The other day I wrote about how Lowes and their Kobalt Tools house brand really disappointed me this holiday season. There were some great comments that got me thinking about Home Depot, Sears, and Lowes and how they all fared this holiday season.
My observations focus on Lowes because I am still in utter disbelief about how they ended the year.
Home Depot
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I visited the local Home Depot the other day to scope out some of their post-Christmas deals. They seem to have sold certain things really well, and don’t seem to have too many displays full of unsold holiday tools.
There was a near-full display of Dewalt pliers sets, only 2 remaining “special buy” Dewalt 20V drill/driver kits, a near-full display of Rayovac camouflaged LED flashlights, and a bunch of other products.
Overall, I got the feeling that sales of holiday-special tools were not that strong at the local Home Depot. They seem to have experienced weaker tool sales than in recent years.
My local Home Depot also has dozens of inexpensive “clearanced” flashlights (Black & Decker?) still on display. It looks like they didn’t sell any in the 6 weeks or so since the products were first put on the floor.
Home Depot really didn’t give me much to talk about.
Sears
I have not been to a physical Sears store since November 2nd. At that time, half of their holiday tool displays were up already, and the others were a day or two away from being filled.
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During my last visit to Sears I spotted a red-handled Leatherman Style CS keychain multi-tool with bonus LED Lenser keychain flashlight that I was interested in. I meant to go back, but I never got around to it.
I used to enjoy shopping at Sears during the holidays, but didn’t really feel compelled to head over there this season. This was half because I didn’t really need anything they carry, and half because the sales were not much different than the ones I took advantage of in past years’ holiday seasons.
We received a bunch of questions about Craftsman’s Bolt-On modular power tool line, and expect that these tools sold quite well in stores. I believe Sears typically sees strong Craftsman C3 cordless power tool sales during the holiday season as well.
Sears had some nice Black Friday weekend deals, with similar discounts that I took advantage of in the past, but there were three things I didn’t like. First, the sales flyer was a little vague. I found myself confused about which deals were doorbusters and which were valid throughout the weekend. Second, the flyer was poorly laid out. Why were there different ball bearing tool storage deals in mentioned in four separate locations? This made comparison very difficult.
Third, but perhaps most significantly, I didn’t like how some of the deals weren’t that good. Before Black Friday, the Craftsman C3 XCP heavy duty drill was on sale for $100. For Black Friday, it was $120 with $20 in future rewards points. Now, it’s on sale for $90.
Now, when you visit Sears.com, there’s a Member Alert: Check and your redeem your points before they expire!! warning.
I bet I’m not the only one who prefers instant savings compared to future rewards points.
Last year, after Sears announced millions of dollars in fourth quarter loses, their leadership said that they were working to make their Shop Your Way membership program a bigger part of the Sears shopping experience. Replacing instant discounts with reward points during the biggest shopping season of the year is a gamble, and I’m not sure it worked out for them.
I think Craftsman’s tool of the month program is a great idea, but Sears should have spent more time and money emphasizing it rather than talking about their Shop Your Way rewards program. I get that they’re linked, but some differentiation would be in everyone’s best interests.
One more gripe – where’s my Sears/Craftsman holiday tool flyer? They didn’t make one in 2012 or 2013. Okay, I get it, Sears keeps losing money and believes that the printing costs and mailing fees associated with the seasonal holiday tool flyer is an expense they could do without. That doesn’t explain why they couldn’t put together a nice digital version.
Lowes
I honestly don’t even know where to begin in describing what I saw at Lowes. At all of my local Lowes stores, you would think it was before Thanksgiving and they had just set things up for the holidays.
I visited store number my local store. This store typically has a great selection of tools, clean displays, and great customer service. It’s one of two Lowes stores I prefer to visit instead of my closest one when I want to scout out the new tools of the season. The store is located in a very busy shopping area right next to a large mall, and is typically very busy.
As mentioned in my recent Lowes/Kobalt disappointment post, Lowes.com reports that the stores in my area have a LOT of unsold Kobalt holiday tools. From this, I estimated that around the country there are many hundreds of thousands of unsold Kobalt holiday tools.
Lowes.com reports that the my closest location has 267 Kobalt Hypercoil LED flashlights, 171 Kobalt Magnum Grip locking pliers, and 301 Triple Cut locking pliers still in stock and available for purchase. They also have 71 precision Double Drive sets and 51 stubby Double Drive sets still on display. These figures were collected on 1/1/2014.
The local store apparently still has 44 of last year’s Kobalt Double Drive holiday-special screwdriver set in stock, but these might have been left over from Father’s Day inventory.
Maybe Lowes.com is reporting inaccurate inventory numbers? It doesn’t look like that’s the case. Here is what the in-store displays looked like on December 31st, 2013:
The displays are all double-sided.
There was also a condensed endcap display featuring all of the new Kobalt tools at the front of the store, and it too was nearly full with unsold merchandise.
Deja vu? In this photo taken at my local Lowes on 12/30/2012, you can see many dozens of Kobalt Magnum Grip pliers sitting unsold in an endcap display. Why didn’t Lowes learn from this?
It’s not just the Kobalt Hypercoil, Magnum Grip, and Triple Cut products that seem to have sold poorly this year.
This is Kobalt Double Drive screwdriver display #1.
This is Kobalt Double Drive screwdriver display #2.
The bottom sections of both displays are untouched, meaning that if Lowes had just one display on the floor instead of two, they would still have unsold merchandise.
The Hammerhead Switch is a product we discovered on display at the local Lowes. It seems like an interesting product, but it’s the kind of thing that needs to be demonstrated to improve its appeal. It seems to me that this particular store had two displays that they consolidated after a few sales.
The local Lowes looks to have 18 of these off-brand rotary tool kits.
There are a bunch of unsold Kobalt 18V drill and drill + impact driver kits leftover. The drill kit was $79 during Lowes’ Black Friday sale and is currently discounted to $59.
There are at least 8 Kobalt compact sliding miter saws still in stock. These were also $79 on Black Friday, but are presently back to their regular price of $129.
There were nearly 30 of these 34pc combination wrench sets still on display. They were priced at $25, which is half of the Black Friday price of $50. The online price is a few bucks higher, at $29.
It also looks like Porter Cable cordless power tool sales were weaker than anticipated.
Even the stripped-down Porter Cable 20V Max impact driver kit, which comes with one battery and a slow-charger, didn’t really sell well. Either that or Lowes restocked the shelf really quickly.
I assume that Lowes made a deal to sell the economic version of the impact driver kit rather than the 20V Max drill/driver kit because they didn’t want Porter Cable sales to interfere too much with sales of their Kobalt 18V drill/driver kit.
Maybe a dozen Porter Cable oscillating tool kits were left on the sales floor as well. At least they were stacked neatly next to an endcap.
I don’t want to say that tool sales at Lowes seem to have been catastrophically weak, but I don’t know how else to describe what I’ve been seeing. This is now how things are supposed to look after Christmas.
Summary
I have not yet visited the local Sears, and to be honest I still don’t see any reason to. Past years’ experiences tell me that I will likely mostly see empty and half-empty holiday tool displays. Maybe the unsold merchandise will have already been moved back to pegs and shelves in the tool department. Most of Sears’ sale items are regularly stocked items.
I need to visit the local Home Depot to exchange a defective Milwaukee tape measure, but I expect for the situation to be the same as the other day. Maybe they’ll drop the prices further on the remaining holiday tools they can’t seem to sell. Some of what they can’t sell quickly will probably be moved into various aisles where they’ll gradually empty over time.
Don’t get me wrong, things could have been a lot better at the local Home Depot, but I did not notice any glaring issues of the type that would keep their leadership and investors up at night.
Lowes will probably keep their holiday tool displays right where they are, but eventually they’re going to have to clear out their seasonal areas. At that point, they’re going to have to be really creative in finding places to put their unsold tools, especially the Kobalt flagship products.
My wife asked if I’m happy about Lowes’ woes, but I’m not. I’m disappointed and frustrated that they chose to engage in deceptive pricing tactics while trying to move Kobalt holiday tools, but I am concerned that their poor sales will lead to lost jobs, closed stores, more gimmicky tool designs, or more extreme sales tactics.
It will be interesting to see the numbers all three retailers release in their fourth quarter and annual earnings reports in late February. In the fourth quarter of 2012, Sears lost less money than in 2011, Home Depot earned more than in the prior year, and Lowes earned less.
Noah
I think they would all experience better sales if they had actual deals on real tools as opposed to manufactured “bargains” on gimmicky holiday tools that have little use in the real world.
Bart
I agree completely.
Outside of well meaning, but otherwise clueless family members, I think the gimmick tool market is drying up or is dead (if it wasn’t years ago) with more serious tool buyers. Most of the gimmick tools of the 80s and 90s at least appeared, and sometimes were, solidly built, even if they didn’t do anything well. These days, they look and feel cheap, and still don’t get the job done, and I think people are finally noticing and choosing not to buy them.
When I went to HD a couple of days ago, most of the holiday sale stuff on the good name brand stuff was largely cleared out, I bought the last twin pack of Milwaukee 18v batteries, for instance. But there was still a large number of the cheapo no-name, or cheap HDX stuff sitting around.
I guess it still sells well enough, and the cost is low enough that they won’t stop pushing this junk. But we could only hope that maybe, just maybe, someone at their respective HQs would take notice that the big sales are on the better quality, more recognizable name brand items during this time of the year and start making the transition away from the trashy, gimmicky items once and for all.
Don
At HD I did like the Leatherman deals. 19 bucks for a Wingman. 19.88 for the Sidekick/Croc combo. I do wish they would offer some variety in leatherman products like they used too.
I’ve lost interest in Lowes.
I do still like Sears for exchanging hand tools which I had to do this week with no issues. I did not find anything of interest to buy though.
jay k.
Very similar store floors here in Las Vegas…
Michael Quinlan
I saw the DeWalt plier set online for $9 the other day, and was in the local store (also in NJ) yesterday and picked up a set. There were at least a dozen of these on one of those plastic hangers on a shelving post, with no price displayed at all. I’ve also seen Milwaukee’s new M12 (non-fuel) drill kit and impact kit for $100 and $80, respectively, and an M18/M12 charger + M18 3.0Ah battery for $80, and none of it seems to be moving. If I hadn’t gotten in on their $299 price mistake on the M18 Fuel Hammerdrill/Impact kit + grinder back in November, I would probably grab a charger + battery combo, but other than that, nothing really jumps out as a great value.
mgeorge
I noticed that It all depends on the location of the LOWES, HD, and Sears Hardware. I am in Sugar Land, TX. The local Lowes is #1 on my list of places to go. They have experienced Staff. Some of the folks that are working there have been there for over 10 years and are quite helpful.
As far as Deals, the good stuff was gone by End of Black Friday weekend. the $15 mag lights, there were some Skill Router bits for $49. (I would say the whole thing was empty) the following week I was a full Shelf of the router bits back to $99. The HD near me is also pretty nice. I prefer it if you have particular issues with Plumbing or Electrical. Their staff in those areas have been there forever and are very knowledgeable. Deals. The DeWalt Plyers are gone…I might need to check another HD. All the power tools looks like they are full stocked. One deal that I have seen for a few days is the B&D matrix kit with both Drill, Impact, and jig saw attachment for $69…Apparently, it did not sell well out here.
Like many, I have not been to Sears Hardware in awhile. The Christmas deals really did not make me want to take a trip. I still have a C3 Drill, Impact, and Cordless Circular Saw…But earlier this year I moved up to DeWalt 20V MAX. I think I still stick with these tools.
I think the #1 reason people may have not gone to these traditional stores is because You can get better deals online. I purchased quite a few tools online in 2013.
Hang Fire
I’m with you, my local Lowe’s has good service and people who know what they are talking about… but the aisles are still stuffed with unsold Black Friday merchandise, and frankly, they could cut almost all of it to 75% off and I still wouldn’t touch it.
Don
mgeorge
I also live in sugar land. Found the pliers you were looking for at the HD on HWY 6 near Westheimer. They still had plenty .
mgeorge
Thanks Don. I got them from the HD on HWY 6 south in Missouri City (Near Riverstone) this morning. This store is pretty sizable…Probably the biggest Home Depot I have been in. There must be 4 Home Depots off Hwy 6 🙂 There are becoming like Walgreens and CVS ….Just Kidding.
mgeorge
???? part of my post truncated.
As far as Deals, the good stuff was gone by End of Black Friday weekend. The $15 mag lights were a hot item, there were some Skill Router bits for $49. (I would say the whole thing was empty); however, the following week there was a full Shelf of …
Stuart
I see it all there. Does it still look truncated to you?
mgeorge
Is there a way to edit a previously written post?
Stuart
No, but I can do it for you and then delete any posts that discuss the matter.
Richard
The real problem with Lowes (and lots of other stores in both the US and Canada) is that these companies long ago stopped hiring buyers and/or category managers who are people who use the products they’re in charge of buying, marketing and selling.
I saw it as an employee of another very large (10+ bn/year sales) retailer of tools, automotive products and other retail goods.
The vast majority of buyers are people who only look at numbers. Who are “sold” fancy products by vendors that they “think” people will want or will be “wowed” by. They also convince themselves (and their bean-counting bosses) that these wacky pricing strategies work.
And honestly? Even if places like Lowes have all that unsold inventory, COGS is probably incredibly low on things like that Hypercoil… so low that even now they’re not selling at a loss. You don’t have to sell very many at $39.99 to worry about losing money when your COGS on each unit is likely under $10.
It’s a sad state in retail these days. It’s a systemic problem… which is why unless it’s something I really want, I never buy from a major retailer unless it’s on deep flyer discount. I’d rather my money went to my local tool seller who employ people who actually understand what they’re selling… or better yet – come to them with a specific problem and will recommend a tool solution that I wouldn’t have thought of. Either that, or I’m sticking to Amazon and the like.
I’m not sure where we’ll end up.
Kevin
I was in all 3 last Sunday, Lowes was filled to the gills with unsold black friday garbage, Home Depot sold out of their major doorbuster stuff made by decent brands like the stanley powerlocks sets, the dewalt pliers, the leatherman tool, etc but still had plenty of low tier housebrands husky/hdx , cheap flashlights, and other stuff that didnt move.
Sear aisles were wiped out, but I fear it may have been cleared out for other reasons. I grabbed a nifty novelty, made in the U.S.A. craftsman wrench shaped bottle opener for 4 bucks, and walked out.
Andrew
I think the buying public has realized that most of that Kobalt stuff is now “K”rap.
Alan S. Blue
That Kobalt Double-drive stubby – that’s six separate sets of 6 bits in separate rings.
Yes, the bits are probably crud…
… but does anyone have a separate source for those colored rubber bit-holding rings?
Stuart
Not yet. In the past few years I have only seen those round/hexagonal bit holder cartridges available as part of sets.
Daniel
I was at my local Lowes a few times between Christmas and yesterday and Home Depot last Saturday. I didn’t really pay much attention to tools and other things at HD as I was focused on what I needed to buy but I did see quite a bit of the standard season stocking-stuffer tools and gadgets. I’d say that the displays were 60% full for the most part.
Lowes was pathetic. I did actually look through their overflowing displays and didn’t see anything I would want to buy. The Kobalt stuff just looked worthless. Rather get the same thins at Harbor Freight. Between both Lowes and HD I spent over $500 on materials and paint for a project but nothing toolwise. Wait, I takethat back, I bought a circular saw blade yesterday to replace the cheapo one that came with my saw.
John Blair
There were less interesting deals this year. Last year it felt like lots of new tools and great deals could be found.
Lowes has essentially turned Kobalt into Harbor Freight, source cheap products from overseas and put your name on them.
Your post on the overstock of these fillers was very interesting. But my belief is at the margin they were making on them, it is possible they could throw half of them away and still make money and drive store traffic at the same time.
Nick Marques
The Home Depot stores around here pretty much stopped carrying Bosch cordless 12V/18V products in favor of Makita and Milwaukee. I have nothing against those two but they used to have Bosch and all of their promotions along with it. Prices weren’t as good as say, Amazon or CPO, but Delaware is sales tax free, so instant gratification sometimes wins. I like to see things before I buy too. Now they just have a special order form.
Lowes has a Bosch endcap but its very limited.
Aaron
My Lowes has a lot of stuff left too, but then so does my Home Depot. I have to say that Lowes has been very good to me this year from a customer service standpoint. My wife and I bought Granite countertops through Lowes and their sub contractor pulled out of the job at the last minute right before Thanksgiving. He called us and said he was no longer working with them. Lowes went above and beyond making sure we were happy and it couldn’t have been cheap for them… As far as Kobalt (I hate it when people spell things wrong), some of the tools are pretty decent and others are garbage. I have a set of vise grips that came with these stupid padded grips that made them difficult to hold (too big) and prone to slip when the grip twists (as it tends to do).
All in all, I like Lowes and Home Depot. I’ve been shopping at Sears a lot too lately. The prices are pretty decent if you catch a sale and the quality of the stuff they carry tends to be good, but it can be frustrating getting help. They have been understaffed every time I have been in there. I try not to take my frustration out on the staff, It’s a management issue, not the sales persons fault, but it can be frustrating at times.
Brian
I stopped by Sears after Christmas to return a “one size fits all” wrench that I received as a gift. The head on this thing was huge and it’s use would have been limited. I had one heck of a time spending the $15 gift card. I’m just not that impressed with the selection or the quality of limited products that Sears offers.
Doug
I was given one of those gimmicky Kobalt “transformer” style plier sets — two pliers, each flipping to become two other “types” – although not sure one of the types adds anything to the dance.
Had a genuine good holiday spirit time in trying to figure out whether the pliers not fully closing was the result of bad manufacture or bad design.
Design mostly, with some bad build tossed in for extra fun points. The way they are designed, if one of the pairs faces actually touch, it predictably means the other plier in that pair won’t.
Will either toss them in car for that moment when I will wish I had brought a real tool, donate it to the local Recycling charity or maybe just give them to the dog to gnaw on.
Awful stuff! Going to Harbor Freight to get my bad pliers from now on…I may suggest that to the gift giver, who obviously meant well but got pulled in by those nifty displays for the miracle 4 in 2 pliers .