Why two quotes for the same thing differ by 30 percent
You send the same square footage and headcount to three dealers and get back three numbers that are not close. The instinct is to assume someone is gouging you. Usually that is not what happened.
The spread comes from what each quote includes, what brand and tier it assumes, and how the discount is applied. One quote prices a premium single-catalog line at a modest discount. Another prices a comparable open-line product at a deeper discount and folds in install. A third leaves install and freight off entirely so the bottom line looks lower until the invoice arrives.
Reading the proposal correctly means knowing where the cost hides, so you compare the actual delivered project and not three different definitions of the word "furniture."
The line items that hide the real cost
The product list is the part everyone reads. The cost lives in the lines underneath it.
Freight. Furniture has to ship from the plant to the dock. On a full floor this is real money, and a quote that omits it is not cheaper, it is incomplete.
Delivery and install. Someone has to receive, unload, carry, assemble, and place everything, then haul away the packaging. Install commonly runs 8 to 15 percent of the product cost. A quote without an install line is hiding it or expecting you to find labor yourself.
Design and space planning. A real proposal includes the floor plan, the specification, and the revisions. Some dealers bury this in the product margin, some bill it separately. Either is fine. A quote with no design work behind it is just a price list.
Project management. One person coordinating the order, the deliveries, the punch list, and the fixes. On a multi-brand project this is the difference between a smooth install and you chasing five vendors yourself.
When you compare quotes, line these up first. A higher product number with install and freight included often beats a lower one that bills them later.
List price, discount, and what the discount means
Furniture is quoted off a manufacturer list price with a discount applied, and the discount is where the number gets slippery.
List price is not a real price. It is a starting point set by the manufacturer. A 50 percent discount off a high list and a 30 percent discount off a low list can land at the same dollar. The discount percentage alone tells you nothing without the list it comes off of.
What matters is the net delivered cost: the actual dollars to get the specified product installed on your floor. Ask every dealer to quote net, not just percent off, so you are comparing money instead of marketing.
A single-catalog dealer discounts within one brand's structure. An open-line dealer can move the spec across many manufacturers to hit the same function at a lower net, which is usually where the real savings on a project come from, not from squeezing a deeper percentage out of one line.
The questions to ask before you sign
A few direct questions surface everything a proposal does not spell out.
Is install, freight, and project management included, or quoted separately? Get it in writing either way.
What is the lead time per major line item, and what is the longest one? The slowest product sets your move-in date, not the average.
What is the net delivered cost, not the discount percentage? Compare dollars.
If one product has a long lead time, would you propose an alternative? An open-line dealer can. A single-catalog dealer often cannot, and that answer tells you which kind of partner you are dealing with.
What happens to our old furniture? A full dealer handles decommissioning. Through our RESEAT program we help resell, donate, or recycle what you are replacing, which can offset part of the new spend.
A good proposal answers these without flinching. If a quote gets vague when you ask, that is the most useful thing it has told you. We are happy to walk through your proposal line by line at the Hooksett showroom or over a call.
