews are all fairly old and seem to have gotten fewer and further between. Think I'll be going to them.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Melaniep101

Not that I agree with businesses putting a huge profit margin on their products, but they are a business, and have to make money.

It's down to consumers to shop around, get the price/product that they are comfortable with. If they aren't happy, there's nothing stopping them from voting with their feet and buying elsewhere.

JHawkins

Fair point and I appreciate that, but watch the program if you haven't. They just completely discredit their own price, if they can afford to sell it £5,000 cheaper than they originally wanted, you're going to be pretty annoyed you overpaid so much. I have tried getting a similar discount from them and they will not even nearly match it. Its seems so wrong that they will do that on TV then you go in the next week and they can't. I'd be livid if I actually bought one before seeing the show.

gazfocus

We're in the process of replacing our kitchen and whilst not in the same ball park as Magent/Wren, we were able to get a considerable percentage off our new kitchen.

We're planning to extend our kitchen in about 5-6 years so don't want to spend a huge amount on it now, so we've opted for a more 'budget' kitchen and were comparing the likes of wickes/b&q/homebase. When we went to see the Wickes Kitchen Designer, we were told there was absolutely no discount to be had on the kitchen units 'as they're already at every day low prices' but they could throw in £700 worth of appliances if we spent £3000 on the kitchen.

This was far more than we were looking to spend so decided to shop around. We found that out of the 3, Wickes were by far the best quality so we tried haggling. We phoned customer services and were offered a 5% discount after seeing that Homebase had a 20% off offer on, which we declined. We then asked them to price match B&Q but they refused saying that as B&Q sell cuboards/doors/handles all seperately and Wickes don't, they didn't qualify for price match.

In the end, we printed off details of all the units we wanted from Wickes, and details of the Homebase equivelant, included a print out of the Homebase 'We'll pay the vat' offer and took them to our local Wickes store. Wickes not only agreed to match the price but beat it by 10% so in all, we got our £1700 kitchen for £1200...that's on a kitchen that's 'already at every day low prices'.

Leif

The kitchen trade operates on fake discounts, in exactly the same way that Tesco et al. I saw a Bosch drill on sale at Homebase for £180. The RRP was about £100, and I'd paid £75 from B&Q not long before. A few weeks later the same drill was on sale for less than half price - £85 - at Homebase. Clearly the sale price was a con. Apparently all the kitchen shops do these 'discounts', and if they don't - i.e. they price them sensibly to start with - they do not make anything like as much profit. So really we are all stupid.

I cannot figure out how these shops are not making a fortune, since the carcasses are no more than chipboard. I know Optiplan do well, and they have a very good reputation, but apparently some of the others don't.

keystone

Good grief its not dishonesty. You're only miffed because you couldn't negotiate the sort of discount you thought you should get. They don't have to sell to you in the same way that you don't have to buy from them.

Edit: The reason they would do it for the TV is the publicity. It's no different to the way that certain companies give stuff away to Melinda for nout on her silly programme. Wouldn't be in business for long if they did that for every punter that strolled through their door.

Cheers

ryder72

Keystone / Leif - The tragic reality is consumers have come to expect discount of 70% plus VAT free offers and a business cannot operate at that sort of margin without either ripping people off or having a product that is really fantastic and unique or contain patented technology (ie drugs).

If its the latter, its probably justified. In case of the former, its nothing but an eyewash. I have seen Howdens offering 84% trade discount. Really!! How much do you have to mark up a product, offer 84% discount and still make a decent profit. I just cannot understand how buyers can be so stupid and not get wary of any business offering such ridiculous discounts.

keystone

Im afraid I don't see it as a rip-off its called "going with the flow". DFS business model is entirely built around offering these stupid discounts across the board 100% of the time. Where it becomes a ripoff is the likes of the example given by Leveller for a £k bookcase made from mdf where there is no choice if you want the product. There is no such thing as a free lunch. As an aside I despair of the feeding frenzy that perpetuates these boards around "cashback offers" Its a complete nonsense if you stop and think. It has to be paid for somewhere along the line so prices are loaded in the first instance to be able to offer it.

But once again people have choices so if brand X doesn't offer the discount but brand Y does then they have the choice to to to brand Y but if brand X wants the biz they have the choice to offer the same discounts. Its self perpetuating and self desctructive at the same time. The idiots are those who pay the full whack and thats self imposed IMO rather than being ripped off by the company.

As you mention it the multiplier above a company's "gross margin achieved" target price to be able to offer an 84% discount is an eyewatering 6.25.

Cheers

pelirocco

Leif wrote: »

The kitchen trade operates on fake discounts, in exactly the same way that Tesco et al. I saw a Bosch drill on sale at Homebase for £180. The RRP was about £100, and I'd paid £75 from B&Q not long before. A few weeks later the same drill was on sale for less than half price - £85 - at Homebase. Clearly the sale price was a con. Apparently all the kitchen shops do these 'discounts', and if they don't - i.e. they price them sensibly to start with - they do not make anything like as much profit. So really we are all stupid.

I cannot figure out how these shops are not making a fortune, since the carcasses are no more than chipboard. I know Optiplan do well, and they have a very good reputation, but apparently some of the others don't.

Yes its all smoke and mirrors , bump up the price then give a massive discount . At the end of the day the kitchens ( or whatever you buy ) cost x amount to make ( inc all overheads) add on a % profit and thats what they have to sell at . Any company selling at a loss wont be around long after all


Oddly We have a Optiplan kitchen ( i thought they were a local to us company ) had it fitted probably 13/14 years its has worn very well , and the fitters were excellent .

molerat

Do you remember years back when Comet did a "no discounts just fair prices" policy where the prices were competitive with all the other chains. Their sales actually went down because customers did not perceive it was a bargain even though other retailers "discounts" were just a figment of their marketing department's over active imagination.

JHawkins

I didn't mean their pricing strategy, I mean they are horrifically overpriced, can't see who would buy from them when a compared like for like product with the same '70% offers' are infact 50% cheaper, Wrens' discount actually looks genuine when you compare it to Magnets'