Kitchen Cabinets- Home Depot And Lowe's Biggest Mistake

By Author: Jason Delmar
Total Articles: 335
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There is an interesting trend in the kitchen cabinet industry right now, and the big box stores are driving it. A couple of years ago Home Depot and Lowes both jumped on the RTA Cabinet craze so that they could offer an in-stock product for contractors and builders. These were lower grade cabinets that the big chains carried under their own private label, and they were offered as a contractor grade cabinet that was always available. This was a convenient product line for contractors who needed a readily available resource so that they didn't have to rely on inconsistent delivery windows from semi-stock cabinet manufacturers (typically 3-6 weeks). With the recent initiative to downsize and reduce their overall inventory (pushing it back on the manufacturers), they have eliminated the in-stock line of cabinets in their stores. These products were taking up a tremendous amount of space for the amount of revenue they were generating.

With the exit of in-stock kitchen cabinets at Home Depot and Lowes, this left a huge void in the market. Contractors and builders could no longer just go to supply center and pick ...
... up the cabinets they needed. Over the past year, more and more contractors and builders are turning to the internet to source their cabinets. By shopping online for RTA kitchen cabinets, contractors can avoid the typically long lead times associated traditional cabinets and still get the cost savings of the in-stock cabinets the big stores previously carried. With the savings associated with buying cabinets online, even with the week or more lead time, contractors are still saving money. This may have been the biggest mistake that the conglomerates have made in a long time.

As the indstury continues to evolve, I would expect that RTA Cabinets online are going to continue to grow as a major player in the kitchen cabinet market.