In a joint press release last week, Hitachi and Lowes announced their new partnership, where Lowes will exclusively offer Hitachi power tools nationally.
There seems to be an emphasis on Hitachi’s pneumatic nailers, nails, and other related fastening accessories. The press release also says that new power tool displays will start appearing in stores this month.
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Exclusive arrangements are nothing new in the tool and home improvement industry. Some are announced, such as Klein and Home Depot’s arrangement, most are not. Some are contested, such as in Ace Hardware’s 2013 lawsuit against Home Depot, Makita, and Milwaukee.
Some brands switch exclusivity or near-exclusivity between Home Depot and Lowes, such as what we have recently seen with Irwin.
There are several things to be on the lookout after an announcement like this hits. 1) Which stores will Hitachi tools disappear from? And the less obvious question: 2) Will any brand be squeezed out of Lowes stores or be otherwise de-emphasized?
You can buy Hitachi tools from Amazon, and other independent online retailers, and they’re still available online at Home Depot, Walmart, and other retailers. Even Sears still has a bunch of tools available online.
And so it seems this is just an in-store partnership. There aren’t many nationwide tool and home improvement retailers, mainly Home Depot, Lowes, and Sears. Did Home Depot and Sears ever sell Hitachi power tools or air nailers in-store, or only online?
I think that the second question is a more interesting one to consider. Which brand’s place will Hitachi take? Lowes always offered a selection of Hitachi power tools, but this partnership seems to signal an expansion.
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Maybe Bostitch? That seems unlikely. Porter Cable?
Hmm, maybe Hitachi’s cordless power tools will take over some shelf space from Porter Cable? In past years, Porter Cable’s 18V cordless lineup went from being Lowes exclusives, to near-Lowes exclusives, and now the updated 20V Max lineup is widely available, at least online.
Or maybe Lowes is looking to replace their Kobalt 18V and “improved” 20V Max tools. Kobalt upped the battery pack capacity and changed branding to relaunch the older Kobalt 18V cordless power tools as “20V Max” ones. But they haven’t really added any new tools to the lineup since the 18V family was originally launched.
Hitachi, on the other hand, has been steadily updating and adding to their cordless product line. They just recently came out with a new brushless oscillating multi-tool.
Back to the point – you’re going to see some increased Hitachi promotion at Lowes stores starting this month. What do you think about this new arrangement?
fred
Based on my past experience with what we thought to be some “best-in-class” pneumatics from Hitachi – I’d hope that Lowes will be offering a more complete line.
Lowes already carries the NV45AB2 coil roofing nailer that we liked very much – but as yet don’t carry the NT65MA2 finish nailer that was our mainstay.
Jason
Home Depot was clearancing out Hitachi and Bostich the past few months. They are putting in Huge Dewalt displays. Also the store by me is starting to carry all of the M12 and M18 Fuel they did a huge tool corral reset.
Michael
I just hope that they don’t faze out bosch power tools. It’s bad enough they don’t carry Milwaukee. I’m so invested in Bosch 12V max that at 63 it wouldn’t be practical to start with another brand now.
Pablo
This is intentional. No need to match prices anymore if your competitor doesn’t sell it.
ToolBoxHero
Sears carried Hitachi in-store for one year. Sears hyped it well and even had them through the Christmas season. They carried the cordless drills and some corded tools. They also carried the gas sting trimmers and gas leaf blowers.
It was a total bust for Sears. In the store where I shop nothing sold and even on clearance it took forever for them to sell. Hitachi was a recognized brand back in the 70’s in my area of the country but not anymore.
Stuart
Oh, I remember that!! I wrote about it after seeing a really cheesy promo video – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/sears-blue-tool-crew-to-offer-hitachi-power-tools/%3C/a%3E .
Mike
Other than Lowe’s I haven’t seen much Hitachi available in stores at all. It’s mostly been at independent tool shops. They don’t seem to do any promotion or advertising at all so I’ve never really had the opportunity to look into them.
What’s really left at Lowe’s for Hitachi to push out? Lowe’s used to have a good tool selection and what they carried was higher end than other big stores. When I wanted a cheap or inexpensive tool (hand or power) I went to the other big box stores. When I wanted quality, and I was willing to pay for it, I went to Lowe’s because I knew it was there. Over the last 10-12 years that has changed dramatically. Everything is now lower end and there is very little selection. The stores around here have only a dinky little tool section cordoned off at the front of the store. Power tools make up only a small fraction of that tiny space.
Jason
Lowes really got out maneuvered by HD when it comes to power tool brands and lineups. You just look at the two stores and its pretty clear who has the better selection.
glenn
I really don’t like exclusive arrangements like this. It absolutely kills competition and obviously this is the reason its done.
From what I can see though, over there, they still keep the pricing sharp. Here in Aus’ we have one company in particular, called Bunnings, that has tied up a few brands and they have not been so fair with their pricing.
To the extent that you can frequently purchase pro brand tools from dedicated tool stores for less than this company is asking for Ryobi products. eg; I just bought a Milwaukee 5″ 18v grinder for $99, they are asking $115 for the 18v Ryobi 4 1/2″ grinder.
I like Ryobi products but I will not pay over inflated prices for them. Hence my selling them off on Ebay and replacing them with Milwaukee tools. I now only need an inflator and some nailer/staplers from red to finish the job.
Although the exclusive distributorship model seems to work better over there I am not a fan of it all.
Oh and Hitachi is not a big player over here in the cordless market either.
Jason
The 18v Ryobi grinder is sold here at Home Depot for 40 bucks. I was confused till I saw that you are from Australia. I have ran into a few Aus tool users on forums, and you guys get hammered on tool prices bad.
Tom
Where did you get the grinder from? Sydney Tools is asking $139 and I don’t like shopping from them much anyhow.
American pricing on Ryobi is ridiculously cheap. Bunnings has got the exclusive with Ryobi and it shows.
skippy_chippy
Bunnings dont have to beat it by 10% if you cant buy it from anywhere else. This is why we get hammered on ryobi down under. Lowest prices…its just a scam.
glenn
Tom, Power Tool Specialists in Melbourne had them on sale in June. I just checked and they are back up to $139 again.
Jerry
Kobalt maybe got dropped.
fred
Is Kobalt really anything more than a house-band for Lowes (or L.G. Sourcing) – like Husky is for Home Depot – with various OEM’s producing what Lowes wishes to sell?
I guess that Home Depot is a lot bigger – and slaps other brand-names (like, HDX, EB-Everbilt, Commercial Electric, Home Gardener, Rockforge, Workforce and sometimes even Ridgid – under cross licensing agreements ) on in-house wares. I think that Lowes counters with Kobalt – but also Blue Hawk, Duraworx, Garden Plus, Precise Fit, and TaskForce.
Jason
The only way I could see Kobalt being dropped is if Lowes picked up the Craftsman brand. I don’t know if it would still be worth it for Lowes to buy it now. I don’t think Cman has the prestige and nostalgia like it used to. The only thing I could see is it being a permium made in the USA tool line for Lowes, and that is if sears sold the Cman branding. I don’t think they are at that point yet.
ktash
I don’t like these exclusive arrangements. Eventually this all limits what is available. It seems that Lowe’s has gone downhill, which is a shame. I used to go there before I went to Home Depot and now it’s the opposite.
RX9
Hitachi actually has a fairly large and well designed 18v cordless line, but their compact drill is like the only thing they seem to be promoting in the US. Maybe they will change that with this arrangement. They need to have a display at Lowes showcasing several applications. Otherwise, a customer will turn around, look at Dewalt’s display and just go with the 20v max system instead.
RICHARD DECKERT
It’s all about”good ole patriotic American GREED”!