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25% off what?? Don't fall for the mark it up to mark it down game. Compare actual product construction, features, fit & finish with the value of comparable products. Second, with reguard to Costco, just keep in mind that they are a buyers club much like a Direct Buy et.al. Many people have bought product there or they would'nt keep doing it but just know you are on your own. Communicating through a kiosk won't seem as convienient if you have a problem later.
I work in the industry and struggle to understand why people seem afraid to go to an independant/ local showroom/specialist. I know the displays seem more elaborate and you assume you will be paying more but when you work it all out the products are often as good or better, the service is usually much better and the professional's insights are invaluable.
If you price the same level product & features you will most often be in the same price range because those dealers know they have to remain competitive within that market. Where I have seen pricing differ one of two things has usually happened: 1. A different level of product was quoted vs the Big Box competitor, 2. The independant designer gave the customer what they asked for in the design and the competitor did not.
In the end no one can make you spend $ you don't want to.

Good luck!

I just found out that Costco does not offer frameless cabinets.
To reply to your earlier comment, I trust Costco's quality where I can't say the same for all of the local stores. I just don't know which ones are trust worthy and which are not. With Costco, I'm dealing with a chain so that gives me a level of comfort. Of course I wouldn't ask the question about the overall experience with them if I knew for sure they are the ones for me :)

What features can I use to compare quality of the cabinets (material, hardware, etc.) what else? How do I differentiate between the different cabinet makers?
Are certain types of wood better?

Thank you!

why people seem afraid to go to an independant/ local showroom/specialist

Answer: (well, my answer anyway), I was SURE it would be way more expensive. And it felt intimidating.

My first "experience" with one of these shops was on the phone. The guy said, if you're looking at Home Depot, don't bother to come here, we're more expensive.

Well, I was looking at home depot - mainly because I didn't know where else to look and had no idea what the prices were - anywhere!

When I finally recovered from that phone call and did start shopping in the smaller showrooms, I discovered the truth. Some ARE more expensive, some are not. But the level of service and knowledge was way better than HD. And looking back, I'd have been a fool not to have shopped around. I can't say anything about Costco one way or another because I didn't try them. But I'd venture to say that they are on par with HD. I wonder what kind of service you'll get if there are any problems.

How do I differentiate between the different cabinet makers?
Go shopping. Check out all the stores. See what they have to offer. Get the sales pitch. Ask questions. You'll still have to sift through all that info, and not all of it will be good. But that's the way I learned about cabinets.

And of course, come here and ask questions too. But you know, there's nothing like seeing them in real life.

Based on my experience and what I've read here of others' experiences, I would not buy cabinets from anywhere BUT a small independent shop.

By the way, I'll never know what cabinets that one shop had, or if they would have been right for me, or what they would have cost. He lost my potential business stupidly.

turtlemeng, what color cabinets did you buy?

Very good posts on All wood here. Definetly find an independent dealer in your area that has the all wood brand. Our cost as independents is 50% less then costco because all wood pays for all merchandising and designs produced by all wood employees in Florida. Costco has 0 investment in selling the product. The trade off is the price on the product is higher to costco. I have not taken the time to figure out how much they go up from the price they pay all wood when they have an order.

I would sell Allwood at exactly 50% mark up and be happy all day long. Limited Life time warranty is great also. The product is made over seas. All wood stocks the products in Florida and ships them out within 10 days of order. You get a better price point because All wood buys the cabinets in bulk. The trade off is you do not get to pick the stain color.

All wood offers soft close drawer glides and soft close doors as well. Every once in a while they will be out of something and you have to wait a few weeks before your order is complete.

6 Square cabinets is the most like competition to All Wood. Again the product is made over seas. 6 Square has the equipment to make any missing items in inventory in the US facility before shipment so you all ways have 100 shipment in 10 days. Price should be with 10% of each other.

If you want american made products at lower prices then either of these two companies first place to look is Smart Cabinetry. They are lower priced then many RTA Chinese products and you can chose your stain colors in the maple and oak products. Cherry only comes in one stain to date.

Aristokraft has Contractors Choice cabients in the Mid Atlantic with independent dealers. Another alternative.

Brandom Kabinart and Door Components are the least expensive semi custom cabinet lines I have found as dealer to date. Bridgewood and Bridgewood Advantage are the best priced custom cabinets I have found so far. Merilat is pretty good price as well.

I looked at Costco but they couldn't beat the price of locally made custom cabinets. I got about $6k less for my cabinets and they were completely customized to fit what I wanted and will have all the bells and whistles. They were $11k less than Canyon Creek cabinets. If you can, it's worth looking at custom made.

I got the Cinnamon Hawthorne cabinets. They are actually very nice with a reddish hue, you can look @ some of my earlier threads and you can see a pic. I would put up a picture later when the countertop is in, should be in a couple of days.
My installer/dealer put in 2 "custom" cabs in the corner--I purchase just the door/frame and he basically made the "box" for the odd-size corner. Like I mentioned, I also put in other things like baskets and pull-outs and sink tip-outs. The reason I did not seek out local custom cabs are (1) had some estimate before, way more than these cabs (2)don't know if I can trust these places, esp because there are numerous Chinese cabs with questionable quality (hey, no offense meant, I AM Chinese) (3)these cabs are life-time warrantee and the dealer/installer showed me many examples of places with the cabs. I actually went to look @ real cabs.

I think you hit on the core of my frustration as a professional in this business. When you say "you trust Costco's Quality" I assume you mean their reputation as a retailer because that is both what they are and what they do. Nothing wrong with that but be sure to separate it from the rest of the transaction and ask "is this how I want to buy my kitchen"?
Costco does not manufacture their cabinets they sell them for several manufacturers, some of them domestic and some imports.
There are many aspects, pro and con, that could be discussed about import cabinetry but the biggest problem I see is that you are really buying a product built of unknown materials from a source that will not be held accountable for the product (google Chinese Drywall to see what I mean).
Basically Costco has built a brilliant retail system that allows them to sell product to their upscale clientele and take no liability (which is the big variable in home remodeling and especially kitchens). Here's what I mean; you input your information at the kiosk. Depending on what style you choose the information is forwarded to that manufacturer who has usually hired offsite designers to come up with a layout for a flat fee, usually around $40-50 (I know, I have in years past, referred designers to manufacturers to do their work). When it is all complete you verify the prints and order product but the manufacturer takes the risk for the designer (so they pad the pricing they give to cover the risk) and you take the risk that you gave all of the information you should have. Costco has no risk!
One more thing on this point. I would never give more than 50% to any company in this industry. If you do you have no leverage left if the retailer doesnÂt come through. Somehow the big box stores have gotten away with breaking this cardinal rule of the remodeling industry (taking 100% of materials and in some cases 100% of labor up front!) and as a consumer I would not accept the disadvantage this places on you.

I would develop a short list and go around to 6-8 retailers, Design Build co's etc and ask the same questions. Give them your project information (home value, how long you plan to stay, scope of the work: things they need to do, things you will do, style preferences etc.) ask for a list of recent jobs and keep a chart on everyone:
How were you treated in the store?
Did the person seem to know their products?
Did you feel like you were being helped or being "sold".
If they said they would call back, did they?

Within a few days you will start developing 2-3 favorites and I would start the planning and quoting process there. All of the rest of your questions have so many variables that they really require a trusted professional to weigh your budget, style preferences and construction considerations but if you follow the advice above you should have a good start to finding just such a person.

Good luck!

As an inexperienced person, I will weigh in on this. I think the costco price is pretty good (if it is a good sale), more expensive than Armstrong, but less than the Kraftmaid cabs I ended up with. In retrospect, I don't think the price I got on the Kraftmaids from my independent dealer was better than the price of big box stores when they were having a sale. I carried several sample doors in the trunk of my car as I dithered and shopped about my kitchen choices. I will say that the finish of my Armstrong and Kraftmaid doors held up very much better to the abuse of my trunk than the all wood doors from Costco.

I just used them for a small order for my bathroom. The designer on-line helped me with my order, the fillers and molding needed and created a design and picture. The order arrived in less than two weeks. The cabinets were put up last week and look lovely. Wonderful quality, solid construction and look more expensive than what I paid. I am also in the process of redoing my kitchen and when I asked the KD to price the batahroom cabinets to match my kitchen cabinets the price was almost double what I paid through All Wood. The quality isn't as nice as my kitchen cabinets, but will do just fine. The on-line designer has emailed me twice asking about how the install is going. Today he contacted me asking if I would send him a photo of the cabinets - he wants to see how they look. What a nice guy! Just as an aside, I was dragging my feet about placing an order, even after the Costco designer had prepared the design, etc., and out of the blue he contacted me a couple of weeks after we talked to give me an additional 10% off if I would place an order by that week. So, I'm thinking that the price they quote you might actually be negotiable. Anyway, all in all - I'm very happy with my experience.

The system with Costco is you have to pay upfront for all the cabinets, but you do not pay the installer until the work is complete and you are satisfied.

Like I said, I ended up going with the DEALER, so I did not go thru Costco, although it's the exact same cabinets. They do have life-time warrantee; I told my dealer one of the door has a very slight "unfinished" spot along the edge, and they will exchange it. They also gave credit for one cabinet that was damaged slightly during the transit, since it's on the side it cannot even be seen once installed but they still honored it. I used the credit to get additional Mullion doors because they look very nice. All in all, I think having a dealer has been very helpful because he does all the communications. If I had gone thru Costco, I am not sure who would be exactly responsible if something went wrong in terms of the measurements, etc. Lots of little things can come up during installation, my old house has some partition walls that are not exactly straight, so my dealer/installer put in tiny strips of filler. He also got me all the "skins" that I did not initially put in my order when I was trying to do it thru Costco (and the Costco kitchen designer was very nice but also forgot to mention it).

all this non sense about chinese drywall boils my blood! Any cabinet professional knows that when comparing cabinet prices you have to get your 2 products as close to the same as possible in features to see who is a better deal. Comparing a cabinet produced for All wood to drywall produced by another corporation is beyond reasonable for the same type of reason.

Sunco has been doing this business model since early 80's I challenge anyone to find a lawsuit against them for product quality you suggest to be going on. Stigmatisms are just that. You should be saying do not buy a Ikea cabinet as well. I am sure they are made over seas as well. To say that a KCMA certified cabinet made over seas is more likely to be made of poor quality materials over a KCMA cabinet made in the USA is just plain stupid. That is what the KCMA is for to state that the quality of a product meets the minimum standards for long term durabiltity. For you to suggest that becasue Chinese drywall has had issues and equate that to cabinets means you have to throw out every KCMA certified cabinet as not being safe.

Way to many people have poor points of views that are not accurate with reality.

Allwood handles the costco customers directly as mentioned in several posts above. Bottom line if you work with some one who knows what they are doing you will be fine wether thru costco or independent. The warranty on the cabinet itself is from Allwood directly.

If your allwood cabinet cost more than armstrong you got ripped off. It should cost less. Armstrong as a general rule of thumb costs dealers about the same as what you can get Woodmark products for as consumers. My prices on Allwood are less then my american brands and I am in line with woodmark on my semi custom cabinets. You should not be paying as much for a stock cabinet line as a semi custom.

Latest update:
I contacted AllWood dealer and was able to get similar pricing to Costco but with the convenience of measurement and installation done by the dealer.

Maybe I am the only dealer in the world who cares about not charging to much and being in line with the competition but it amazes me that the posts on here state that costcos price is very good or an independent dealer was about the same price! Hello!!!! Allwood is stock cabinet company with not choice in stain color and you are willing to pay the same price for it as woodmark or shennadoah at Lowes or Home Depot? Both those brands have a Limited lifetime warrantee. The book for All wood is about 1/4" thick vs 1-2" thick for woodmark or shennandoah! You pay higher prices for more choices. Honestly Costco is a rip off or any other dealer selling it at the price of costco. Without monthly promotions factored in the price before promtional discount is 100% mark up! That is crazy. They are laughing at you all the way to the bank. I have some of the least expensive brands around to offer to my customers. I have been able to match the price of volume deals in cabinets to beat out Reico selling Merilat cabinets to a 300 unit apartment complex and offer a lifetime warrantee on the cabinets used as well as give painted maple at the price of maple stain in Merilat. I got a 10% discount from the factory and marked it up 10% from the normal price giving me a margin of 20% total. I can mark that same cabinet company up 50% and be about even with shennandoah and woodmark. It is tough to sell a RTA cabinet higher then 50% mark right now stay competitive.

100% on costco is insane! Do not assume that because costco sells it is cheap. Otherwise you are a fool. 6 square has more interesting colors and door styles particularly inset at the lowest prices in the nation. 6 square is a lower priced product as well.

Sunco is also another company that sells their cabinets with the same business model.

thank you for the insider info

Called to obtain an estimate for new kitchen cabinets from Costco. Overly talkative but nice enough guy came out to measure and assess 10x10 kitchen. spent a solid hour. gave me brochure and said that Costco only uses Masterbrand cabinets. told me to expect a follow up call from partner. partner called a few days later and spoke like a used car salesman. reviewed my measurements and due to a limited time promotion, it would only be $50,000.00 for the cabinets. Little detail shared. He asked me how it sounded. I told him, since it was from Costco it was probably a very good value, and Id think about it. Im still thinking about why they wasted my time. Clearly Costco cant sell too many of these cabinets.

Really, well, that's quite different from my experience.
Funny that you signed up today and revived a three-year old thread.
But seriously, does anyone have recent experience with Costco?

How do you see comments

Hi, I have recently renovated an entire kitchen with All wood Costco kitchen cabinets. It was my first time buying kitchen cabinets online and it worked out very well. I give a detailed description on my blog and here is the link. Good luck with your choices. I hope my review will help some people.

Gorgeous kitchen!! Thanks for sharing, we are considering all wood Costco cabinets!