Here’s another round of bizarre retail math, featuring a couple of Ridgid 18V cordless power tool listings at Home Depot.
You can buy a Ridgid 18V 4Ah battery for $69, or two for $169.
Usually, it’s battery 2-packs that are promo, priced, but in this case you can buy (2) of the same batteries for less individually than via the 2-pack.
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OR, rather than $169 for the 2-pack, you can get the same (2) batteries plus a charger and tool bag for $79, or just $10 more than the price for just (1) battery.
They also have a 2-port charger with (2) 4Ah batteries and (2) 2Ah batteries for $159, which is $10 less than the price of just the 4Ah batteries.
Shop carefully!
Consider this Ridgid 18V LED worklight.
It’s $149 by itself, or $99 with a battery and charger. If you want the worklight, it’s obviously better to opt for the kit with a battery and charger, even if were just looking for the tool-only worklight.
The kit is $99. But it’s also $199. Huh?
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And at the same price, there’s also a $199 bundle with the tool-only worklight plus (2) 4Ah batteries, a charger, and tool bag.
But wait. As we established above, the (2) batteries and charger are $79 separately.
So for $99 for the light with battery and charger plus $79 for the 2-battery starter kit, that’s $178 for the light, 2x chargers, and (3) batteries, plus a tool bag.
I also came across some bizarre retail math involving Milwaukee’s M12 Fuel 2-tool combo kit.
The 2-tool kit plus a bonus battery is $229. Add in a Shockwave bit set, and the price is still $299.
But then there’s another listing where the same 2-tool kit and bonus battery as a single SKU is $199.
It looks like the $199 kit bundle was a deal of the day or similar, as its price went back to $229 today.
Today, there are 3 different $229 listings for the same M12 Fuel combo kit, with one offering a bonus bundled battery and bit set at the same price.
Home Depot often has very aggressive sales pricing on specific kits, model numbers, or bundles. They come up in searches, but you have to know what to look for.
Personally, I search with keywords, and then also model numbers, and things usually brings up all available options.
While we’re at it, this Dewalt 4pc ToughSystem tool box combo is back in stock. It’s been strangely priced for a while now, and I consider it a hidden gem of sorts.
This 4pc bundle is priced at $178.
The 3pc tool box tower is currently priced at $269, and the same if you buy the components separately – $119 for the rolling tool box, $85 for the large tool box, and $65 for the small tool box.
The tray sells for $13 individually.
Add in a small tray, and the combined price drops by nearly $100.
Part of the issue is that certain cordless power tool products are aggressively discounted and promoted.
Consider Home Depot’s listings for Makita 4Ah batteries for an everyday example of this.
Makita 4Ah battery: $139
Makita 4Ah battery 2-pack: $239
This is typical, where a battery 2-pack can be purchased for less than 2 individual batteries.
But what if you need more than that?
Makita 18V Cordless Mower with (4) 4Ah batteries: $399
If you buy 4 individual batteries, it’s $559. If you buy 2x 2-packs, it’s $478. But if you buy the mower kit, you get 4 of the same batteries for $399, plus you also get a 2-port charger and the mower.
You can buy a Makita cordless mower, dual charger, and 4x batteries for less than you can buy just the same batteries separately.
Long story short, shop carefully, as you can sometimes get more for less money.
Saulac
Each bundle is treated as an individual item, including sale decision. If HD does care about pros, which seems to be the focus of all big box stores lately, they should stop doing this.
David Z
Why? Pro’s benefit from deals, also. I’m not sure of your reasoning.
Saulac
People who have time to compare prices online may put up with this. Pros don’t. They don’t have time. Most independent supply houses have higher but consistent prices. This is why I said those want to win business from pros should not focus on price alone. Businesses that cater to pros don’t typically have the lowest price.
S
Depends on the ‘pro’.
Maybe the big shops that supply tools for all their workers don’t care, but most independent or small shops where the worker doing the work has to buy their own tools, absolutely shops on price.
I’ve had things in my cart for 2 years waiting for the right time/price… And don’t even ask me about my 56 different categories of multi-page amazon lists…
Personally, I’m still reeling from the gigantic blow of the information in the comments of the lowes credit card article that said home depot is sunsetting the 11% match program.
I average $6k in new tools/consumable sales a year… The majority of that was all home depot.
This is going to drastically alter my tool purchases for quite a while.
BigTimeTommy
Simply wrong. Sounds like you’re projecting and work for a big careless company that rushes everything.
Bonnie
Oh I’ve known a lot of pros who love deal-hunting. Even for companies to large with too much overhead for it to be a good use of time.
xu lu
Great article. These practices border on consumer fraud. I suspect if an academic had time to study this, they would find legally actionable practices but ever changing prices makes this near impossible for normal folks- how long did this post on a couple of items take you to prepare? As for me, i have simply stopped buying all but need now necessities unless i see you highlight an opportunistic buy here. HD, Lowes and many others have wrecked their pricing integrity and trust along with it.
Stuart
I think it’s more of a matter of unsupervised algorithmic disorder and catalog management.
Home Depot’s review aggregator is also a mess and definitely misleading at times, but so far it seems due to lack of human supervision or control, rather than intentional deception.
I’ve seen some brands game the review aggregator in order to give the appearance of popularity for new-to-market tools and products.
Home Depot’s not alone with these problems. Years ago, Sears had multiple listings for the same products – they had identical tool chests and cabinets with different model numbers and pricing.
None of this is deception or fraud, it’s just a matter of chaos in my opinion.
It needs to be discussed because – and I mean this in the best way possible – a lot of shoppers are clueless. I’ve seen a lot of tool enthusiasts argue about the price of tools and whether they’re good deals or not, based on spurious “percent off” claims.
Ben
First of all, Unsupervised Algorithmic Disorder would be a good band name.
Secondly, my company sells to Home Depot (and other retailers). About 18 months ago, they shook up their pricing team and buyers (mainly by sending a lot of the pricing legwork to their India division); since then, they’ve been unresponsive, pricing makes zero sense, and we’re having trouble even getting some of our items added to their site. To be fair, some of our items compete with store brands or items belonging to companies with which they have very strong partnerships (cough cough, TTI), so the protectionism makes sense from their perspective, but regardless, it’s annoying to deal with the whole company now.
TomD
What we’re seeing looks quite like a system that doesn’t have automatic adapting prices – it doesn’t “know” when an item is equal to another or what a kit is made of.
We recognize them as identical immediately but for the system they’re completely different.
Bonnie
Yep. The software behind all this only knows SKUs and maybe some category tags.
MFC
So my thoughts are that the prices are part of the MSRP and that their algorithm sets prices based on what the tools are selling for at other retailers (competitor kits as well). Add to the fact that prices change constantly based on those algorithms along with sale events, overstock, and probably human meddling, and you have absolute chaos.
However, I assume they know what they’re doing and that people are still paying $199 for two batteries and a charger, when they could be paying $199 for two batteries a charger and a tool. I honestly think that a lot of people are bad with their money, or don’t care.
Plain+grainy
People are busy! With work, children, pets, regular chores. Seems wrong that retailers constantly demand more of the consumers time, just to get the best / fair deal. Really time consuming searching prices, clipping coupons, mailing rebates. When will retailers have some mercy on the consumer, and stop demanding their time.
Plain+grainy
I notice the Ridgid batteries are not the Max output batteries. Home Depot may be experimenting with different combos, just to see what works the best. Might be trying to get rid of supply of regular batteries.
Stuart
I don’t expect Ridgid to discontinue their cheaper batteries.
The new batteries are 6+ months away from launching. Given the timing, they will likely be a focus for Q4 2024 sales and promotions.
These are sales not closeout pricing.
Hon Cho
Chaotic? Certainly but without insider knowledge, yet again it’s just speculation on our part as to why it occurs. It’s certainly not unique to Home Depot and, with a good set of data with historical demand for the product, inventory levels, weather, phase of the moon, etc.. HD’s team might be running multiple sales simulations and spreading their “bets” in a way to achieve whatever objective is for the current quarter. Alternatively, they may be looking at animal entrails and setting prices.
Bottom line, if you’re a Toolguyd reader and you need something mentioned, do your own calculations to figure out what’s best for you. Rest assured Home Depot ain’t looking out for your interests.
Stuart
It’s either random, chaotic, or patterned.
It’s not random and not predictably patterned, so it’s chaotic.
There are so many inconsistencies on a rolling basis, such as discounts on products not in stock, that there’s no semblance of intelligent control behind it.
Promotions such as Makita’s lower kit are deliberate and intentional.
There’s a lot of other algorithmic chaos at every major retailer, such as multi-SKU bundles and “collections” that don’t make sense.
David Brock
Check out the Ridgid Cordless belt sander I have been watching for a while.
Sander alone $129
Sander + Charger + 2 Ah battery $169
Sander + Charger + 2X 4 Ah batteries $199
Sander + 4 Ah battery (1 battery, no charger) $258
Makes no sense
Another Bob
I agree it’s probably some sort of Tech issue causing strange pricing. How many SKU’s at HD? With direct ship 3rd party stuff on the site is it in the millions?
I disagree it’s the stores obligation to protect the consumer from paying more? “Caveat Emptor” let the buyer beware.
HD’s (and any for profit venture) first priority is to maximize profit. Period. Any other benefits to the consumer, planet, disenfranchised group etc etc is coincidental or is planned to garner customer goodwill and ultimately increase profit.
Now it could be argued, and I agree, that this pricing strategy will not work long term and result in less profit as customers migrate to other retailers with better pricing. After all, positive customer perception is integral to a profitable enterprise.
I don’t like feeling like I have been taken advantage of but I accept personal responsibility for all of my financial decisions. If I don’t have time to check the best deal with a 90day or more return policy to get a price adjustment or return the item and rebuy it then I should stop wasting time surfing the web. Except Tool guyd 🙂 Really who doesn’t have time to do a quick cursory google search on a product price when you are at the store?
Pro supply houses charge more because they can. Pro’s pay for the convenience of buying the tool (at a higher price) when they are picking up materials at the supply house rather than make an extra trip to HD. Time that could be spent working/making money offsets the increased product price.
We all can’t get the best deal on everything every time but we should try.
Mark M.
Home Depot’s website tells you a lot about the company. My take: They are making so much money, and lack any real competition, so why should they care? Walmart is much the same way and both websites are strikingly similar in their kaleidoscope of pricing and “deals”. Our local store is a microcosm if the same thing…aisles are subdivided with rows of random crap which makes the shopping experience suck, but I know for a fact they are generating more than 3x their pro forma/projected sales numbers. So if you’re that manager, Who Cares?!?
I feel bad for consumers who can’t sift through the noise and pay more than they need to, but I guess the morbid upside is that there are deals to be had if you’re patient and smart.
Harrison
These type of extreme and illogical pricing shenanigans are why I don’t buy tools at big box stores if I can avoid it. They have the volume and clout to set prices wherever they want on a whim, and sell their favoured products and house brands as loss leaders, while punishing others.
What is a battery worth? $150? $60? $20? Who knows, whatever HD feels at any given moment.
I prefer to shop from independent or professional tool stores who carry the entire product lineup of the brands they stock, and follow MSRP, or market prices. Tegs, MHW, Atlas, IHL, etc all come to mind here in Ontario.
These stores do have promotions, a smart buyer is still wise to pay attention to flyers and wait for sales. However, in a pinch you can buy any day of the year and know you are at least getting a fair price. Discounts for kits and bundles scale logically.
The only reason to buy tools at Home Depot is if you are after their house brands, want basic Milwaukee, or a corded Dewalt miter saw. Otherwise it’s a waste of time.
Mitherial
Flipping the script–why *should* pricing for different item-bundles be logically connected to price for buying component parts separately?
Economically, it is a form of “price discrimination” targeting different types of customers: if you have the time/energy/motivation to figure out discounts, then you will save money at the cost of time and energy (and Home Depot makes a sale they would not have otherwise to a usually-budget limited customer).
Or, if your *time* is more valuable than the expected monetary difference (Professionals and affluent consumers), you buy whatever is immmediately available at that moment, and are either implicitly or explicitly accepting that you are paying a moderate premium (exact amount usually unclear)
Or (usually large shops/affluent Pros) you pay an even higher premium to buy from a speciality supplier with non-volatile pricing–but get easier and more reliable or convenient transactions.
The customer acts according to which aspect is most valuable to them, and different business models serve these different values.
Tool Junkie
Actually, I think it all has to do with “Shelf Time”. I’m retired & work part time at a store. I’ve noticed that there are some staunch Rigid customers, but it’s usually because of the warranty & they’re several purchases into the platform. Overall, I am shocked by how much shelf space they have and how poor the sales of the products are.
HD drops prices as the items sit on the shelf. For example, I saw a DeWalt PowersStack kit with an impact, drill, circular saw, charger & 2 PS batteries that didn’t sell at Christmas. They were marked down from $500 to $200. Someone came in & bought all 3 that were left. Makita was selling their ‘worm drive’ style saw for $400 at Christmas. We had like 30 or 40 in the store. You buy it & you got 2 free 5ah batteries (plus the 2 that came with the saw). They sold about ¼ of the stock. They’re now marked down to $250; however, no extra free batteries after the Makita sponsored promotion ended ( like it would not ring up that way the next day, even). But they had (2)5ah batteries, a charger, & bag marked down to $140, when they were asking $280 for just the 2 batteries on the battery shelf.
However, if you don’t watch closely, you’ll not get a ‘deal’. Right now they’re selling (1) 5ah battery & plain Milwaukee charger for $200, & you get a ‘free’ tool. This is a Milwaukee sponsored sale. The tools are all the older brushed version. Not at all the same deals as at Christmas, when you got 2 batteries & a Fuel tool.
I also noticed the average M12 pricing went up by about $20. The M12 kits are selling with a free 2.5ah battery, but they are more expensive than last fall.
Stuart
That’s more about clearance pricing.
A manager confirmed to me that Home Depot will drop the price of some seasonal tools, send some back to the company, or put them in overhead shelving until the next seasonal promo.
Julian Tracy
My local tool store has a very limited selection and I figure the only pros that shop there are folks spending someone else’s money. Those typer of people but sawzall blades for $3 each, when they are routinely sold in 12-20 packs for $12-25. As a pro, and a deal hound myself, I’m glad for these frequent occasional oddball HD bargains.
Recently, have noticed another odd trend – I’m seeing Dewalt power tools at significant discounts to what the major online stores and big box stores sell them for. For instance, the Dewalt 12v ratchet at $179 baretool lovely or online is about $90 at Amazon. The Dewalt 20v planer is about $229 everywhere, but easily $50-60 less at Amazon. Just goes to show, it’s not how much you make but what you do with what you have.
Stuart
What you’re seeing on Amazon – based on the listings I looked up and confirmed – are 3rd party listings from non-authorized resellers.
A lot of the time, they buy up inventory from Home Depot and Lowe’s at retail during holiday promotional seasons and similar, and ship everything to Amazon for fulfilment.
That’s retail arbitrage.
I’ve heard rumors that some of the products have been stolen, and that there are also counterfeits mixed in, but haven’t seen this substantiated yet.
Right now, Ryobi’s 18V HP brushless 2-tool combo kit is $165 at Amazon, and $179 at Home Depot.
Even at TTI’s outlet store, the “factory blemished” kit is $170, but not available online.
Thus, it was likely purchased on sale from Home Depot and then listed on Amazon.
This is more of “an easy way to make money on Amazon” trend that’s not tied to anything Home Depot or other retailers or tool brands are doing.
Jesse
when i bought 2 m12 rocket work lights with an extra 6.0 battery for the same/less than the price of the tool only, both those batteries died within a year….
JP
Maybe a human rather than chatgpt should make the deals