Surprising Results from my Comparison Shop for KitchenAid & Viking MixersYummy Yammy

This fall I scoped out prices on new KitchenAid  mixers. If you are in the market for anything these days, you’ll want to know this. They are the least expensive at… the three locally owned stores!

Board & Basket and our own Dan & Whit’s  have the best prices by far on KitchenAid.

Board & Basket and our own King Arthur Flour  tie in price and availability on Viking mixers.

At D&W you need to know what you want, as  you choose from a catalog, but due to the cooperative nature of Ace Hardware stores,  D&W has a much better price than Kohl’s. You special order them
with Al  or Reed.

Board & Basket was extremely helpful, and, like Dan & Whit’s,  offers the KitchenAids at “the lowest price KitchenAid allows them to be  sold at.” I loved seeing the gorgeous colors and
styles there on display in this attractive store.

At Kohl’s and Walmart I was left to  my own devices to find things on the shelf and to know what to do with it.

The details on KitchenAid & Viking mixers in the upper valley:

* The KitchenAid “Professional 600″ Series (575 watts, 6Q) is $499 at Kohl’s and $400 at both D&W and Board & Basket

* The KitchenAid “Artisan” model (325 watts, 5Q) is $359 at Kohl’s, and $300 at D&W.

* The KitchenAid “Classic Plus” I only found at Kohl’s ($259)

* The KitchenAid Classic” was only at Walmart and was  the only KitchenAid they carried ($200)

* Best Buy and the WRJ kitchen store don’t have any  KitchenAids or Vikings at all.

* Best Buy can order a revolving supply of  refurbished KitchenAids, but they didn’t have a Professional available.

* Board & Basket has all the Vikings, King Arthur Flour Bakers’ Studio has a very good selection of Vikings, and the two stores tie for the best price ($479, sale price while supplies last)

I am delighted to share the results of my search. I  have to admit: even though I am a staunch supporter of buying and doing  local, my beginning guess was completely backwards. I expected it to be  more expensive at D&W and at Board & Basket and even at King Arthur.  I’m chagrined at that, and note that the big box stores had me convinced, too,  that they are cheaper than neighborhood stores. I am delighted to  be proven wrong. Delighted!

And it’s not the first time. Our last  toaster oven was $5 less at D&W than at Walmart, for the exact same item. I love  it when local is not only a better customer service experience (Board & Basket
beats Kohl’s to a pulp) but also a better price. I will never start with that assumption  again.

Yammily yours,
Lisa

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