I used Cabinet Giant in Kansas City. They are very nice, solid wood RTA cabinets (prinarily maple). Excellent Customer Service. They were delivered in under a week and went together very easily. Super affordable, too.

I have assembled 100 kitchens myself in the last few years. It is never as easy to do as the video shows for various reasons. I have personally have tried to use stapling only on several different types of cabinets from different companies. It is never as easy as it looks to get your staples to correctly hold both materials together. Senco makes a corrugated fastener that is supposed to solve this problem to the tune of $600.

I would suggest you buy a cabinet and assemble it before you decide the quality of it.

If you can find a dealer in your area that sells Legacy or Debut cabinets you can get an american made for about the same price as the imports. In Debut it is the United series.

Cabinets that are consisitent in quality regardless of wether you would classify it as good high or low (all of us have different views about that) these are the cabinet companies I have multiple expierences with where the cabinets are pretty consistent in their production for each being similar to the other.

River Run
KCD
IKS
TSG
GHI
Rosewood
JSI
TBA
Interstock
Sunnywood

If you google these company names you will find the websites for the importer who is the orginal company that keeps the cabinets on the shelves. None of those companies sell direct to homeowners. Cabinet Giant and others like it buy in bulk through the main importers listed above and sell their own inventory and when they are out of something they ship it to your from the main importers warehouse.

Honestly when you say you are looking for a reasonably priced cabinet that is a major tip off that you are looking for a price you will never find.

Most online cabinet stores are working on margins of 30-50% and many of them pay shipping out of those margins. They either have their own inventory they are selling which they had to buy which also means they have to warehouse it. Now granted when they buy it they lower the price per item a certain amount but they also have to pay to warehouse it. If you do not have your own inventory you must have a retail showroom to get an account with most of the companies listed above. Some companies will let you sell on line but they will only ship to the location of the retail store you own. All RTA companies except JSI charge for shipping to the retail store. My kitchens I order generally cost $200 - $300 for shipping. If I have to send it to me first I have to pay that amount. Then I have to turn around and pay to re ship it to you. Which generally is about the same amount.

So if you were to buy from me a kitchen which has a dealer cost of $2,000 and I do it for 35% mark up the cost would be $2,700 to you. If I pay for shipping and am able to send it directly to you the average cost would be $250-$300 plus a residential delivery fee of $75-$100 by most freight companies as they put it on a smaller truck with a lift gate to make sure they can get around your neighborhood. My max profit on $2,700 would be $700 my frieght costs could easily be $325 or more which is half my profit. What happens if you go to assemble one and you damage it and do not want to admit so you call me and say you opened a box and something was messed up. You will want a new one. A kitchen of 10 items that cost the dealer $2,000 has average cost per box of $200. To be fair base cabinets will be higher and walls lower. You get my point none the less. If I was going to make 300-400 on a sale of $2,700 and one cabinet needs to be sent out (the importer I get the cabinets from does not roll over and play dead when I call saying a cabinet needs to be replaced) the profit on the sale went to $150.

Most online cabinet sales margins are tight. I have been trying to develop my own site with the 10 RTA companies that I sell out of my store. I wanted to do a 50% markup and not charge extra for the shipping. My web developer thinks it is a bad idea and to itemize the shipping costs which is not easy to accurately do on the fly. All the importers use different trucking companies with different rates that are not easy to calculate on a remote website.

And not all RTA cabinets are easy to put together.

Many people have this idea that cabinets have a high markup in them. Many high end established stores are making tons of money for sure. Many smaller stores and the online sites are working on much smaller profits per transaction. Most of the people that work with me spend $2,500 to $7,500 on cabinets RTA Stock and Semi Custom. I generally make $1500 on the high side and $750 on the low side. I hope to sell 4 kitchens a month. My rent costs $2,375 and my utilites of phone internet elec and water run approx $350 a month. $750 x 4 = $3,000. I made a mistake last month and ordered the wrong door style on a kitchen I sold for $6,000. I was going to make $750 on it and gave a $750 comission check on it to a contractor as hidden discount. It cost me $4,500 to order it again. I had to borrow money from a relative to buy the kitchen again. I am 35 years old and live in a room of a friends house for free while I build up my business to something with more volume and higher profits per transaction. I have driven 30,000 miles in my F150 since 09-01-2010 that gets 16 miles to the gallon no matter what I do.

People selling cabinets for $2,500 to $7,500 are in most cases not making much money per transaction. I hope for a 50% mark up on cabinets shipped to me that are not RTA in nature. On RTA cabinets if I assemble them myself before delivering I hope for 100% mark up. Sometimes I can get it sometimes I can not. Last month I did 3 RTA kitchens for 35%, 50% and 40% mark ups each assembled and delivered locally.

I am not sure what the volume is of the sites that sell RTA cabinets online I wish I knew. I would guess they do not make as much as you think.

I got an email from someone the other day from here on Gardenweb asking I would give them a price on some reasonably priced RTA cabinets where I would have them shipped to me and they would come pick them up thinking that would be cheaper cause their would be no shipping costs if they went to my store.

So many people assume things they do not know. As stated above all but JSI charge shipping on their products regardless of the destination. The residentail delivery fee is not added when it comes to my store. I sent them back a email suggesting they look at other stores in their area. It is an immediate tip off that their view of reasonalbe will be different then mine.

A mark up that leaves me not enough money at the end of the month to pay the sales tax I owe the state for my business and I only spend my money on food which is mostly ramen soup and chicken noodle soup with rice a roni and live for free cause I have not money is a more then reasonable mark up in my mind.

Supply and demand has created many people like me that are trying to figure out how to make it work when their are people looking for a "reasonably priced cabinet or any other part of the products and labor related to kitchen remodeling in general"

Hopefully you find someone who can get you what you are looking to spend.

I recommend IKEA cabinets. They have contemporary & traditional styles, and they have up to 20% off depending on what you purchase until May 1st.

Here is a link that might be useful: My IKEA Kitchen

Hi Mimi89

did you end up purchasing from RTA kitchen Cabinets Online in Tennessee? I am building a home and thinking about purchasing our cabinets online from them too and would like to know how it went from you? I buy online often but kitchen cabinets are a huge investment so nervous about buying from a reputable company. I like their options though and they seem quality cabinets...just want to make sure their customer service is fair and they take care of their customers as much as possible.

thanks!

A

I also want to know! I looked into their construction and it looks great! Their ordering is more like Conestoga rta, with adding features, colors, etc. They have 39" x 42" wall cabinets and so does Conestoga, no one else. (Not counting Barker or Scherr.)

Interesting, don’t put to much credence in the BBB accreditation. The reality is the business pays to more or less advertise. Pay attention to any complaints. Our business had so many inquiries they called asking us to pay for thei blessings. No thanks we’re doing just fine. 10 plus years later we are still rated AAA + by them based on inquiries and no complaints.

Thanks for the heads up on BBB! I did find one complaint, but it was more on the shipping company than the cabinets. They felt that the quality was not as good as they expected, but no details as to what might be wrong. (They also thought the cabinets should have withstood the shippers, but having seen what shippers can do to seemingly indestructable furniture, I would blame the shippers.)

YW we’re going with Conestoga. They’re doing 27” deep cabinets and 42” uppers and they’ve been great so far as getting things worked out.

Very tempted by Conestoga and ordering 2 of their doors, but it really is over our budget and I will have to find the money. The place in Tennessee will do increase or reduced depth on some cabinets and has the difficult to find 39" wall. Wish I could see their work in person, but that really busts my budget!!!!!

Do it once and do it right. You won’t think about it 2 years from now but you may well if you choose otherwise.

Update, I used online cabinets direct after a couple of months of talking to the owner Shane Doyle about my design and my concerns about ordering online. Everything went great! They did mess up on one cabinet, sent me wrong door style but once I sent them a picture they send me new doors right away. I would say to anyone ordering from them, be through with what you order and with checking your order once you receive it and follow their rules/directions on how to rectify any issue...if you do that then you are in good hands. The owner Shane was very fair and honest. The cabinets are beautiful and being installed now. Great quality and price! The shipping company will not deliver inside without charging you a ton so be prepared to either pay for inside delivery or move the cabinet boxes inside yourself.

Cheepchinesecrapola.

I know what I’m talking about. I’ve dissected cabinets for far longer than you’ve been buying them. Buzz words and the cheapest materials possible do not create quality or value. And you SPAMMING all of the forums with convenient product placement only shows that the marketing teams that they have are just as poor quality.

I am not a spammer. Ive seen your negative comments all over this forum many times. Where do YOU recommend to purchase cabinets from?