Kitchens By Hastings

Kitchens By Hastings runs out of a single showroom at 36 Broadway in Saugus, and the name has been tied to that address since 1981. Its president, John Hastings, has led the company continuously since that October — over four decades by his own account — and it says it still works the same stretch of the North Shore: Saugus, Danvers, Melrose, Malden, Lynn, Peabody, Middleton, and greater Boston. The credentials line up with that tenure. Massachusetts lists its home improvement contractor license, #158416, as active. It has carried National Kitchen & Bath Association membership since 1982 and holds status as an Authorized Fieldstone Cabinetry Dealer — trade affiliations that track with over forty years of doing the same work, not just marketing lines. Where ratings show up, they're good: 4.9 out of 5 on Houzz across 14 ratings, an A+ from the Better Business Bureau with no complaints on file, 4.0 out of 5 on Google. That Google number rests on just four ratings, though — thin for a business this old — and there isn't a body of written customer reviews here to read through beyond the star counts themselves. This looks like a shop that gets hired on referral and a long local reputation more than one that collects reviews online, and the ratings should be read that way: real and consistently positive, but built on modest samples that vary from source to source. There isn't much of a red flag to raise — no complaints and no negative reviews turn up anywhere — but that thin online trail is worth knowing going in, since it means less independent testimony to check the high marks against than a shop with hundreds of reviews would offer. This reads as a fit for a kitchen or bathroom cabinetry and design project with an established, single-location North Shore shop rather than an online-review-driven pick. The license number is easy enough to verify directly, and worth doing before signing anything.