Favorite Big Box for Tools?

[fm2176]

The title says it all: what's your preferred Big Box tool source? 

 

Admittedly, my "hobby" these days is combing through Lowe's and Home Depot stores, sometimes as far as 100 miles away from home.  You never know what kind of deal may be found, and it gives me an excuse to get out of the apartment and take the dog for a nice ride down highways and byways (I rarely hit the interstate unless traveling longer distances).  So, out of sheer boredom, I figured I'd compare the Orange and Blue stores from a variety of standpoints.  Years ago Sears would have been a factor, but they have gone the way of the dodo in this area.

 

Tool Selection:  Both stores have every basic tool a homeowner or general construction worker would need.  Some smaller stores may not have some specialty tools, and niche trades will likely find a supply house a better choice.  For this reason, I'd say that the two are tied were it not for one reason...Home Depot's rental centers at many stores.  Those larger tools that aren't sold may be rented instead, providing an alternative to larger tool rental companies in a familiar atmosphere. 

 

Tool Brands:  This is where things get subjective.  I used to prefer Lowe's, especially when they had domestically produced brands on clearance.  Naturally, once those clearance deals were gone and the offshore tools ruled  the shelves, I started going to Home Depot more often.  Lowe's currently sells Bosch and DeWalt power tools (some stores carry/carried Metabo as well), with a handful of arguably "lesser" brands (Kobalt, Hitachi, Porter Cable, Black & Decker, Rockwell).  Home Depot sells Milwaukee, DeWalt, and Makita, along with brands like Ridgid, Ryobi, and B&D (and some Bosch saws).  For overall brand representation and in-store availability, Home Depot wins the power tool category.  Similarly, I'd say that Home Depot has the better selection of tool brands.  Ridgid, HK Porter, Milwaukee, Wiss, DeWalt, Estwing, Empire, Klein, and a multitude of other brands are available.  At Lowe's you essentially have Stanley/Black & Decker (SBD) and Irwin brands available, along with a few outliers like Vaughan.  For some reason, though, I've always preferred Kobalt to Husky for hand tools.

 

Special Buys:  Both stores have occasional offers that are pretty hard to pass up.  When it comes to Home Depot, the modular boxes (Ridgid or DeWalt) are unbeatable when they go on sale (like the DeWalt is now) and the simple availability of comparatively "better" or at least more diverse brands like Milwaukee, Ridgid, Ryobi, and Makita as well as DeWalt usually make the Orange store's deals more tempting.  When it comes to special buys on accessories, Lowe's is destroyed by Home Depot, in my opinion.  Brands like Diablo will often have BOGO deals on saw blades and grinding/sanding accessories.  Lowe's will occasionally offer a good deal on accessories, but they simply do not stand out like they do in the other store.  This could be due to store layout as well, though.  Most Home Depot stores have a wider front aisle with plenty of room to place brightly colored Special Buy displays, while Lowe's often has less floor space and shares the color blue with one of the brands that usually offer such deals, Irwin.  Lowe's does win with the more common Special Buys, though.  They use a green sign that contrasts nicely with the shelf space, while Home Depot uses signs that blend in.  For an example, browse the tool aisles and  you may notice the current Ridgid and Diablo promotions do not stand out quite like a neon green sign does.  Lowe's also has the discount applied automatically, something which Home Depot may have finally started (I know they were still having to scan the on-screen coupon for BOGOs a year ago).  Home Depot also has another drawback, explained below in Discounts.

 

Customer Service:  I rarely interact with the customer service desk, but the few returns I've done have been fairly decent overall.  Both stores vary in terms of knowledgeable staff and the number of associates available at any given time.  Since I've literally memorized where almost everything is, and each company uses only two or three layouts in most stores, I usually avoid interacting with the associates unless I need something that is locked up. 

 

Locations:  There are plenty of stores in the greater Columbus, GA area, with Atlanta (a little over 100 miles away) naturally having some of the nicer Home Depot stores in the vicinity of its corporate headquarters.  Across Georgia, though, I found that Lowe's often had locations in smaller towns such as Hinesville, Vidalia, Waycross, or Statesboro, while Home Depot stuck to larger cities like Savannah and Brunswick.  In the immediate vicinity, there is one Lowe's and two Home Depots, with another one of each about 30 minutes away in Opelika, AL.  For most people, either store would meet their home improvement needs and there would be no need to drive a half-hour to another store (as was the case in Hinesville, GA).  For tool aficionados such as me, though, it's worth the  extra drive just to pick up the brand I want (e.g. Klein instead of settling with Southwire).

 

Discounts:  I use a military discount for nearly all of my purchases, and am a big fan of saving the extra 10%.  As mentioned above, Home Depot has a drawback compared to its competitor: the discount does not apply to Special Buys.  While I don't hem and haw about not getting a discount, it is nice to know that even with a BOGO offer I'll save 10%.  It seems that Lowe's offers the discount on nearly any purchase; the only time I was denied it was when a manager gave me a good price on a non-stock item.  Regardless, it is great to have this privilege at either store, and while the discount sweetens the deal it is not a deal-breaker.

 

Left-Over Stock (LOS) Deals:  I consider left-over stock to be former promotional merchandise that went unsold and wasn't pulled from the shelves.  This can result in pretty decent deals a lot of the time.  When I recently bought two Ridgid cordless fans with a free starter pack, I knew I'd need another battery so I grabbed a 4.0Ah from the shelf, regretting not waiting until the holiday season.  Lo and behold, a final walk around the tool section resulted in me finding a BOGO 4.0Ah pack left over from some previous offer.  A few other stores I visited yesterday had two or three of these as well, so if you're in the market for Ridgid batteries, keep an eye out.  Another LOS deal was the Milwaukee Rocket light with 5.0Ah starter kit.  A current promotion tosses in a 5.0Ah battery with the bare tool purchase, effectively including a 2-pack of batteries and a charger with the purchase.  You'll also find LOS turning into clearance merchandise, such as the Milwaukee 9.0Ah starter kit with free Sawzall or circular saw currently selling for as much as $75 below its original price.  Lowe's does not seem to have anywhere near the same amount of LOS deals as it seems that most of their Special Buys are not packaged differently from normal items (a BOGO battery deal would require two individual batteries instead of two packaged together with Special Buy labeling).

 

Clearance Deals:  Both stores can be pretty decent with clearance deals, though it seems that Lowe's is much more sporadic.  Clearance tools at Lowe's often requires a venture down the tool aisles, looking for yellow labels that are not usually extremely discounted.  Some stores will have a designated section as well, while others will occasionally put out a table with used/missing parts/etc tools (an especially good way to score bare tools).  I haven't seen a Home Depot that sells obviously used tools outside of the rental center.  That said, it is possible to find some good deals at Lowe's, such as the Fatmax levels that were recently priced as much as 75% off.  Home Depot seems more methodical (in an erratic way, if that makes sense).  Pricing seems to start at either $.06 or $.00, with the former dropping down to $.02 before being pulled from shelves (though savvy bargain hunters can score literal penny deals, I've gotten exactly two on items that originally sold for under $10).  The latter ($.00) pricing seems to drop more slowly and may not drop any more.  It seems that Lowe's is more apt to clearance out a tool due to it being discontinued or no longer carried, and the best deals are when they switch brands (leading me to outstanding scores on Wiss, Ideal, and Fatmax in the past).  Meanwhile, Home Depot will have more variance store to store, with some stores selling items on clearance at half price while other nearby stores still have that item at normal pricing.

 

"What Are They Doing?" Deals:  Finally, these are the items that you find on clearance at significantly discounted prices and buy because you are sure they will no longer be stocked.  Home Depot has done it with items such as the DeWalt DCV517 vacuum and the Fuel 2763 impact.  Lowe's has done it with the Jawhorse and very probably other items.  Each time I'd find a yellow clearance sticker reflecting a price 25-50% lower than original, only to find the shelves full of that same item a month or so later.  Perhaps it is due to some vendor agreement or a need to move unsold inventory to make room for new products, but it makes little business sense to me that I should be able to pay $150 for two Jawhorses that the store is obviously desperate to get rid of, only to find five more in their place the following month for $150 apiece. 

 

Anyway, I was bored, but think I'll close for now.  What is your favorite big box tool store, and why?  Mine used to be Lowe's for the clearance deals as I started going regularly when they were getting rid of Ideal low voltage tools and Wiss metalworking tools.  Unfortunately, I missed the year prior when they were selling Knipex and Channellock electrical tools at super discounted prices.  Nowadays, however, it would have to be Home Depot for not only clearance deals but also for Special Buys and brand availability.  Another boring weekend or two and I might complete my TTI trifecta by buying into the Ryobi One+ system.  While DeWalt is by far my favorite power tool brand, my Milwaukee Fuel tools and Ridgid fans are great!  It was even better waking up to the dog barking this morning due to a power outage, turning on a Ridgid fan for air circulation, using the Rocket light to find a battery for the ToughSystem radio, and finally using the radio to charge my phone and stream SiriusXM using 4G.  Cordless, it's truly the way to go...  Until my batteries start dying in the years to come, and the manufacturers move on to the next big advance in technology.

 

 

[Jronman]

Depends on what you want to include for big box. If you only include going to a physical location I would have to choose for my top choice Builders because it has a heavy focus on pro brands and is only 20 minutes away from where I live. Also you walk in and the tool section is right there basically front and center. I have seen some discount bins or something there but I haven't looked into them. The store could be bigger but I won't complain. My second choice would be Home Depot because it feels like it has a good selection of tools. My third choice would be Ace Hardware. There may not be the largest selection or the latest and greatest but seems like you can find more oddball things that the bigger stores don't sell. 

 

For online I like Acme tool because of the deals and Amazon is good as well for having prime shipping and a good selection of tools.

[fm2176]

11 hours ago, Jronman said:

Depends on what you want to include for big box. If you only include going to a physical location I would have to choose for my top choice Builders because it has a heavy focus on pro brands and is only 20 minutes away from where I live. Also you walk in and the tool section is right there basically front and center. I have seen some discount bins or something there but I haven't looked into them. The store could be bigger but I won't complain. My second choice would be Home Depot because it feels like it has a good selection of tools. My third choice would be Ace Hardware. There may not be the largest selection or the latest and greatest but seems like you can find more oddball things that the bigger stores don't sell. 

 

For online I like Acme tool because of the deals and Amazon is good as well for having prime shipping and a good selection of tools.

 

Builders looks like a decent store, and appears to be a Do It Best affiliate.  For better or worse, the few Do It Best stores we have in the southeast are smaller hardware stores.  It's great seeing the selection of Channellock products some of the better stocked stores offer, but prices tend not to be the best (though I do make a point to buy something whenever I stop into one.  A lot of the time small towns have hardware stores that appear to be offer little compared to big box chains.  Looks can be deceiving, though: I found a store in Manchester, GA and another in Montgomery, AL that each carry a lot of DeWalt products other stores don't stock. 

 

I agree about Ace, though I would group True Value and Do It Best with that chain.  I had a roadside emergency earlier this year and needed a 32mm wrench to tighten up my pitman arm (the nut had somehow backed almost completely off--not good).  Lowes, Advance Auto, Autozone, and Tractor Supply did not carry one (they maxed out at 30mm and 1-1/4" or so), so I made do with an adjustable wrench and a length of pipe.  A lot of smaller stores carry nearly a full line of Channellock, DeWalt, or Craftsman hand tools, to include larger sized wrenches.  For what it's worth, I did later find a Craftsman 32mm--which I believe was the last time I purchased a tool from Sears--and keep it in the truck box.

[Jronman]

@fm2176 Builders is nice for what it is. I haven't been to the drive through lumberyard thingy but it looks nice from the outside. It is a whole separate building. I do notice a heavy emphasis on DeWALT products but you can also get Milwaukee too. There is also a section for Diablo and Freud. The DeWALT and Milwaukee selection seem bigger than Home Depot. Builders might be the closest thing to a pro guys dream store that Nebraska offers. There doesn't seem to be any brand that would be associated with as being "DIY".

[fm2176]

Drive through lumber stores seem like they may be convenient.  Stine Home and Yard in Louisiana has one, though theirs is on one end of the store and allows customers to walk through it.  For purchases of more than a few pieces, it would certainly be preferable to drive through and have the employees load your truck as opposed to loading up a lumber cart and wheeling it outside.  Unlike Builders, though, Stine does have a fair amount of lower end tools to complement DeWalt and other pro brands.  I can swear I paid well under $100 for my since-stolen 10" miter saw.

[DR99]

Home Depot used to sell used returned tools. They stopped that practice a few years ago and it all just either gets rtv'ed or tossed. Honestly the open box used stuff wasn't worth what they were asking. Some of the stuff look well used and they wanted like 75 80% of retail. Not worth it compared to normal clearance deals HD offers usually.

[DR99]

Lowes is not nearly as good as HD when it comes to left over stock deals for some reason. It wasn't bad a few years ago but lately the deals are pretty meh.

[fm2176]

3 hours ago, DR99 said:

Home Depot used to sell used returned tools. They stopped that practice a few years ago and it all just either gets rtv'ed or tossed. Honestly the open box used stuff wasn't worth what they were asking. Some of the stuff look well used and they wanted like 75 80% of retail. Not worth it compared to normal clearance deals HD offers usually.

 

They probably found that the market just doesn't support reselling returned tools.  I find it odd that the same chain known for selling new products at 75% off on clearance sells display tools (and formerly used tools) for a premium.  I've noticed that a lot of stores will have a display drill, sans batteries and charger for, say, $80 when one can buy the complete kit for $100. 

 

3 hours ago, DR99 said:

Lowes is not nearly as good as HD when it comes to left over stock deals for some reason. It wasn't bad a few years ago but lately the deals are pretty meh.

 

I preferred Lowe's back when they had more treasures tucked away.  Incidentally, Porter Cable 18v tools could still be found back then: I scored things like the OMT kit for under $70 and a fluorescent area light for free!  The best left over stock deals I can recall were for holiday accessory bundles like bit sets and such.  They'd sport a "New Lower Price" of $25 from $50 as soon as they were displayed, but a month or so later some could be found for $12.50 or so.  Lowe's is much more generous than Home Depot on display models, though.  I picked up a second 8v Max gyro driver for $18.  Figured my kit came with two batteries, so it was worth it.  A few months ago the local store had a cart (or "buggy" in this area) full of chargers and batteries at $5 apiece.  I picked up an extra 8v Max charger, Kobalt 20v max charger, and Hitachi 12v peak and 18v batteries and chargers.  I believe I got 3 of the former and one 3.0Ah 18v.  Sure, the dog chewed one of the 12v batteries up (oops...) but I walked out having spent under $40.  I kind of wish I'd have picked up the Bosch batteries and a charger, but didn't want to open that can of worms.