The other day I posted about how the ToughBuilt Reload utility knife is on sale at Lowe’s.
I took a trip to my closest Lowe’s store yesterday, to see what they had on sale for Father’s Day that might be different from on their website, and was surprised to see that ALL of their ToughBuilt knives and related products were on clearance.
This includes ToughBuilt utility knives – every one on the rack – and also replacement blades.
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All of the yellow pricing labels have a small “clearance” badge at the upper right.
Here’s a wider view of the utility knife display.
This particular Lowe’s has a slimmer ToughBuilt display than one much further away, and so I couldn’t tell if other product categories are affected.
My other Lowe’s store carries ToughBuilt screwdrivers and hammers.
Lowe’s website only has a discount on two specific utility knives, including the one I posted about the other day.
The way I see it, there are 2 main possibilities. Either Lowe’s contracted with a different brand and are clearing out the ToughBuilt utility knives to make space, or ToughBuilt has refreshed the lineup and Lowe’s is clearing out the old models to make space for the new ones.
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I only visited one Lowe’s store. It’s unclear if this is a local, regional, or nationwide clearance.
Nathan
Maybe they are changing stores and getting out of some Lowe’s contracts
David
$16.97 for that utility knife?!?!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
Caleb Allen
The Lowes website has that knife for $6.97. Probably hanging in the wrong place?
Kyle
Some of those prices don’t look clearanc-y, or even correct. The subcompact utility knife is listed on Lowes website for $13.00, for instance.
Scotty.
Seems to be a common retail practice; jack the price to full retail and clearance/discount off the higher price.
Tony
My local lowes has 2 utility knives on cleareance for like 7 and 9 bucks
JD
My local Lowe’s does this. Often times clearance items are only a few cents off. Sometimes they just price the same and change the color or the tag. I’ve found the best deals aren’t in the clearance section, but usually on the shelves in normal sections or end caps.
MattW.
Like in the last article 3 to 4 lowes on my area have all but exiled toughbuilt and stacktech is starting to be clearanced. That’s the eastern metro Oregon and Southern Washington. My family in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana tell the same story. No retail for toughbuilt besides coastal farm and ranch here and that is only older products I can get on Amazon
Joe H
Lowe’s is basically a revolving door for product brands more so than Home Depot or Menards. They make tons of announcements for new products that then go to clearance shortly after if they ever show up in Lowe’s stores at all. Hopefully Toughbuilt got a deal with some other chain of stores.
Mark M.
For all the grief Lowes (deservedly) gets for, well, everything, I find that their yellow tag clearance items are always worth a glance. Sometimes there are smoking deals to be had. Home Depot, on the other hand…at least locally, if you see a “Clearance” endcap just keep walking. Over the years I’ve never, ever found any deals there. It’s almost insulting what our local HD labels as clearance. Just random junk with like a 5% markdown. I don’t get it.
Ken
I think the incredible clearance deals available at Lowe’s and the lack of such deals at Home Depot are a consequence of the quality of their respective management teams (at least in my area). I can’t even begin to count the number of 90% off deals I’ve found hanging out in the overhead storage areas at Lowe’s where they’ve sat for months, out of the sight of customers and slowly dropping in price until I convince a staff member to retrieve the hidden bounty for me with a lift. In contrast, HD tends to ensure that clearance items start out and remain on the floor where they get picked over by customers more quickly, before dropping to ulta-low prices.
Mark M.
Yeah, that’s a good point. Two of the best deals I ever got at Lowes were overhead dust collectors, now that I think about it. I guess what I don’t understand about HD “clearance” is they’ll have some obscure filter for a Shop Vac or a pair of something that’s missing half of the pair, and it’s marked down from $69 to $67. I’ve never managed retail so I’m talking out of my rear end but it seems like $2 isn’t even worth the effort to discount it. Like if you need to move it, do something compelling or don’t.
Bonnie
Part of that is probably just managing customer expectations. Everything in the clearance endcaps is supposed to be discounted, even if it’s just random junk they needed to clear off the main racks to make room.
A 5% discount is financially inconsequential, but people still feel like they’re getting a deal.
TomD
Lowe’s is more like Kohls than Home Depot – overpriced junk but when they go on clearance they don’t mess around and really drop the price.
HomerBucket
HD’s clearance works in two ways. There are no discount clearance items where the price doesn’t change or is slightly reduced. Corporate policy is to *not* yellow tag them, but your local store may do it’s own thing.
Yellow tagged clearance items follow a 25%-50%-75% markdown path. When, or even if, they drop down a level is entirely done at the corporate level. Xmas items though, especially the lights, sometimes drop a tier within the same day.
If you ever find an item for $0.01 that’s an item that is supposed to be thrown away. It’s not a “valid” price, that’s just the internal code for “trash it”.
MFC
The good HD deals are taking a clearance item and then asking for 50% off that price. An employee has done that for me multiple times. That has never worked at Lowes. They’ll give you an extra buck off and haggle about it.
D3t
I found the ToughBuilt razor knives in the clearance section today. It looks like they just filled in the space with the standard Klein & Kobalt versions.
Berg
There’s been unusual stuff going on with Toughbuilt at Menards too. Until recently the only Toughbuilt products I ever saw in-store there were Cliptech pouches, but then a couple months ago they were all put on clearance and replaced with nearly identical store brand versions called Master Force ProLock.
The last few weeks they’ve been adding completely new Toughbuilt stuff but only to end caps and other spots that are usually for sale or clearance items that are only there temporarily. They have normal price tags instead of one of the other colors Menards uses for sales and clearance prices, but they are almost all less than half of what Lowes normal price would be.
I’ve picked up a bucket organizer for $5, 8 piece screwdriver set for $8, folding saw for $15, but there’s a lot more I’ve seen in store. Mostly tool bags like the 30″ massive mouth for $40 or a 15″ builders bag for $10.
The nearest Lowe’s is 40 miles from my local Menards in Southern Minnesota, so if they are getting overstock from Lowe’s or something it must be a pretty big amount that they are distributing all over.
Jeffrey Cohen
The Menards app now shows not carried before TB products at very good prices. I will be driving over to borrow to see if this is real, and most likely stocking up.
Matt
As soon as I read this, I quickly checked stock of my Lowes on the utility knife with The two magazines, which I bought for my son and two sons in law for Christmas for $20, and saw they had 14 in stock at $4.92 each. It took some time because they weren’t displayed where they were supposed to be, but when the clerk found them, there were two sealed boxes of six and I bought them both. It’s my favorite utility knife and now I have, lots to hand out.
Charles
I really like the toughbuilt click on connection system for bags. But my local lowes has almost nothing now.
These knives look like a lousy deal even on clearance.
razl
Just wanted to say I snagged 8+ of the $9.99 mag knifes as future Christmas stocking stuffer/small gift options plus a handful for myself. While not the ultimate utility knife, they’re both capable enough and the novelty is pretty cool; especially for the price. Thanks for the tip!
Mark+S
I saw this article in my Google feed last week but didn’t read until now. Several of my local Lowe’s had those knives clearanced out. One has a shelf of them all with no prices (grrr!)
I also stumbled on the ToughBuilt “pry bar” knive about 3-4 months ago at Lowe’s for about $5 or so and couldn’t resist.
Then I realized as I was reading the article that the other day in one Lowe’s (forgot which one!) There are a ton of new Klein folding knives. They struck me 1.) Because I’m an electrician and I like all Klein stuff. And 2.) They all on quick glance appeared to be feature-for-feature knockoffs/clones of the Milwaukee Fastback series knives.
I guess the deal with Klein took precedence over Toughbuilt ones.