Tactics when buying a kitchen / how to negotiate properly?

exactly.
The OP writes himself that the offers cannot be compared because he always added more extra requests. So what are you supposed to advise now?

I absolutely wanted a height-adjustable extractor hood, which not every studio could offer. So I was already limited there. Besides, you are also limited regionally. It seems to me that the OP is struggling with the offer price because it is too expensive for him.
Many consultants ask in advance when the kitchen is planned, as their order books are so full that they no longer rely on customers who bargain for the last euro anyway.

I paid my tiler 100€/sqm, which is ridiculously high. However, the available tilers at the time when I needed them were limited to 3 companies. All ranged between 90-120€/sqm.
What can you do?!
This has nothing to do with transparency or rationality anymore. It is merely supply and demand that determine the price.

How did you approach the kitchen topic?

There is really less bad stuff nowadays, even at OBI you can now get equally decent kitchens. Don't let yourself be pushed anywhere but do what suits you and what you like.

my comparisons that you portray as silly are simplified examples just with different products.

The calculation of such kitchens and the margins of the individual businesses depend on so many factors that some have to add more, others less, even if they come from the same manufacturer.
Also, hours-long consultation talks with potential customers who ultimately do not buy must be factored in.

Of course, I questioned many things when building my house, but in the end, you have to pay the market price, even if it seems overpriced,

because you eventually need something like a kitchen, bathroom, WC, etc., and you don't have unlimited time to explore. Similar to financing.

The topic could be settled with the answer "get several offers and compare apples to apples."

.....but apparently this is about more..

The comparison with the dispute between me and the electrician does not fit here at all because this was about something completely different.

If something is "overpriced," meaning deliberately detached from quality/performance/market price, I don't buy it

This is how our kitchen purchase went:

Initially planned a bit and received some half-hearted offers, I decided to make it as transparent as possible:

I planned my kitchen with the Keuchen Fruom (written like this on purpose because it would otherwise be censored here) and chose a manufacturer, for us Schüller 6-raster.
Then I went through and specified every cabinet, including the division of the drawers.
I also chose all the appliances myself, as well as the fronts, handles, and stone countertop.

With this information, I went and had the kitchen priced.

1. Small local furniture store, where my parents had bought 30 years ago, family business, very nice.
2. Large furniture store, known from the advertisement with the big red chair.
3. Another large furniture store.

The first one gave me an offer of around €21k, after a short consultation I got another €300 discount because no planning service was required from them.
Using that as a guideline and with a very good feeling, I went to the second.
They initially wanted about €45k, only to offer the kitchen to me for €35k after some discussion. When things got unpleasant because he accused me of just wanting a comparison offer anyway, he went back to the boss and came back with €28k or so, but only for that day.
Are you kidding me? Of course, I want a comparison offer!!! In other industries completely normal, here it is not at all appreciated...
I then got up angry and declined with the statement that this was too non-transparent for me and I wouldn’t participate in such a thing.

The third in line offered me the kitchen from the start for about €23.5k. After I declined the lady there because I would accept another better offer, she wanted to know how much we were going to pay, she said she could still improve the price.
But when I informed her of the offer, she declined and advised me to accept the offer. We then did that and even negotiated 2 cutlery inserts in oak out of the deal.

It’s like everything else in life, only more intense:
If you don’t compare apples to apples, it’s hard to get an overview. My path was long and arduous, but it was worth it. On top of that, the kitchen really works and is suitable for working.


I would do it the same way again, or just Ikea.