A Belling range cooker doesn’t have to be the most expensive thing in the house, or even the most expensive thing in the kitchen. The Belling classic range, for example, is finding its way into certain independent white goods stockists for significantly less than one might be expecting to pay in a high street outlet – sometimes as much as a several hundred pounds less, in fact. The reason: a discrepancy in company values, which has finally made itself known in the aftermath of the financial downturn.

Simply put, the story goes like this: the Belling range cooker, along with pretty much every other oversized item of white goods in the UK, used to be sold for phenomenal mark-ups and with hidden clauses in what were virtually unspoken "contracts" – when a person bought a Belling classic range cooker, he or she would unwittingly be paying some of that money as a subscription to a food magazine. The magazine subscription effectively became a part of a "contract" entered into at the time of sale, whereby the buyer "agreed" to a year’s subscription – and bought it with money he or she thought was going on the Belling range cooker.

As if that wasn’t enough, the actual prices of the Belling cookers, and all the other cookers and fridges in store, were hiked up to reflect the store rent, or to help pay for loss leading items in other promotions. And so the idea grew: a Belling classic range cooker is expensive.

These days, of course, those big name stores can’t afford to cram unseen contracts and extra margins onto items that people can buy cheaper elsewhere. Unfortunately (for them, any road), they also can’t afford to drop their prices because then their margins fall apart and they find themselves in dead trouble. So instead they have to watch, leaning on the rod they have made for their own backs, while smaller independents (most of whom were, until recently, simply into wholesaling) start selling the Belling range cooker to the public for a much more affordable and reasonable price.

The good news, then, is for once all pretty much on the side of the public. The Belling classic range cooker is not expensive at all. It isn’t a cheap item, of course – it’s a quality range cooker that is guaranteed to last long and perform excellently. But it is now being sold for a price commensurate with its actual worth. Lucky customers managing to track down the wholesalers who have already started to branch out into private sales are finding that they can save as much as 29% on the previous average price of a Belling – news that probably leaves those high street buyers in a state of barely bridled fury. And the shoppers, for once, in a state of pretty much undisguised glee.

What, after all, is not to like? The Belling range cooker quality – sold for a reasonable price with no hidden extras. Sourcing an affordable Belling classic range cooker is now as easy as clicking a mouse.