24 May 2009

How NOT to have a give away

Amerock, the hardware people, are having a contest to generate some interest in their collection of rather pedestrian kitchen hardware. The grand prize, according to their website is this kitchen.


They're not kidding. They are giving away the kitchen in the photo. Not a version of it to fit the prize winner's home, but this kitchen. This pre-existing kitchen that's now sitting in some one's showroom no doubt. Here's the fine print from their entry rules:
One Winner will receive an existing, custom, pre-built kitchen, including custom medium brown maple cabinetry, Amerock Revitalize decorative hardware, Elkay Lustertone gourmet undermount stainless steel sink, Elkay pewter Oldare faucet, Zodiaq “Giallo Michelangelo” island countertop, and Zodiaq “Black Forest” countertop. Kitchen does not include internal plumbing fixtures and hardware or appliances. Sponsor will be responsible for the cost of delivery of the kitchen to the Winner. Winner shall be solely responsible for all costs of installation. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute the prize with a prize of equal or greater value due to availability of featured prize. No other substitution or transfer of prize is permitted.
What a curious thing. The fine print goes on to claim that this used kitchen is somehow worth $50K US and $61K Canadian.

Hmmm. It's not hard to rack up a $50,000 list price for a custom kitchen, but custom kitchens only have any value when they go into the room where they're intended. What makes a custom kitchen a custom kitchen is the fact that it's custom-made. Duh.

Outside of their intended rooms, custom cabinetry and counters has painfully little value. Try to sell Used cabinetry some time on eBay and see how far you get with it.

It's not that there's something wrong with giving away an old display, but what a strange contest.

11 comments:

  1. Hmmm... don't think it fits in my tiny kitchen area. Thankfully! That's one ugly kitchen.
    If you have $50,000 and you come up with this :(
    Perhapse it also have something to do with the fact that it's not a typical European kitchen.
    But the peeps who love it GO FOR IT!

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  2. Unfortunately, it is an American kitchen. Yawn.

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  3. How will that exact kitchen fit into any space other than the exact space that it was designed to fit into the first place??

    "Winner is responsible for all costs on installation".... I bet that would cost a ton!!

    Kelly

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  4. This makes no sense. These are really large corporations behind this and it's something I'd expect form a mom and pop cabinet shop. I don't understand why you would give away something that would cost many thousands of dollars to claim...

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  5. Um, where's the refrigerator and microwave? *grin*

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  6. Hah! I hope it has some fluted fillers in it. They're so classy and decorative.

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  7. well- for someone building a new home I guess this would be a Godsend - but if you were remodeling - the cost of installation would be a fortune. needless to say I am not entering this one! anyway - i hate the look of the kitchen to begin with!! hehe

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  8. Thanks for the comment Joni! The whole thing's just strange.

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  9. One consolation is; you don't have to answer a skill testing question in order to win the prize. :)

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  10. Yeah, what's with the math question part for Canadian citizens?

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  11. In their eyes it is called Marketing Strategy targeting the Canadian Consumer.
    I could elaborate on this statement but won't.

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