Kitchen industry dinosaurs

I suppose I’ve just got to get this off my chest because it lies uncomfortably

with me.

I paid a visit to the Kitchen Bedroom and Bathroom exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham on Wednesday and whilst

browsing the displays and discovering what exciting new innovations the consumer is about to be exposed to, I overheard a

conversation, or more a lecture, that signified to me the insular nature and intransigence of a large number of people at the

selling end of the kitchen industry.

A displaying retailer, whose company I will not name, was approached by a sole

trader intent on finding out more about the products on display and was promptly given short shrift from the retailer who

wasn’t too happy to discover that his latest visitor didn’t have a showroom to display his goods in.

He went on to

lecture the poor guy on why a showroom was necessary stating, “You yourself only visited this stand because you can feel and

touch the goods and that is the reasoon we won’t deal with showroomless sole traders”.

Humiliated and disappointed,

the guy left the stand, head down and writing pad under his arm he trundled off, no doubt put off attempting a similar enquiry

elsewhere.

If you detect a touch of resentment in my words you’d be correct because many times have I suffered the

same discriminatory fate but just to put the record straight in defence of sole traders, many such people have a first class

knowledge of the best components to use and their experience in the field proves invaluable to a number of consumers looking

for a better deal than showrooms can offer. Let’s hope the exclusive dinosaurs who represent our industry become a dying

breed or at least learn to change their arrogant attitude.
My guess is that he ventured on to the stand in the hope that

he might meet a courteous and welcoming voice that afforded him the time and advice he required to aspire to greater

things.

Instead he met with the same brick wall that always states he isn’t welcome at the private party.

Well

I think things are a changing and my message to all hard working sole traders, many of them kitchen installers hoping to make

a living out of this industry is, you have more right to attend these shows and you have more right to attend award ceremonies

than those whose previous sales experience may have been at a car salesroom only to be persauded to enter the kitchen industry

because of a great sales record.

You at least served your time and don’t give up because more of your kind will soon

be present at the shows to treat you with respect you deserve.and by the way, you don’t have to touch and feel something to

ascertain it’s worth, you just have to be honest when conveying it’s worth.

Right, now that’s off my chest, I’ll

move on to something else.

I have to thank all those who have made our website as popular as it now is. We now rank

higher than many of the household names due to the traffic numbers visiting our website.

It would be good to hear what

you’d like to see more of or, indeed, how we can improve on what we already offer.

Tim.