Stanley Black & Decker, parent company to Dewalt, Craftsman, and other brands, said that they raised prices in April 2025, and also announced that they’re going to do it again soon.
Specifically, they said they’ll be raising prices at the beginning of the third quarter, which would mean July, just after Father’s Day tool deals start to fade.
I came across an article earlier today, about “cheaper alternatives” to Stanley Black & Decker brands like Craftsman and Dewalt, because “they’re going to get a lot more expensive.”
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They said you could go to Harbor Freight and buy Bauer. Sure, as if Harbor Freight’s budget cordless power tool brand won’t be impacted by the same tariffs.
Harbor Freight hasn’t announced any price increases, but they also don’t have to talk about it as Harbor Freight is a private company and not publicly traded. They have a different business strategy than other retailers and might simply cut back on coupons and promotions as they did a few years when demand surged.
The article also recommended Skil as an alternative to SBD brands. Really? If there’s a Dewalt tool you’ve been looking to buy, Skil’s not going to be an on-par alternative even if it’s included in their limited selection. Newer Skil cordless kits don’t even come with a charger, they come with a slow 20W USB wall adapter power brick.
And then they recommended Hart. Of course some of Hart’s cordless tools are “half the price of Dewalt” versions – Hart is a Walmart-exclusive brand that offers cheap tools at cheap prices. Guess what, budget tools are definitely going to be impacted by tariffs as well.
Hart is exclusive to Walmart, and Walmart said they’ll be raising prices. Thus, I’m convinced we’ll see some higher prices on Hart tools.
If you’re considering Bauer and Hart, you’re probably most interested in Dewalt’s mass market tools, and I don’t think those will be affected much anyway.
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Companies say what they do in investor announcements and presentations both for transparency and to appeal to investors. Of course they’re going to say they’re raising prices, because that’s what investors need to hear. Investors like to see higher profits and won’t want to see tariffs eat away at that.
Stanley Black & Decker has deep pockets and strong partnerships. I anticipate that they’ll accept razor-thin profits on highly competitive category products and raise prices elsewhere.
We’ve seen some Dewalt price increases already – see New Dewalt Cordless Pump Launched at Higher Price – and I haven’t been seeing some of the typical deals and promotions I’d expect to see around now.
A popular Dewalt 20V Max Atomic cordless drill and impact driver combo kit is $249 at Home Depot right now, and that’s a terrible price. Home Depot says they have nearly 4,800 in stock, and my store has 42 of them.
Dewalt sold Home Depot tends of thousands of those cordless power tool combo kits – enough to put several thousand in warehouses for online fulfillment and dozens in probably every one of their store locations nationwide.
Those combo kits are not going to sell at $249. Acme Tools has it for $169. That’s not the lowest price it’s been, but Dewalt tends to save the lowest prices of the year for Black Friday and the surrounding holiday season deal months. I’d say $169 is acceptable.
If I were the person setting the pricing for Dewalt, Craftsman, and other SBD tool brands, I’d focus on the more specialty pro and add-on tools rather than the promo-priced mass market tools most popular with consumers. Frankly, I’m pretty sure they do that already.
Many cordless power tool brands aggressively discount gateway and entry point tools they want to sell at higher volumes, and they make up some of the lost profit with the add-on tools and accessories users tend to want to buy later.
I’m sure that in many cases Dewalt trades profit for market share.
Amazon is still selling a basic Dewalt cordless drill kit for $99, and also a basic brushless cordless drill kit for the same amount. It’s not surprising that they didn’t raise prices there.
I don’t know where those kits are made, but they’re definitely not made here and so the new tariffs still apply. Amazon sold more than 9K of one in the past month, and more than 3K of the other. They’re going to sell a lot more over the next month as more people shop for summer DIY projects and Father’s Day gifts.
It’s easy to say you should start considering “cheaper alternatives,” but what’s the point?
EVERY POWER TOOL BRAND IS AFFECTED BY TARIFFS RIGHT NOW.
“Cheaper” brands are not immune to this, and might be even more sensitive to higher import costs.
The idea to avoid Dewalt, Craftsman, or other Stanley Black & Decker brands over tariffs seems ridiculous to me. I’m getting really tired of content mill buzzword journalism.
Lowe’s has a 2-pack of Dewalt batteries for $99 and a free tool promo where you buy a starter kit and get 2 free tools for $299. These are typical Dewalt sales event and seasonal deal prices.
Amazon has the Dewalt XR brushless oscillating multi-tool kit at $99 again. That’s the price it’s been for past holiday tool deal seasons. Is this kit not affected by the tariffs? It probably is, but I’m guessing Dewalt chose to maintain typical promo pricing.
Is there a chance Stanley Black & Decker’s increases will be “pricing you out”? Sure. But I’m not seeing that happen, and I don’t think it will, as the price increases will likely be applied strategically.
When Chick-fil-A raises prices, do folks start flocking to KFC and Popeyes? When Chipotle raises prices, do folks flock to Taco Bell? Maybe, but I never see the lines getting any shorter.
Dewalt and their sibling brands are going to raise prices, and everyone is going to deal with it. Why? Because competing brands are all likely doing the same, and I’m pretty sure most budget-friendly tool brands are be in the same boat.
“What do you mean I have to deal with it on tools that now cost more?” Well, what are you going to do instead?
If you’re buying tools for personal use, maybe you have some flexibility in choice or timing. But then again, the more choices you have, the more incentive Dewalt and other brands have to set prices aggressively competitive.
Just keep in mind that tools you’re likely to buy anyway are the ones least likely to be discounted, and this tends to be true regardless of short or long term market conditions.
All I’m saying is this – if you were in the market for Dewalt or any other SBD brand tools, I doubt that updated pricing is going to stand in your way. Or, you can let yourself be swayed by ill-informed content-churning chicken little-type articles and “recommendations” that are mainly written to appease modern platform algorithms.
Rx9
After looking at the stuff handed down to me by my granddad and how it has not only retained but appreciated in value, I learned to see that good tools are a lasting investment rather than an expense. I built up my tool collection over the years by deliberating on what future use cases might come my way, and buying according to that roadmap, but only when the items were heavily discounted. In fact, that’s one reason I sincerely appreciate the deal alerts on this site.
By anticipating demands and purchasing when the items are cheaper, I’ve built up a formidable collection. This may not work for you, but this strategy works for me.
Another Bob
I’ve done much the same. 4 AM Black Friday lines at Sears 🙂
However I think this only works with hand tools or specialty stuff.
Regular corded drills and saws don’t hold much value. you don’t see too many air tools anymore. pretty much everybody’s going to the new battery platforms. Older battery platforms aren’t worth much either.
It’s too bad I have some 1960’s extremely well made corded drills but they’re just light duty and some 30 year old Dewalt 18 V tools that would still work if I wanted to buy batteries for them.
But a nice set of Matco screwdrivers, a snap on ratchet and a Stanley block plane will always hold value. They’ll also never wear out in several lifetimes.
I’ve begrudgingly come to see battery tools as more or less disposable and the physical batteries themselves even more so. I buy the bare minimum what I need and I always try to buy them on sale/used. Anything specialty I’ll go with corded/air if that’s an option.
kpsr
There are no cordless drills with T-handle that can replace the corded drills I use every week. Ergonomics, shape, rotating mass, speed adjustments. The size of the gearbox and the rigidity of the entire structure from the end of the rear handle to the tip of the chuck.
3-gear reduction Kress drill has been in use every week for +15 year, bought another similar one 2 months ago. Hundreds of holes in RHS beams and steel plates, alu, stainless with hole saws and drills. The Metabo 2 mechanical speed drill, also often used “wider speed range”, 1x,high speed version. These are not models that 95% of the world’s people have used or bought.
Wayne R.
Well said, and the same process I try to follow. Flea markets, garage sales and, to a lesser degree, eBay, are all sources for tools with lots of life left in them at a discount so low their acquisition is usually near painless.
Over the next four years, I expect competition & prices will rise there too.
Bonnie
I have hand-me-down power tools… And for the most part they’re effectively worthless. Not only are they now drastically underpowered compared to even cheap modern stuff, but there’s just no market for a working but beat-to-hell tool, either corded or on an obsolete battery (Makita 18v NiMH). Garage and estate sales are swamped with exactly this stuff. Even most stationary tools just don’t hold a ton of value because there’s hundreds of thousands of drill presses and bandsaws already out there gathering dust.
The tools that have accumulated value like hand planes and saws only did so after about 60 years of being cheap as dirt, and even now the value is primarily driven by collector rather than because they’re good tools.
Now, for the most part I’m not really buying new tools because the ones I have are already good enough for my uses, but there are always new users coming up, and even a durable tool will eventually break.
MM
Agreed.
Few people want an obsolete power tool, the same way nobody wants your old Betamax player or Pentium PC. And while there are some old hand tools out there that are excellent or even superior quality by today’s standards the average old file, hammer, saw, ratchet etc, was nothing special. Find 100 dusty old Stanley planes at garage sales and you’d be lucky if just one ended up being a rare model that collectors shell out big bucks for.
If you want to work with handplanes today the market is very well served. Flea markets and secondhand shops (including Ebay, Etsy, etc.) are full old Stanleys for not-unreasonable prices. It’s really only a handful of rare models that demand high collector prices. As far as new planes go there are inexpensive lower end models which are straight-up copies of the basic Stanleys, many mid-range options, and you’ve got companies like Veritas and Lie-Nielsen who have models that improve upon the old Stanley designs and while they aren’t cheap they aren’t big-buck collector money either.
blocky
Thanks for making me laugh out loud at the banner, while also gritting my teeth. Numbers go up, but not in my column. Meanwhile, from quarter to quarter, there is no real material change in our needs.
Jason
“ Investors like to see higher profits and won’t want to see tariffs eat away at that.”
And that right there is one of the biggest problems. Investors refuse to take little less profit for the benefit of, well, anyone. It used to be that investors got a share of the excess profits after all the expenses were paid. Nowadays they get their profit first, and every other expense, especially wages, has to be made to fit the leftovers. I see it everyday in my job; more profitable any cost.
ITCD
Investors get paid out of the operating or net income. That’s the income after all the costs of doing business (including or not including taxes) are paid. Workers are still paid first, and they’re guaranteed by law to be paid while investors aren’t guaranteed a dividend at all, the real trickery is in minimizing expenses to make that bottom line bigger for obvious reasons.
Even if it weren’t a public company though, doesn’t mean the people getting the profits want to lose those profits. Businesses at the end of the day want to make money, and aren’t always that open to just eating costs foisted on them which are entirely out of their control and which seemingly are at the whim and whimsy of someone who they may or may not have elected or support.
Chris I
…….so then the answer is we all need to be F/T investors and not the ‘anyones’. If we’re ALL vulture capitalists, then EVERYBODY will win.
Kay
I’ve built up a nice selection of DeWalt power tools, quality brand hand tools, yard equipment, and storage solutions over the past few years. I’m not a girly-girl woman, so following sites like this, scouring holiday deals, and checking all the websites of my favorite tool brands, fills the same sort of spot for me as say clothing shopping. 😊
Sometimes I worry that something expensive I just purchased was more of a “want” than a “need”, but I ALWAYS end up very happy with how it expands my abilities and saves time.
However, I am very aware that new power tools typically aren’t “build like they used to be”. So I am very fastidious in the care I give them.
I brush the dust and dirt off of them every couple of days, take a blow gun to them every week or so, and every couple of months I “field strip” them for a thorough in and out cleaning. If there’s a tool I use extensively for a project, I completely dismantle them for cleaning and lubrication when that project is done.
I have a bench grinder with stone and wire wheels, a Dremel with sharpening bits, and some files to take care of all my edged hand tools and garden equipment. I’d like to get some sharpening stones next to keep up my chisels and knives.
I give my hedge trimmer and mini chainsaw a good cleaning and lube after every use.
My hope is that all this effort will keep my “not made like they used to be” tools working for a decade or more. I’ll fix them up with replacement parts before buying new if I need to. 👍
Mike
My father drilled into me the need to take care of my tools. I have some cherished drywall tools (as well as other tools that I own ) that I love to use, and I think of him every time that I use them.
Jaime
I tend to watch prices and buy when a deal is priced appropriately. More importantly I buy the tool when I know I’ll need it. I have bought a couple of tools that I bought at an “incredible”price only to sit unused for an extended period. That money would have been better spent on a “now” tool. With that said, I made all my high dollar tool purchases last Xmas, I suspected that tariffs and all the market stuff going on would cause what this article pretty much summed up. Sadly or gladly, I will stay on the sidelines and keep my money in my pocket unless I have a dire need for a tool.
CharlieD
Robots are probably going to take over basically all manufacturing within half a century anyway. As opposed to using foreign slave labor. And no I’m not joking.
I’m fundamentally a capitalist but gutting your society to make a few more bucks can’t last forever. And we are approaching the end of this period of outsourced labor exploitation.
Watching my town die so I can save some dollars on a power tool is not worth it. Most of this foreign made stuff is crap anyway. A modern fridge won’t last 10 years and yet my family still has a fridge from the 1960s keeping drinks cool in my uncles barn.
Stuart
No they won’t. Robots could already replace plenty of jobs and tasks, but haven’t and won’t.
Either way, what does that have to do with SBD price increases?
tjb
Correct. They’ve been saying this about robots for DECADES. While robots have replaced many manufacturing jobs, they haven’t put everybody out of work like the dystopia enthusiasts have forecast.
(Personal prediction: it will be similar with AI)
However – the thought that all these companies will magically move all their manufacturing back to the USA next month is ludicrous. The USA no longer has the knowledge, experience, and infrastructure for turnkey plant openings that it used to. We don’t own the machines required to build the machines required to build the products. We may see a significant uptick in stateside plant construction in ten years. Not this summer. And it will feel like a long ten years.
Kingsley
It’s going to be a lot sooner than 50 years. Thr mass production of a general purpose robot is only a few years away. Once robots can self replicate, the cost will come right down. Then they will replace almost all jobs.
Tesla are targeting $20,000 for Optimus
ITCD
Better pump the breaks a little bit on when this rollout will happen. Also AFAIK the price is “expected” to be $30K, still less than a year’s wages for a human factory worker but 50% higher than your claim.
The Optimus bot still requires teleoperation, and learns via watching videos which is pretty dang cool to see it doing a task after watching it be performed but there’s more to factory work than “insert part push button.”
SPC and other modern quality systems push for quality at the source rather than a QC guy picking out a few samples from a batch and calling it good, the idea being to identify problems ASAP to minimize waste both in terms of amount of waste produced before a defect is recognized, and the amount of labor and resources wasted continuing to process a defective part. In the future this might also be well within the purview of robotics etc but I just don’t see the Optimus receiving an instruction of “weld the window frame” and also insinuating from watching video footage on how to load vinyl frame parts into a welder that they’re also supposed to be watching weld alignment, may need to shim the fixtures to get that alignment, have to insert or remove fixtures or inserts from those fixtures for different profiles, may need to adjust offset parameters for a profile to get it within tolerance which involves interacting with an HMI which may or may not be the most user-friendly to begin with, identify when Teflon needs changed, when temps drop, when some part is coming loose or is broken, noticing scratches and dents and black pits, using a hest gun to fix dents, log quality checks as required by standards the companies adhere to, etc. The actual loading and unloading of WIP and hand-clipping anything that won’t be removed by a corner cleaner is about where I see Optimus being able to do stuff right now. But there’s a ton going on in a modern manufacturing environment, I just provided the example of one single specific job in a specific industry
Pushing a vacuum and stirring a pot purely on voice command is cool, especially how the stuff doesn’t need to be specially pre-positioned and all that, but we’re more than just a few years out from a general purpose robot that’ll just take all the jobs.
Brad
It may not be worth it to you or me, but based on how offshoring manufacturing has gone, it’s worth it to the vast majority of Americans. They don’t care about the ethics or macroeconomics of their purchases; they care about paying the lowest prices, often even at the expense of quality. I’m skeptical that consumers will modify their behaviors until they’re too poor to even have the choice to buy jobs-supporting products.
Stuart
I’ve said this recently – most people do care about where products are made, but they care more about lower prices. Consumers express similar preference when faced with choosing between higher quality or lower pricing.
MM
I agree, though in my opinion It’s not just lowest prices people can’t get enough of, it’s also convenience. And people are willing to sacrifice a lot for that.
I propose fast food/drinks as a great example. It’s not very good quality, and it’s far from cheap. It’s very often unhealthy. The packaging is wasteful, and so is idling a car in a drive-thru lane waiting to get it–or worse yet, having it delivered to you. Yet, people can’t get enough of it.
Stuart
Many people will forgo convenience for lower pricing. Fast food isn’t a good example because it’s been engineered to taste good. Most sodas have zero nutritional value. How many people will order a soda at a restaurant at higher cost than a free cup of tap water? That’s not about cost or convenience, but taste or enjoyment.
Badger12345
The economic numbers from the Conference Board, Michigan sentiment ratings, BoL statistics, etc. are all pointing to a slowing economy with housing, commercial building construction, and manufacturing all declining in activity. These are all big professional tool users.
Some of these tool companies are likely going to use tariffs as cover like others did with inflation to increase prices well beyond their underlying cost increases.
The demand for tools is likely to slow down. As demand falls and tools sit unsold in warehouses something will have to give (margin, quality, performance, or selection.)
Jim Felt
Bluntly I do not care. Prices have risen time after time in my career(s) and contemporaneously that never once impacted our acquisitions nor ultimately margins.
AKA I’ve seen this before and no big deal.
The caveat, of course, being that no one knows the future. Is this finally the Big One? The Tipping Point? Hmmmm.
No idea.
S
The difference this time is that previously, price increases were largely due to inflation.
Now we’ll see price increases that are effected by inflation, but also a devaluation of the dollar, and the tariffs.
One aspect of price increase is normal. But three aspects all within one sales quarter has no past comparison
Jim Felt
Why it’s almost like we’ve entered an economic and ethical NeverLand!
The Absolute Law of Unintended Consequences? But hey! America.
Stuart
NO politics, please try to stay on topic!!
Hon Cho
Your site, your choices, your human-generated words. However, I see your take on this sort of “news” as not really any different than the sites you describe as
“… ill-informed content-churning chicken little-type articles and “recommendations” that are mainly written to appease modern platform algorithms.”
Yes, prices will go up, for political reasons that are splattered all over the internet. There will still be deals and people who need tools. Keep posting those and you’ll still have eyeballs without concerning yourself about what the AI algorithms are or are not doing.
Stuart
This is the result of me constantly seeing uninformed nonsense in my news and social media feeds. The massive amount of tool industry misinformation grinds my gears on a daily basis. I find it hard to not respond.
The emails I get tend to push me towards posting well. e.g. “did you hear Dewalt is jacking up prices on everything.” Yes, but it’s not really going to be on everything. It makes sense to write a post rather than have multiple versions of the same conversation privately.
Also, there’s a difference between politics and policies. Just because industry news and *policies* stem from politics, that doesn’t make it less important or relevant.
S
There’s the old adage about arguing with stupid people. They’ll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Don’t let the AI generated slop drive you too far mad. There’s still plenty of people that value quality web content over quantity.
I agree with all your points– no professional tool user is cross shopping Hart and dewalt. As they say “there are no free lunches”.
Or there’s the race car quality cost between entering the race, finishing the race in dead last, and finishing in a top 10 spot.
Sure Hart is cheaper all around, and has similar power levels. But we all know how they had to use lesser quality battery cells, and less or cheaper material to make up the price difference.
I’ve heard dozens upon dozens of stories from Makita, Milwaukee, and DeWalt tool users about accidental drops from 2+ stories up “and the tool worked just fine after”.
Baur or Hart can’t cut costs and also stand up to that kind of daily violent abuse without also raising prices to account for the additional ruggedization that’s not apparent in a YouTube torque race or in a spec sheet.
Stuart
The unfortunate truth regarding AI drivel and low quantity content is that it no longer matters what people value. What matters is what search and platform algorithms will expose to an audience or potential audience.
That’s something I’ll get into another time. Mass media sites are giving tool news, review, and deal assignments to writers who have zero understanding about tools or the industry, and it’s creating enormous noise.
I’ve seen other tool sites resort to paying for sponsored listings, presumably to boost traffic on their sponsored content posts, but it could be something they’ve felt compelled to do for everything.
There are no tool magazines or reviews anymore. Companies like Festool has said they’re not focusing on that, they are just after social media product placements by influencers in specific trades.
I’ve caught Google AI featuring ToolGuyd content in overview snippets with zero links or attribution.
Because of all of this, I’ve tweaked the balance of my tone almost entirely towards regular readers with far less attention to those who might be visiting for the first time.
But about this topic, many people take what they read as facts. “Dewalt is jacking up prices.” Yes, and no. I feel compelled to set things straight, because I know these “facts” are going to be repeated all over the place.
Every day there’s “Milwaukee is owned by China” misinformation on social media and even regularly in comments here. Nobody fact checks it, they simply parrot what they’ve heard someone else say online.
Posts like this one aren’t about just the news or knowledge, but about understanding. Power tool pricing specifically is very complex and it’s taken years of observations for me to understand the patterns.
Home Depot has a Milwaukee M18 cordless drill kit for $99 right now. Does that mean Milwaukee wasn’t hit by the same baseline tariffs as other brands? Does that mean they’re not raising prices? Pricing is a very non-linear.
If I’m posting about say Stanley Black & Decker’s price increase announcements, I’m going to make sure that we cover the intricacies, because no on else will.
John E
Politics:
Who’s fault is all this? (Short answer: Everybody’s)
Policy:
Quit buying stuff; especially new stuff. We really need to end our addiction to having shiny new things all the time.
Stuart
If you want to talk about culture, let’s talk about how Memorial Day, a holiday for honoring military personnel who died in their service to the country, has turned into a 2 week shopping event.
Jim Felt
Stuart. You’ll notice literally no one can rationally explain that particular marketing “Holiday” naming convention. Maybe the old “Madison Avenue” could?
Brad
I gave my youth and a good deal of my health for this country, but not my life, so I’ve always thought of this holiday as one that isn’t about me. But it actually kind of irks me that it and other holidays that should be somber have becomes dens of thieves.
Trevor
thank you for yourself service Brad
Jeffrey
Shiny new things move the needle in the power tool market. Any real improvement, that measurably makes people’s jobs easier, is going to sell.
I don’t know how long the patent lasts on the Snap-on rocker switch… but when it expires, and Milwaukee and Dewalt… are free to use it, people will be dumping and rebuying all their impacts and impact drivers.
There is no ending the addiction to great leaps forward.
Joe E.
When you (Craftsman) sell cheap, rebranded tools made in India, Vietnam and China at USA prices, and want to blame price increases on tariffs… I would say you better up your quality game to match those price increases. Chunky grip pot metal pliers and poorly made raised panel wrenches probably give you healthy enough profit margins that you can eat some of those increases.
ITCD
I think you need to re-check what made in USA prices are these days. Craftsman you can get a 5-pc jumbo metric wrench set for $65. Just the 30mm from Wright or Proto will run you $35 or more, and there’s still 4 other wrenches to get.
Craftsman Lineman pliers, $16. Who is making USA lineman pliers and selling them for $16? Going rate for Klein and Channellock is twice that. 2-pc tongue and groove pliers $20. Channellock 2-pc set is $35, and the smaller pair of pliers are a little smaller.
And I’m not even taking the cheater route and pointing at Snap-on or Cornwell here. And the Craftsman comes with a rare FULL Lifetime Warranty, not the super common LIMITED lifetime warranty which covers only materials and workmanship, so for the money you’re also getting a better baked-in insurance policy pretty much.
Jack D
Harbor Freight seems to have taken the route you’ve suggested, Stuart, as in cutting back on some of the promos and coupons while they adopt a wait-and-see posture. For example, they’ve recently ended the Bauer “Free Tool” promo on a starter battery kit purchase. I went with Hercules/Bauer years ago, and expect to continue to do so, haven’t had any issues yet…but always eyeing the sales along the way.
I’m still not convinced these tariffs will effect us as much as some fear, but then again, I’ve never much fallen for the usual fearmongering that surround every single thing today…so we shall see.
ElectroAtletico
Power tools from Harbor Freight, hand tools from the tools trucks. Im ok.
Travis
I’ll have to say, I find myself buying less and less over the past 2-3 years. Not sure if that is because of prices or that I just pretty much have what I need. I do like to check out garage sales or auctions once in a while for older US made tools. Definitely keeping more money in my pocket though.
Stuart
It’s not just you.
I logged a ToolGuyd expense the other day, and was surprised that it was my first in about 5 weeks.
Jronman
The problem with all the price increases is if we happen to get incredible trade deals with other countries, I don’t see the prices dropping back to pre tariff prices.
Jronman
Pre 2025 prices I mean
Jason
Maybe instead of a 15 piece wrench set, you can just buy the 1 wrench you need.
Steven Phillips
You’re right on here.
Ray
I’m really proud of my all USA made Craftsman hand tools, yet I feel betrayed by SBD’s promise to return production to the USA and their absolute refusal to do so. I decline to buy any Craftsman tools because I feel betrayed. Wouldn’t it be a good time for Craftsman to do the right thing and move production back to the US? Isn’t that what the tariffs were put in place to do?
Also, Stuart, saying “no politics” is politics.
Stuart
I say “no politics” because some people jump from news and policy discussion to off-topic political proselytizing. That always leads to off-rails fighting that no one wants to see or deal with. You don’t have to color within the lines, but stay on the page.
As for more USA-made hand tools, people voice their preferences with their wallets, and what they’re saying and have been saying is that they prefer cheaper tools. That’s what it comes down to.
Ask Malco how well “doing the right thing” worked out for them. Ask Western Forge, Pratt Read, or Vaughan.
In theory, tariffs could help protect or promote domestic production, but that’s not how things are projected to work out.
Officially, the “reciprocal” and baseline tariffs are intended to even out trade imbalances, but that’s not a direct solution. Personally, I’ve considered them to be the start of a VAT tax, because that’s essentially what it is, but with 100% domestically sourced products excluded.
I’m disappointed in Craftsman too, but I think the problem is they’re catering towards the needs of their customers – mainly Lowe’s – and the spending habits of their end users.
How do you change those spending habits? That’s the problem that needs solving, and tariffs aren’t a feasible solution. Have earlier tariffs worked until now? No; some manufacturers already left China and moved to other overseas locations.
ITCD
It was the prior CEO who was making that commitment, and they even built a whole factory just for that. The machinery wouldn’t work right, the share price slumped, that CEO got ousted and the new guy coming in promised like $2B in expense cuts in a pretty short time frame.
Guess what was on the chopping block? The factory that had machines they couldn’t get working right was an early one, and since then there’s been the layoffs and closures in Cheraw SC Fort Mill SC Mission TX and other places.
fm2176
“[We’ll] Deal With It”
Exactly, prices go up, but we’ll figure out a way to just keeping on keeping on. If we’re invested in DeWalt and/or diehard fans of Yellow, we’ll pay the higher prices. If we want something “good enough”, we’ll do as others have suggested and make Harbor Freight a more frequent stop. Some of us will simply make do with what we have, as still others have shared, using older tools to get by.
One thing unique about cordless power tools, though, is that they’ll eventually be deemed as obsolete by their manufacturers. Right now, it seems like 20v Max platforms and M18 aren’t going anywhere, but I’m sure that DeWalt 18v users thought the same about their platform even 10 years ago. I bought a lot of cordless tools from about 2014-2020, and while many are still outstanding tools even in today’s markets, it’s obvious that they are very much “last year’s” tools. Companies like Milwaukee treat their cordless tools like automobiles, doing frequent updates with little performance boosts and completely redesigning them every few years. A DeWalt drill looks like a DeWalt drill, but the DCD796 I bought years ago has probably been replaced by something more compact and boasting higher RPM, more torque, and so on. My Gen 2 Fuel tools made the Gen 1 versions look archaic but were soon replaced by Gen 3 version.
A lot of YouTubers and other social media “influencers” have made a good living off of touting the “Newest, Most powerful, Smallest tool yet!” People with more money than sense (including me) would sometimes get roped into buying something we already had just because it was “better”. To be honest, I bought most of my stuff on clearance or through a Special Buy or other deal, but any of the drivers or saws I own from multiple brands would suffice for what I need them for. I don’t need the 20+ drills I own, nor the four circular saws.
So, maybe higher prices is a good thing. But what you need and pay for what you want. There’s no need to buy multiples or spend more than you absolutely need to, and if DeWalt is too pricey for you, there’s always the aforementioned budget brands. Though if it were me, I’d go to Home Depot and stock up during Ryobi Days. That’s the one brand that has a good combination of low prices, tool performance (with the HP line), and overall tool selection, not to mention having used the same battery style for nearly 30 years.