Form and function. I put my coffee maker on it and it looks great in my kitchen but is also suitable for commercial use. I wouldn’t describe the stainless steel as being heavy duty or thick, but it is a cut above your regular consumer grade cart. This is most noticeable by the commercial grade wheels which makes rolling this cart effortless on hard floors and carpet, and the fact that it will hold several hundred pounds. The cart came preassembled. The only assembly needed was taking 2 minutes to screw on the wheels and removing the protective plastic that covered the stainless steel from the factory. I found that using a hairdryer on the low heat setting works best to remove the plastic quickly. It’s is also currently priced considerably cheaper on Amazon than on their own website. I highly recommend this product.