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Lowes dropped KLEIN....?

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mudflap

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Sep 25, 2011
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cincinnati,ohio
Stopped by my local Lowes on the way home last night. Wanted to grab some good wire strippers. The electrical tool section is loaded with SOUTHWIRE brand stuff. All the KLEIN stuff is gone......:dunno:. Is it just my local store...? Or anybody else notice this at theirs...? I went ahead and bought a pair of Channellock wire strippers, i think i will like them better anyways....Score another one for ching-chong... but i dont blame Lowes...If we were willing to pay the little xtra for KLEIN, they would still be selling them.....Now you can all go there and get your cheapo chineeze southwire ****....
 
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57JoeFoMoPar

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Yup. I haven't seen Lowes carry Klein in a real long time. Lowes also just dropped Knipex. Pretty much everything they have is Greenlee or cheaper as far as electrical tools go. They still carry Channellock.
 
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trout

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Last of the stuff disappeared from my store about a month ago. It had been on clearance for a while with no new stuff coming in.
 
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jjjrmx5

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57JoeFoMoPar said:
Yup. I haven't seen Lowes carry Klein in a real long time. Lowes also just dropped Knipex. Pretty much everything they have is Greenlee or cheaper as far as electrical tools go. They still carry Channellock.
Click to expand...

Actually, they have ChannelLocks down to a few (2 when I was there on Mon.) and most Greenlee is gone in my Lowes.

All taken over by their in-house Chinese brand at ChannlLock prices.

Good news they are moving old Knipex stock around the area and taking orphans in from other stores so I got a set of Knipex long nose pliers for $12 , list $41. Knipex 26 11 200. Not even in thier system nor had a SKU tag.
Gotta luv dumb. :thumbup:
 
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zkling

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Hey another Cincy person :beer:

My local Lowes or two, have a few pieces of channellock left, none discounted like people have reported on here. I had a long talk with the tool guy that I know pretty well over there. Looks like they are dropping channellock and fluke and going to complete southwire stuff for electrical and Kobalt for general pliers. :sad:

I'm not sure where you are, but my home depot is like a ghost town. It has been a while since I have walked in there.

The only place outside of grainger I know where to purchase Klein locally is an electrical supply store called Becker. Much cheaper than Grainger, but still a bit $$$$ for me.

EDIT, Did you see this the other day? I immediately thought of Jeff :lol_hitti
 

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M

mudflap

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cincinnati,ohio
zkling said:
Hey another Cincy person :beer:

My local Lowes or two, have a few pieces of channellock left, none discounted like people have reported on here. I had a long talk with the tool guy that I know pretty well over there. Looks like they are dropping channellock and fluke and going to complete southwire stuff for electrical and Kobalt for general pliers. :sad:

I'm not sure where you are, but my home depot is like a ghost town. It has been a while since I have walked in there.

The only place outside of grainger I know where to purchase Klein locally is an electrical supply store called Becker. Much cheaper than Grainger, but still a bit $$$$ for me.

EDIT, Did you see this the other day? I immediately thought of Jeff :lol_hitti
Click to expand...

I work for Hamilton County, But live just outside Batavia. I had my old KLEIN wire strippers for over 10 yrs, they were good ones, and just wanted to replace them with the same. But My new Channellock ones seem to be good quality...i guess time will tell.
 
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jeffmoss26

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I have not seen Klein at Sears in a long time. I remember getting a handful of clearance tools.
Some of the guys on the electrical forum posted more markdowns on Greenlee, Ideal, and Fluke items at Lowe's so I am headed there after work to see what goodies I can find!

JM
 
C

CWP1616L

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zkling said:
My local Lowes or two, have a few pieces of channellock left, none discounted like people have reported on here. I had a long talk with the tool guy that I know pretty well over there. Looks like they are dropping channellock and fluke and going to complete southwire stuff for electrical and Kobalt for general pliers. :sad:
Click to expand...

They had Fluke at Lowes?

I've never seen any Fluke at Lowes and I'd be shocked if I did.
 
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zkling

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CWP1616L said:
They had Fluke at Lowes?

I've never seen any Fluke at Lowes and I'd be shocked if I did.
Click to expand...

Yea, they have/had their lower end, china made meters. 115, 113, and a few others IIRC. There was a thread in the hot deals section where they clearanced the 113 for ~$35.
 
Z

zer0cell

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Lowes dropped Klein because of agreement Klein has with Home Depot, I believe.

They probably dropped Knipex because of low sales. What makes me think this is a strong possibility is that, even when these items were on clearance at the local stores, it took several months for them to dissapear, even when in some cases the price was dropped 20-50%.

Lowes was probably thinking; low sales item + lower profit margins = no good

Southwire products may not be a big seller, but with them costing about the same as Knipex but the cost of production being a lot less...

well it's more like; lower sales item + higher profit margins = acceptable


What this means for me though, is that I have no interest in Lowes electrical section now.


Honestly, for those who don't care about country of Origin, you are much better off going with Lowes' Kobalt brand. From my limited experience with them, they hold up as well as any other china made tools I have used and are often on sale and can be had for a low cost. Add in a lifetime warranty and I can't see any reason why someone would fool with 'southwire' of china which will probably disappear from the electrical isle in under 5 years anyway. Just watch and see...
 
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