Jan 6, 2014

Haecker Kitchens - German Modular Kitchens

My plan of visiting Hacker Kitchens on a Saturday has been repeatedly postponed over
Hacker Kitchens Bangalore
Courtesy: Hacker India
several months, thanks to the typical trials and tribulations of us as a working couple. The only day of a weekend where you can get any work done is a Saturday. As a result, higher priorities take over and it doesn't help that looking at modular kitchens doesn't fall into " things to do" for my partner who is usually affable to shopping ( possibly because I have low patience for the exercise of shopping itself ). 


The interest in going to see Hacker kitchens was higher because in Bangalore they are housed with a whole lot of other brands under Trisha Interiors. Trisha also has furniture by Hülsta, a Hafele Design studio, furniture by Rolf Benz and few other imported brands of lighting, fixtures, etc. I liked some of the lighting installations a lot and might go back to them. The fixtures were nice but honestly I wasn't very interested at this point. The furniture designs were nice, not wow. I think I might like the designs by Ebony Gautier even better. But then Hülsta uses HDF instead of MDF like Gautier and that probably makes a difference to the overall strength of the product. 

At one point of time, I also felt that the furniture show cased by Nolte and CC India might have felt a bit more sturdy and strong. Pricing was way higher for a comparable size of furniture. Of course if one is interested a discount on furniture existing in the store ( amounting to a clearance I suppose ) could be worked out. However as the sales guy repeatedly mentioned that I should check out the website and if I like a design, then we can place an order ; which gets transferred to Germany from when actual manufacturing starts. Time of delivery is same as modular kitchens,  which is 3 months. 

My visit to Hacker Kitchens particularly was extremely disappointing. Maybe I shouldn't have given out info that we were just exploring and were recommended to check out Hacker. There were 2 sales girls available. The one who started giving a demo seemed to have lesser knowledge than me. While the next one was better, it didn't help that she kept showing some detailed features without focusing on the basics - finish, design , materials.  A clear difference from my experience at Nolté Home Studio and at Veneta Cucine. It didn't help that there were not a lot of models on display. There was 1 entry level model. 2 of the other 5/6 models were very nice, but extremely at the higher end of the range but the design was guaranteed to raise eyeballs. I believe I wasn't even shown ALL the models. 

Hacker Kitchens Bangalore
Courtesy: Trisha Interiors
Visiting a couple of stores, and researching has led me to be able to estimate the basic price of most models. Either the sales girl exaggerated the prices extremely high or Hacker models are very high-priced. I was given pricing of 15 Lakhs for a laminated kitchen set which should not have been more than 6-7L. A wonderful bridge kitchen was supposed to be 45L. While I can't debate the latter, I can definitely debate the former price. From the little demo that I got, I wasn't even sure if they were comparable in quality to the Veneta Cucine models I was shown. For sake of research and brand value , I'll assume that they were. And for some reason, my dear partner took to the brand or like me , he has a positive bias towards German brands. 

Finally getting the door bitch treatment while being handed a brochure instead of the catalog didn't also work well with me. Apparently Hacker cannot also provide basic quotations even after sending the floor plan by email. You need to attend a presentation and I assume that falls under the initial paid design consultation. While Hacker is a reputed brand, I still don't have info of Trisha Interiors as a dealer. With a bad experience initially , I might override my partner 's positive evaluation of the brand on this one. Let's see. 

With the location of Trisha Interiors bang in the centre of the city, I presume that it has provided interior solutions to a host of people. While the greater number of clients would probably be the moneyed business community, it would really help to get information on Trisha's delivery capabilities. Else I don't have a lot of inputs yet to enter this brand my top 3.

Hacker location in Bangalore:
TRISHA, 1A CASTLE STREET, ASHOK NAGAR, BANGALORE-560025
Tel :
+91-80-41131769/70, Mob : +91-9740999350,
Email:hacker@trisha.co.in

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