I was just at lowes (yes I was at lowes on a saturday night...I have no life) and I got to talking with one of the older guys that works there in the tool department since I go there so often they know me by name. He had seen me pick up the very last one of the Ideal pliers left on clearance in the back of the rack, and we got started on the tools they were getting rid of. He told me that he has no proof, but believes that lowes may have bought the southwire brand since thats all they now carry, and his reason for his hunch is that according to him, lowes has gotten rid of their cooper brand electrical supplies and now carries a totally different brand that lowes has bought out. He was also telling me they carry the dewalt brand for people that want to buy better home owner tools, and then if they don't want to spend the extra cash, they have the low end porter cable. He also said they carry more complete power tool kits so people pay the little extra for an entire new tool instead of just buying the batteries. From what I gather from our talk, it seems lowes is gearing more toward the weekend do-it-yourselfer with the way they are changing things around.
I am by no means bashing lowes, I love that place for decent hand tools when I need one asap! I go there often for the clearance items they always have marked down. And I gotta say that from the stories he was telling me of customers, it was probably a move that lowes had to make. For example, he told me a customer brought in some hand tools that had obviously been rusted and abused, but the customer swore he had just bought them. He had to replace them because thats what the warranty is. Another story was a guy had bought a cordless drill with the 5 year replacement warranty, but the warranty was to be dealt with through the manufacturer, not lowes...but to make the customer happy, lowes had to eat it and give him a brand new drill. He was also telling me of the amount of large pricey items that people take, including entire power tool sets! Heck, he even told me he went to help a customer looking at the screwdrivers and realized the guy was using one off the shelf to fix his pistol cause he did not want to buy the entire set!!!!!!!
As I said, I am not complaining about lowes, but hoping to shed some light on why they have changed brands lately. It seems home owners want to have contractor brand tools, but want the convenience of having a cheap tool that can be used and abused...then returned days later for their money back or a brand new tool. People forget that tools are an investment which is part of working on things yourself...so I don't blame lowes at all for having cheaper tools, thats what people want!
I am by no means bashing lowes, I love that place for decent hand tools when I need one asap! I go there often for the clearance items they always have marked down. And I gotta say that from the stories he was telling me of customers, it was probably a move that lowes had to make. For example, he told me a customer brought in some hand tools that had obviously been rusted and abused, but the customer swore he had just bought them. He had to replace them because thats what the warranty is. Another story was a guy had bought a cordless drill with the 5 year replacement warranty, but the warranty was to be dealt with through the manufacturer, not lowes...but to make the customer happy, lowes had to eat it and give him a brand new drill. He was also telling me of the amount of large pricey items that people take, including entire power tool sets! Heck, he even told me he went to help a customer looking at the screwdrivers and realized the guy was using one off the shelf to fix his pistol cause he did not want to buy the entire set!!!!!!!
As I said, I am not complaining about lowes, but hoping to shed some light on why they have changed brands lately. It seems home owners want to have contractor brand tools, but want the convenience of having a cheap tool that can be used and abused...then returned days later for their money back or a brand new tool. People forget that tools are an investment which is part of working on things yourself...so I don't blame lowes at all for having cheaper tools, thats what people want!
