An operator sends the same list to three suppliers and gets back three numbers with a wide spread. The instinct is that one supplier is cheap and one is gouging. Usually the truth is duller: they are quoting three different jobs, because the list did not say enough to pin down one.
A vague specification does not produce a cautious quote. It produces whatever assumption makes that supplier’s number look best.
What “a range” leaves open
Ask for “a six-burner range” and you have specified almost nothing. Still open:
- Fuel — natural gas, propane, or electric. Different equipment, different service requirement.
- BTU per burner — a light-duty burner and a heavy-duty one are not the same machine.
- Oven base — standard, convection, or a cabinet base with no oven at all.
- Depth and width — which determines whether it fits your line and your hood.
- Certification — commercial listing, which is not optional in an Ontario food premises.
- Warranty and who services it — worth more than a small price difference the first time it fails.
The cheapest quote is often cheapest because it assumed the lightest version of every one of those.
The information that makes a quote comparable
For each item, aim to state:
| Field | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|
| Fuel type | Different unit entirely, and it constrains the building |
| Capacity | Batch size, pan count, cubic feet — the actual working number |
| Dimensions | Both the unit and the space it has to occupy |
| Utilities | Voltage, phase, gas connection size, drainage if it needs it |
| Certification | Commercial listing required for the health inspection |
| Location | Where it sits, which decides ambient conditions and clearances |
| Timing | When you need it on site, not when you would like it |
If you can give a supplier those seven things per line, the quotes you get back will differ mainly on price and service — which is what you wanted to compare in the first place.
The questions worth asking back
- What did you assume where my spec was silent? The most useful question on this list.
- Is this the base model or the configuration I described?
- What is the actual lead time, as a date, from the supplier filling the order?
- Is delivery inside, to the room, or to the curb? A curbside delivery of a walk-in is a problem, not a saving.
- Who installs and commissions it, and is that in this number?
- What is excluded? Usually the most revealing answer of the set.
That last one catches the majority of quote gaps. Installation, connection, commissioning, disposal of the old unit, delivery inside, and tariffs on imported items are all things that can sit outside a headline price.
Where “cheaper” is genuinely cheaper
Not every gap is a trick. Real reasons one number beats another:
- Trade rather than retail channel. A supplier buying at trade rates has a genuinely lower floor than a retail counter.
- Consolidated freight. One shipment of twenty items costs less to move than twenty shipments.
- A model that fits your volume. Right-sizing beats discounting — the cheapest way to save on a combi-oven is often to establish you do not need one.
- Timing. Ordering early avoids expedited freight, which is a real and avoidable cost.
Where cheaper is not
- Domestic-grade equipment in a commercial kitchen. Fails on duty cycle, usually lacks commercial certification, and surfaces at the health inspection when the only fix is to buy the right unit anyway.
- A brand with no local service. The saving evaporates the first time you wait three weeks for a part.
- Excluded installation. A number without connection and commissioning is not a complete price, it is a deposit on one.
- Used equipment with no history. Sometimes an excellent buy, sometimes a compressor at the end of its life. The difference is whether anyone competent looked at it.
The short version
Most quote spread is specification spread. Write the list properly, ask every supplier what they assumed, and get exclusions in writing — and the comparison mostly does itself.
When we price a list, we price the whole thing at once, say plainly what is and is not included, and tell you where an item is over-specified for your volume before you buy it. Telling someone they need less equipment than they asked for is not a difficult conversation. It is the useful one.
