Tactics when buying a kitchen / how to negotiate properly?

I know how my posts read, but I also see, based on the behavior of some unscrupulous dealers and sellers, that the good ones in the industry can hardly survive anymore because many then order online. And when it comes to installation and connection of electrical appliances from the dealer versus ordering devices online (which according to TS are not available in the desired version) and connecting them yourself, there certainly isn’t a huge price difference!

If all the good ones go bankrupt, the only option left is to go to the unscrupulous furniture giants who (as you correctly write) cheat customers.

Back then, I received an offer from my local kitchen dealer where everything was priced, and due to the very good and honest advice I knew exactly what I was buying. THAT is fair for me, even though he wasn’t the cheapest. If something was jammed or later not to my satisfaction, he was at my place within a few days. You can forget about that with Ikea or other large furniture stores.

What I don’t understand about this thread is that many complain here about the opaque pricing of kitchen dealers, whereas many industries make that completely non-transparent. I once wanted to buy a car from a BMW dealer. 15% was the maximum discount. At the same dealer, the company I work for got a 47% discount on the same car!

If you feel cheated somewhere, then simply don’t buy there! But you shouldn’t complain about prices, pricing, or unscrupulous advice! Everyone has the right to free price setting.

For example, I constantly get annoyed that higher earners are excluded from all subsidies. While others save tens of thousands of euros with grants like the Baukindergeld, I get nothing. Why actually? However, constantly complaining about it doesn’t help any more than complaining about some dealers’ pricing. Life is just more relaxed that way.

Our kitchen provider (Küchen Aktuell in Norddeutschland) has good radio advertising. Exaggerated 80% discount benefits, last-price promises, dishwasher included, and finally the cook included as well... they distance themselves from that. Don’t know if you can access the radio advertisement somehow.

Isn't it worth considering moving away from conventional towards truly individual kitchen planning?

- So planning and individual offer for the furniture as well as the countertop (if wood look is desired) from the carpenter
- Electrical appliances from the electrical specialist market including installation

there are always exceptions, fortunately. But even small local dealers are not always good. One of them wanted to push your exhibition kitchen on us, didn't even consider an individual plan because our budget was allegedly too low.

I can't agree with you: my above-mentioned description from 22k to 8.9k was at Küchen Aktuell regarding distancing oneself from the stupid promises, but I don't mean to say that they aren't good. We got our kitchen from there and are, apart from minor exceptions, completely satisfied.

A little anecdote on the side: back then Küchen Aktuell had an offer that when buying a kitchen, you would get a pot set worth €1,500 as a gift. I said that I didn't need the set and asked them to deduct the amount directly from the purchase price. This was done, but of course not the full €1,500 was deducted. The final invoice showed three different discounts without amounts specified.

Due to a faulty installation of the sink, where a replacement would not have been reasonable and which we wouldn't have even noticed without the installer's notice, we got a shopping voucher from them. When we redeemed it, the €1,500 pot set was available in the shop for just under €600 (of course listed as a great offer). That's the topic.

As with every shopping and consulting experience, it comes down to gut feeling. Someone who tempts me with something I don’t need when I want to spend tens of thousands of euros is already off my list. At Allkauf Haus there used to be a "free controlled residential ventilation" day at the model park if you signed today. And we are talking about hundreds of thousands of euros! Apparently, there are always people who let themselves be lured by this or fall for such a business model, otherwise the company wouldn’t still exist... Speaking of prefabricated houses. THAT is, for me, non-transparency and hiding prices or costs at its worst!

We went wild at the beginning of the planning phase in the IKEA kitchen planner and had to eventually admit that IKEA would neither be perfect for us nor that we are born kitchen planners. We then sought advice at kitchen studios. Some of them also had the classic "pushy salesman" syndrome. However, one kitchen studio matched our taste because they agreed to drop the percentage talk and only discuss final prices from the start. Moreover, we were advised there, not badgered. The employee there first planned a kitchen for us that we really liked.
The price was well above our expectations, but it was our kitchen and it was supposed to be that one, no other.
We then obtained a few more comparative offers. No one could significantly underbid that price. Therefore, we bought from the kitchen studio that planned the kitchen for us without any further negotiation.

For example, I constantly get annoyed that high earners fall out of all subsidies.
While others save tens of thousands of euros with the Baukindergeld, I get nothing. Why actually?

But the Baukindergeld threshold is really high, it’s 90k. As far as I know, it’s not gross income but what later appears as household income on the tax return.
If you are above that, it is presumably an argument to ensure social justice and not to subsidize those who are already better off. This ignores that this better position is usually not God-given but earned through hard work.
It is similar with long-term unemployment benefit recipients. We basically feed all of them, too, and we might ask "why actually?" But the sad truth is that it also takes a certain amount of luck to be raised with the values needed to succeed in a merit-based society. If a child has never been on vacation, has never seen their parents work, and their immediate role models have never been ideal role models, then that child has a certain natural disadvantage in society. That does not mean the child cannot succeed, but the path there is more difficult.
Everyone is the architect of their own fortune, but everyone also has a different starting position in this race, and those are not always fair. I think that’s where the welfare state steps in and tries to regulate.
Personally, I find the situation we have here reasonably acceptable, even though I partially "work for others" myself; that is much more preferable to me than the opposite exemplified by the USA.