Wholesale vs Retail Cabinet Doors: What Contractors Need to Know

The Day I Stopped Buying Retail

I still remember the exact moment I decided to stop buying cabinet doors from big box stores. It was a Tuesday afternoon in Bradenton. I was standing in my client's gutted kitchen, phone pressed to my ear, listening to some guy at a call center tell me my "special order" doors would be another three weeks late.

Three weeks. On top of the four I'd already waited. The homeowner was breathing down my neck. My crew had already moved on to the next job. I was going to have to pull them back, reschedule, eat the cost of the callback. All because some warehouse in Ohio couldn't get their act together.

For years, I bought cabinet doors the same way most contractors do. Walking into the big box store, picking from whatever they had in stock, and eating the markup because I didn't know there was another way. I figured the convenience was worth it. I was wrong.

Then I did the math on a 32-door kitchen remodel.

The doors cost me $3,400 at retail. Out of curiosity, I called around to a few trade suppliers and got quotes between $1,900 and $2,200 for the exact same specs. Same material. Same profile. Same finish quality. That's $1,200 I left on the table. On one job.

That was the last time I bought retail.

Why Most Contractors Stay Trapped in Retail

Here's the thing I've learned talking to contractors over the years: most of them know retail pricing is a ripoff. They're not stupid. But they stay stuck for three reasons.

Reason one: They don't know where to find trade suppliers. The big box stores spend millions on advertising. Trade suppliers don't. We're not on TV during the big game. You have to know where to look, and most guys coming up in the business never get shown.

Reason two: They think trade accounts are complicated. Some guys assume you need a contractor's license, a business entity, minimum order requirements, credit applications with blood samples. The reality? A good trade supplier makes it easy. We're trying to build relationships, not put up barriers.

Reason three: They're scared of the unknown. I get it. When you've got a system that works, even if it's expensive, changing feels risky. What if the new supplier flakes? What if the quality's different? What if I lose a job because I tried something new?

I had all those fears too. But let me tell you what actually happened when I made the switch.

The Retail Markup Problem

Home improvement stores mark up cabinet doors 40-60% over wholesale. Sometimes more. That markup comes directly out of your profit margin on every single job.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

Door Count	Retail Price	Wholesale Price	Your Loss
1 door	$100	$55-65	$35-45
10-door bathroom	$1,000	$550-650	$350-450
30-door kitchen	$3,000	$1,650-1,950	$1,050-1,350
50-door large kitchen	$5,000	$2,750-3,250	$1,750-2,250

Multiply that across 15 kitchen jobs a year, and you're looking at $15,000-20,000 in margin you're handing to a retail store. For what? The privilege of picking from their limited inventory? The joy of waiting in line behind homeowners buying single cabinet knobs?

A contractor I know in Venice ran his numbers after our first conversation. He'd been in business for twelve years. Twelve years of retail door purchases. When he calculated what he'd given away in markup over that time, he had to sit down. We're talking about a truck. Maybe two trucks. A year's salary for an employee. Gone to retail markup.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About

The sticker price is just the beginning. Retail cabinet doors come with hidden costs that contractors don't always think about until they're knee-deep in a job gone wrong.

Cost of delays. Retail special orders are unreliable. I've seen contractors wait 8-10 weeks for doors that were quoted at 4. Every extra week is money out of your pocket. Crews sitting idle. Callbacks to finish jobs. Customers getting frustrated.

Cost of wrong sizes. Retail stores stock standard sizes. Your kitchen is not standard. That means modifications, fillers, or settling for doors that don't quite fit. Try explaining to a homeowner why there's a half-inch gap that shouldn't be there.

Cost of quality issues. The doors at big box stores are made for homeowners doing one project, not contractors who need consistent quality across dozens of jobs. I've opened boxes from retail stores and found warped panels, chipped edges, finish defects. Then I'm the one who has to deal with returns, replacements, more delays.

Cost of your time. Every hour you spend driving to the store, waiting in line, dealing with order issues, and managing delivery logistics is an hour you're not billing. Your time has value. Retail doesn't respect that.

What Trade Pricing Actually Looks Like

When I partnered with my door maker here in Sarasota, one of the things I insisted on was simple, contractor-friendly pricing. No games, no hidden fees, no membership requirements, no annual minimums.

Here's our structure:

Order Size	Discount	Example (30 doors)
1-10 doors	Base trade price	Already 35-45% below retail
11-25 doors	5% volume discount	Save additional $80-100
26-50 doors	10% volume discount	Save additional $165-195
51+ doors	15% volume discount	Custom quote for large projects

No annual commitments. No minimum orders. You order what you need, you pay trade pricing, done.

I've talked to contractors who were with suppliers that required $5,000 monthly minimums. Or annual purchase agreements. Or membership fees. That's not partnership. That's a trap. We don't operate that way.

Beyond Price: The Service Difference

Switching to wholesale isn't just about saving money. Though that's reason enough. It's about working with people who understand how you operate.

What retail gives you:

• Call centers with scripts and no authority
• Limited stock in standard sizes only
• "Special order" for anything remotely custom
• Unpredictable delivery windows (or no delivery at all)
• Different person every time you call
• No understanding of contractor timelines
• Returns that take weeks to process

What trade suppliers give you:

• Dedicated account support (you talk to the same person every time)
• Any size you need, milled to your exact specs
• Project templates for repeat orders
• Predictable lead times you can actually plan around
• Someone who answers their phone
• Understanding that your timeline matters
• Problems solved in hours, not weeks

After years of dealing with retail "customer service," working with a trade supplier feels like a different world. When I call my guy at the shop, he knows who I am. He knows what jobs I've got running. He can tell me exactly where my order is in production. Try getting that from a 1-800 number.

Real Stories from Contractors Who Made the Switch

I'm not going to pretend everyone who switches has a perfect experience from day one. But I've seen enough contractors make the change to know the pattern.

Mike, a GC in Sarasota, was doing about 20 kitchen jobs a year. All retail doors. He figured the convenience was worth the markup. Then he tracked his door-related delays over six months: 14 jobs had at least one delay tied to retail door issues. That's 70% of his projects. He switched to trade, and in the next six months, he had one delay. One. And that was because the homeowner changed their mind on color mid-project.

A painter I know in Bradenton was buying doors retail, painting them, and installing. His margins were thin because his door costs were eating everything. He switched to our pre-finished doors at trade pricing. Now he's making more money per job and doing less work. No sanding. No priming. No waiting for paint to cure. Just install and move on.

A cabinet installer came to me frustrated. He'd been burned by three different retail special orders in one month. Wrong sizes. Wrong styles. Damaged in shipping. He didn't believe me when I told him our lead times. "21 days? For custom sizes? No way." I told him to try one order. See for himself. That was two years ago. He hasn't bought retail since.

The Lead Time Advantage

This is the one that really changed my business.

Retail stores stock limited sizes. Need a 14" x 22" door? That's a special order. 6-8 weeks, maybe longer. And good luck getting a straight answer on when it'll actually ship. I've had retail orders show up in three separate shipments over a month. Same order. Three deliveries. That's three times I had to be on site or arrange for someone to receive them.

Trade suppliers like us maintain production capacity specifically for contractors. We're not waiting for some warehouse to ship us doors from across the country. We're making them here in Sarasota. When you place an order, it goes into production that week. Not into a queue at some distribution center.

See how our lead times compare to the industry standard. It's not even close.

Our standard lead time is 21 days. For contractors in the Sarasota area, we can often do 10 days. Emergency situations? We've got a 5-day rush option. Try asking a big box store for 5-day custom cabinet doors. They'll laugh you off the phone.

What About Quality?

Some contractors worry that trade pricing means lower quality. Let me put that to rest.

Retail stores buy doors from the same manufacturers we work with. Sometimes the exact same factories. The difference is they add their markup and their logistics chain. By the time a door sits in a warehouse, gets shipped to a regional distribution center, sits there, gets shipped to a store, and finally gets to you, it's been handled a dozen times. Every touch point is a chance for damage.

When you buy from us, your doors go from our shop to your job site. That's it. Fewer touches. Less handling. Better condition on arrival.

Our doors are MDF core with 2K polyurethane finish. Paint-ready surfaces that don't need sanding or priming. The same specs the high-end shops charge double for. We just don't have the retail overhead to justify.

Making the Switch

If you're still buying retail, switching is easier than you think:

Step 1: Request a trade account. No cost. Takes 5 minutes. We need your basic info and we're good to go. No contractor license required for small orders. No credit check to start.

Step 2: Get your first quote. Send us your door list. We'll send back pricing that shows exactly what you'll save compared to retail. No obligation. If the numbers don't work for you, no hard feelings.

Step 3: Place your first order. First order is prepaid. Standard terms until we build the relationship. Once you see how we operate, you'll understand why.

Step 4: Unlock NET 30 terms. After your first successful order, we can set up net terms. Because we know you're good for it, and we want to make your cash flow easier.

I've had contractors tell me they were nervous about switching suppliers. What if something goes wrong? What if the quality's different? What if they need something fast and the new supplier can't deliver?

Then they see their first invoice. They get their first delivery on time, as promised. They install doors that fit perfectly. And they wonder why they waited so long.

FAQ

Do I need a contractor's license to get trade pricing? No. We work with painters, remodelers, handymen, and property managers. If you're ordering more than a few doors, you're a trade customer to us.

What's the minimum order? One door. Seriously. We don't have minimums. Order what you need.

How do I know what sizes to order? We have measurement guides and templates. Or call us and we'll walk you through it. We'd rather spend 10 minutes on the phone than have you order wrong sizes.

What if I order the wrong size? Mistakes happen. We'll work with you on replacements. It's not the end of the world. That's the difference between working with people and working with a corporation.

Can you match a door I'm replacing? Probably. Send us a photo and measurements. If it's a standard shaker or chamfer profile, we can match it.

Get Trade Pricing Today

Call 941-417-0202 or visit our contractor cabinet doors page to get started.

Your competitors who buy wholesale are making better margins than you. Every job, every door, every time. That's money in their pocket instead of padding retail profits. There's no good reason to keep subsidizing big box store markups when the alternative is this simple.

I made the switch years ago. Best business decision I ever made. The only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. Don't make the same mistake I did. Stop leaving money on the table.

Text or call 941-417-0202. Tell me how many doors you typically order per job. I'll show you exactly what you're losing to retail markup. No sales pitch. Just math. And math doesn't lie.