I was at my local Home Depot store the other day, and all of the bulk T20 impact screwdriver bits were sold out, at least the larger 5-count and larger packs. I still have some on-hand, and so I’m not too worried. I’ll pick them up another time.
On a return trip for other supplies the next day, I also wanted to get some Milwaukee Shockwave T30 power bits in 2″ length, but they didn’t have any. I don’t need them immediately, but within a couple of days would be helpful.
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I hopped online when I got home, found the Milwaukee Shockwave 5-pack, and ordered it right away.
I have been placing more orders like this in recent months. I wanted a certain bubble line level and ordered it online. Hand tools? I ordered it online. Fasteners? Accessories? I ordered those too.
Here’s the biggest reason I have been ordering more from Home Depot’s website – FREE shipping with no minimum on certain items.
Some items still have restrictions and can only be ordered for in-store pickup, freight delivery, or ground shipping with a $45 minimum.
But there are very many items that simply ship for free. There are no subscription fees, no minimum order amounts, no restrictions. You order it and they send it to you without tacking on added fees.
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All of the Milwaukee promo tools that I mentioned yesterday ship for free.
For something like a $6 pack of screwdriver bits, this is amazing.
There are other ways I could have gotten T30 bits, such as going with insert bits, alternate brands, or shopping at a different retailer. But I prefer Milwaukee Shockwave for impact bits these days, and Home Depot offering free shipping on them worked out well.
Other online retailers carry these screwdriver bits, model 48-32-4687 for the 5-pack, and for around the same price (or slightly higher), but where else can I get them for $6 with free shipping?
I started noticing this trend on certain products at least during the 2020 winter holiday shopping season, perhaps earlier, and assumed it was an effort by Home Depot to reduce foot traffic in stores due to the COVID pandemic. If that’s the case, hopefully this policy drummed up enough sales for them to consider extending the program.
I’m not the only one to have noticed and been taking advantage of this, right?
This is especially a big deal on power tool accessories, where other Milwaukee dealers might have $49, $99, or even $199 minimum order amounts. It really stinks to have to pay more in shipping fees for a tiny pack of screwdriver bits if I can’t wait to add it to a larger order.
Jared
I don’t understand how retailers do it. I’ve placed way more online orders from Home Depot, Lee Valley and Princess Auto since they began running shipping promotions. It’s super convenient – especially since I live on a farm and none of those stores are particularly close to me. Just too temping when you want something but it wouldn’t be worth the trip on it’s own.
But – how the heck are the retailers making money on this? I couldn’t drive to these stores and grab the item without spending more in gas than they probably make in profit. I understand there’s some efficiency in pooling, but still.
Amazon too – I placed an order last week for a half-dozen items and three have already arrived – driven to my house in three separate trips. None of those three items was worth more than $10. That actually makes me feel a bit guilty. Not for Amazon necessarily (com’on – can you feel bad for Amazon?), but so inefficient!
Then there’s Grainger – they aren’t doing a promotion or anything. But I ordered like $200 worth of stuff and they charged ~$8 shipping… then delivered my order in about 15 separate parcels. UPS made one trip to my house to drop off a single box that only contained about $2 worth of bolts. 😱
I’m not complaining – these cheap shipping options are awesome for me. But someone explain how it works! It’s madness! 😛
Yohann
Regarding Amazon, I’ve been moving all my deliveries to a specific “Amazon Day” so they only come to my house once per week.
Not because I want to save Amazon money, but because it feels so wasteful in gasoline for them to show up 2-3 times a week. Trying to do little things to cut down on my footprint.
Jared
I didn’t know that was an option. I’ll look into it!
As I mentioned – I do feel a little guilty.
With Grainger I’ve started paying attention to the expected delivery dates – it appears in my cart for each item. It’s not foolproof – items delivered the same day can still arrive in separate packages, but it seems to reduce the number.
Kane
Sometimes “Amazon day” isn’t an option and I’ve had multiple orders arrive before the actual day anyway. I’ve long since given up on contemplating their logic and just reserve selecting the option for the low-priority purchases.
At my last work, we once had an order of 20 bolts arrive in 20 separate packages.
Serendipity
I used to check the box for less boxes, but Amazon never did anything different, so I choose the fastest, still takes three days.
Adam
You pay for the shipping in the item cost, but the shipping costs are damn near negligible from large retailers due to parcel volume and size. They ship so many packages, mostly small things that are low physical volume, that shipping carriers will give them massive contract discounts to pick up their business.
Shipping carriers operate their system of flights and trucks based on their premium services: that’s why you pay a massive premium for things like air mail or overnight services. Services like UPS Ground are basically extra money for the company: they’re already running those flights and truck routes, so these extra packages have a low incremental cost and a high profit margin.
So if UPS gets the Amazon shipping deal, they may take that shipping deal at a much lower profit margin with the secure knowledge that the deal is essentially paying a large part of their overhead costs. Even if UPS makes $0.05 net profit per package shipped via Amazon, that’s over $100,000,000 in annual profit (based on a 2018 report of 2.5 billion packages shipped per year). I’m sure they’re doing better than a nickel per package though!
TomD
And while the effort to ship a single package to you is high, the marginal effort to ship one more package to an area is minor.
And just like “bulk mail” for the USPS (which to get those rates you have to do a bunch of the USPS’s work, presorting, etc) UPS and FedEx can dictate terms to these large customers that make things easier (and therefore cheaper) for them.
Jared
I’m sure in the grand scheme it works out – but some of these deliveries have got to result in losses… just not sure if it’s the delivery company or the retailer.
That $2 package of bolts I mentioned is a prime example. Someone had to pick out those bolts, packaged them in a new cardboard box with Grainger markings, affix a postage sticker, then the shipper picked them up (albeit probably with plenty of other packages), brought them to a sorting facility, put them on a delivery truck and then drove about 50kms to my house to drop them off at my door.
I realize they probably delivered a bundle of other packages that day – but I’m rural. Even if they happened to be stopping by one of my “neighbors”, there’s a fair bit of driving and time involved just for me.
Most of the time I would be perfectly willing to wait a bit if deliveries could be combined, but I don’t often have a choice.
All that to say – I’m sure someone somewhere worked out that this is the best system to deliver merchandise quickly and at low-cost for the consumer. It just boggles my mind that it works.
Serendipity
Not really any different than going to Fastenal and spending $3 on clips but it takes twenty minutes to do the order.
Bill Sung
Logistics & Technical Operations are key in Today ecommerce and Home Depot has hit the sweet spot on this. I will actually look here first before Amazon.
MoogleMan3
Yeah I’m loving the free shipping. I just bought two cans of spray clear coat, $10 total, with free delivery.
It’s not just about the free shipping; it’s about not having to take a trip to the store to get it.
Joatman
I need a couple Wiha T6 torx bits but don’t want to pay the ridiculous shipping costs. You would think that distributors would take into consideration that some items that weigh a few grams and fit in a standard envelope would be exempt from their $6-$8 minimum shipping rates. Two one-inch bits shouldn’t take more than two stamps to ship. Oh well.
Stuart
Shipping rates are usually automatic for a more streamlined process.
Joatman
I’ve been waiting until I need something from KCTool so I can just tack those on.
Joatman
I do like the free shipping products at Home Depot. Also like the free shipping-to-store being it’s a mile from me. Once you get spoiled with free shipping promos it’s hard to pay $7 shipping for the bits I mentioned above.
Serendipity
You still hate to pay someone to pick the item and box it.
teicher
I really appreciate it too. The stores near me don’t always have everything in stock, so being able to order online and have it arrive very quickly (the next day in some cases) is a game changer.
No fees, no subscriptions, no BS. Just pay for the item and get it. Yet another reason why HD is way ahead of Lowes these days.
Kyle
I had not noticed the absence of the minimum order for free shipping. That is quite convenient and will definitely make me check their website if an item can wait a day or two-I typically get items shipped from home depot quite efficiently.