Yesterday, I got an info email (from woodworkingnetwork.com I think) regarding latest news in woodworking industry. One of those was about some lawsuit by domestic manufacturers of RTA cabinets against whomever is responsible for import of Chinese ones. I would not pay much attention to it if I did not see, coincidently, half an hour later in the warehouse of one of the two of my usual material suppliers, here in Central Florida, a possibly related situation.

About a year and a half, if I remember correctly, they started offering some of those imported RTA cabinets. In the beginning I would see just a few boxes lying around the warehouse, usually close to the door. As the time passed by, there were more and more of those. Yesterday, I visited them for the first time after three or so months. 3/4 of the warehouse was crowded with crooked stacks of RTA cabinets from floor to the ceiling that look like someone was trying to save inventory from a nearby warehouse on fire in the middle of a stormy night. Clearly, they were not planning of storing those there for a long time. Luckily, I needed just some hardware, but if I wanted some sheet material, they would probably tell me to come back tomorrow when they sell all those RTA's and clear the way to the rack pallets....

The worker in the warehouse tells me that is pretty much all they do these days. He says: "Guys like you stopped making their own cabinets and are just buying these instead."

Have you noticed any such trends in your area?

On the commodity residential end here we are seeing a heavy move to shops pushing stuff like KitchenKompact, Timberlake, and so on, as if they were made in their shop. Some are even pulling in the extreme low end, scuff, and spray whatever color over white cabs and shipping them. Not sure how they pull it off, if they just dont have customers on the shop floor to see no "cabinet making" going on or what. I know they are not being upfront with their customers because several have said "xyz made our cabinets", to which everyone responds that xyz doesnt "make" anything. If the customer is happy I guess thats all that matters.

There are virtually NO custom cabinet shops in my area anymore other than us, and perhaps one other mixed furniture/cabs, and we dont do but 1-2 residential jobs a year for a reason. Its because there is just no demand, we dont do installs, and the interaction is so intensive when it boils down your hourly rate is in the ditch. Other than very few higher end residential jobs or possibly getting in with a custom builder (in which case your not going to compete as a small custom cabinet shop anymore) there is almost no one in our area looking for, or willing to pay for, "bespoke" cabinetry. When you find it its 4 hours from the shop, uber labor and customer interaction insane (read low margin unless you dont count your jaw jacking time).

We are CNC, modestly up to date, but in our area there is no market for the custom cabinet shop with standard stationary tools, table saw, etc. (not that thats you).

We are in Chicago and the Chinese import stuff is everywhere. Quite a few showrooms all sell it. It defiantly undercuts all of the custom shops in the area. They have shops that assemble them before delivery. It's all faceframe and 1/2 melamine boxes with metal 90 degree corner brackets holding them together. JUNK in my opinion.

But they sell the crap out of it.

Adornus opened in Lancaster Chinese Owned american workers

Adornus