Klein tools clearanced at lowes!!!!!

[Rigmaster]

FWIW, the Lowe's around here have their Klein hand tools marked with yellow "NEW LOWER PRICE" stickers. NOT Clearance and NOT very good deals IMHO.


YMMV, YGWYPF...

 

[GrantMLS]

Our sears did that also just had new lower price but i guess that worked because they were all gone and the pegs had been replaced with c-man stuff.

 

[-B-]

The average is 10-15% off not great but if you need it get it, as HD is not likely to discount once they are the only game in town.

 

[jumpyg]

Yikes!

I saw a lot of "new lower price" stickers but assumed it was a large scale price reduction and not a clearance. I checked back a few times over the past month or so, and the prices have not dropped further.

Here are photos that I took in early February. I uploaded them on 2/18, so they were taken sometime before that.

I saw on a deal site where some people have seen 50-75% off the Kleins. That suggests to me a clearance, not lower price. Who knows.

FWIW, my HDs have a full line of Kleins, more than what Lowes has.

 

[sk farmer]

wow, i want to meet volpster31. 1 post since nov 08. since 3-15 this thread has well over 40 replies and almost 1400 hits. i am a newbie here to, but this thing is like show me your tools. it never ends. the bad thing is all i have learned is that some tools are on sale, or maybe clearance, or maybe new low price or, maybe not at all. lets not forget the my store does, doesn't , might, maybe, should, will,quit, or could carry brand x exclusively. how about the " i know the manager and he told me such and such" . let's just let this one end until someone has something other than "i just ran to the store for the sixth time this week and it still hasn't changed"

 

[HandyManny]

And coming from working at lowes for 5 years - no at the store level we knew NOTHING..

Evidently he didn't get that memo. Just relaying what he said. It did make sense, but not everything that makes sense is always fact.

How do the manufacurers and marketers of a brand plan to make as much profit as they can when they limit their product to one big-box store and exclude the other? Just curious. To me it seems like bad business, unless of course one retailer isn't handling your brand correctly, and I've seen that happen before.

As far as the people at store level at Lowes not knowing much. I see what you're saying and that's hurting them terribley. Truth be told I see a lot of that at HD as well, at store level anyway.

 

[Danglerb]

Evidently he didn't get that memo. Just relaying what he said. It did make sense, but not everything that makes sense is always fact.

How do the manufacurers and marketers of a brand plan to make as much profit as they can when they limit their product to one big-box store and exclude the other? Just curious.

Simple, no competition means no "price" related selliing, since all the stores do the "price match" but only on same brand and model. Old trick is that exact same item is sold at different chains with slightly different model numbers.

Manufacturer price fixing has always been the highest profit scheme.

 

[mrb]

I bet the way it went down, was Lowes dumped Klein first in favor of Ideal since the ideal product is alot cheaper and lowes can sell it for the same price. Then Klein went to HD and made a deal for HD to get rid of greenlee and be all klein.

 

[Stuey]

I wouldn't buy Klein at HD. I wanted a certain pair of strippers, but HD wanted $18 for it. I bought the Craftsman version for $11, and the larger sized Klein one for $12 at Lowes.

 

[Coach James]

The Lowes here has sold out of almost all their Klein stuff. Just a few wire strippers and needlenose pliers left. I got some wire strippers last week for a nice discount and picked up a 10-1 screwdriver for $7 on Wednesday. The Ideal stuff is filling in where Klein used to be.

I wish we could get a HD here. This past weekend, I was over in Greensboro at the HD near Guilford College and their selection of tools, including USA made stuff, lumber, electrical, etc is so much larger than the Lowes here.

And incredibly, every single employee I walked near, spoke to me.

Coach

 

[Uncle Buck]

And incredibly, every single employee I walked near, spoke to me.

Coach

That would not happen if you you were at Home Depot!

 

[Coach James]

Yep, it was at HD. I thought I was in the twilight zone at first. And they were actually friendly and seemed happy to be at work!

Coach

 

[GrantMLS]

Trust me - your gonna see a lot of good changes with home depot coming soon - now that we have a decent CEO that cares about customers.. Even with the bad economy - hours (workers) are being added to each store. HD has a huge advantage over lowes - 3 times the size and cash run business and a CEO who cares about the company. I will admit the service went down will with Bob Nardelli in charge but things are changing!

 

[jumpyg]

Well, I've been watching the Kleins at the New Hudson, MI, store and today they had changed about 75% of their Klein stock from "New lower price" to "Clearance." Prices were reduced to 50-75% off. My guess is they didn't finish doing the markdowns and the rest will be marked down soon. I picked up a 10-in-1 screwdriver for less than $5.

 

[dirtball]

I purchased a couple of 5 packs of pliers from the deal alert here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32094. They came in the mail today, and a few of them have Lowes stickers on them. It looks like they sold some stock off and they are showing up on EBAY.

 

[G-force]

I picked up an extra set of nut drivers reg $39 marked down to $15 along with some needle nose and some nice ergo wire cutters. all 50-75% off.

 

[Romanova]

The Lowes here has sold out of almost all their Klein stuff. Just a few wire strippers and needlenose pliers left. I got some wire strippers last week for a nice discount and picked up a 10-1 screwdriver for $7 on Wednesday. The Ideal stuff is filling in where Klein used to be.

I wish we could get a HD here. This past weekend, I was over in Greensboro at the HD near Guilford College and their selection of tools, including USA made stuff, lumber, electrical, etc is so much larger than the Lowes here.

And incredibly, every single employee I walked near, spoke to me.

Coach

Other way around for me. I never get any help at HD, but as soon as I step into the Lowes across the street they are tripping over eachother trying to offer help. I split my time between both stores...

 

[G-force]

Other way around for me. I never get any help at HD, but as soon as I step into the Lowes across the street they are tripping over eachother trying to offer help. I split my time between both stores...

My local HD and Lowes stores are right next to each other. They share the same parking lot. It's nice, I have my favorite parking spot where I can shop both stores without ever moving my truck. Good for price shopping between the two.

 

[FuriousGeorge]

I decided to stop by my Lowes on the way home and see what they had. Some stuff marked lower price and some clearance. I picked up a 6" needle nose, 8" dikes, the Klein Kurve 10-18 awg strippers, a 10-in-1 screwdriver, and the 7 piece cushion grip screwdrivers for $40.34. Not too bad I think.

 

[peterbilr98]

looks like i will be taking a trip to lowes

 

[Tornado]

This was hit or miss for me. I went to 3 different Lowes in my area, one had marked down around 75%, the other 2 were only about 15-20%. Got a pair of linesman pliers for $13 (same exact ones are $35 at HD). Once the Klein is gone they are replacing with Greenlee touting the "New Lower Price" of the Greenlee which seems to be 10-15% less than the regular Klein prices.

 

[walrus]

I've been in 2 lowes in my area, not much left, Got a 10 and 1 for 8 bucks and pair of strippers for 11 bucks. Wanted some romex strippers but all they had was Ideal

 

[scottmlew]

My local Lowes (in San Antonio, 1604 and Blanco) had very little Klein (only 5-6 pieces) and not all of it was marked down. The 2 or 3 pieces that were marked down were only about 15% off.

 

[gatewaysysop]

Well, hit up another Lowes tonight and actually found some Klein there. Wasn't much, and half of what was there was replaced with similar looking 'Ideal' brand already. There were a few Klein tucked in behind all the Ideal stuff on the pegs, but most of the good stuff was picked clean. They had the $40 screwdriver set priced at $29 I think, but of course they only had Ideal left on the peg. Bummer.

I did pick up the two piece stubby screwdriver set for about 30% off as well as a large flat screwdriver, but that was about it. I might hit up another Lowes and see if they've got anything else left, but it appears to be to slim pickings at this point, at least around here.

Either way, I appreciate the heads up in this thread.

 

[danski0224]

I've been back to the local Lowes a couple of times, and it appears that they are clearancing Klein stock as Ideal stock comes in.

The only thing I would have wanted (not the same as needed) to buy was the Klein deburring tool, and I missed it.

Oh well.

Guess the method used is a way to make the most money from the brand switch.

 

[HandyManny]

I find that the clearance prices are about what the regular prices on Klien tools were in mid year of 2007. Finally gave in and bought one of each sized Klein nut-driver at Lowes. Figured as the price of all metals is rising and won't liklely go down, we'll never see prices like these again.

If I have to replace the few Klien screwdrivers I have left I'll replace them with Ideal, Stanley, or more Craftsmans.

My Klien lineman's, diagonal cutters, and long-nose pliers still have a lifetime of use left in them, even after 15 years of use. Just couldn't justify paying for new pliers.

 

[FuriousGeorge]

I was back at my Lowes yesterday and they had restocked a little and marked prices back up from the clearance price to the "new lower price" level. Things like the screwdriver and nutdriver sets went from $15 back to $30. This is a strange way to clearance items.

 

[Vinko]

Are prices back up to normal for Lowes on the Klein stuff? I could use a pair of the network cable connector crimpers.

 

[FuriousGeorge]

I was in my Lowes a couple weeks ago and prices were still back to normal. Probably have to check your local store to be sure, but I think the "clearance" is over. I don't remember seeing those crimpers at my Lowes. They may have them at Home Depot. Last time I was there they had a much larger selection of Klein than Lowes.

 

[wyndycity]

The clearance prices were just that, total clearance of Klein tools. All the Lowe's I've been to lately around Chicago have no more Kleins or in some cases, a scant few left.

Lowes has replaced Klein with imported Ideal brand tools.

 

[gatewaysysop]

I've also noticed this at two local Sears now. Klein is stripped almost bare on the shelves, only the expensive ($50 screwdriver sets) left, not much else. Doesn't appear they're going to be restocking either. Kind of ***** because even at Sears it was still a few dollars cheaper than HD, which appears to be charging "bend over" prices now that they're the only game in town.

 

[Old Donn]

Not around here. After reading this, I went to a couple of local Lowe's. They had plenty of both brands, none were marked down and the respective store managers claimed to know nothing of these lines being discontinued.

 

[gatewaysysop]

Not around here. After reading this, I went to a couple of local Lowe's. They had plenty of both brands, none were marked down and the respective store managers claimed to know nothing of these lines being discontinued.

Asked at Sears what the deal was. Response I was given was that, oh it's just low on stock, they're not getting rid of Klein, it just happens to be stripped from the shelves and coincidentally not re-stocked at any of the places in town. I don't know the story with Lowes, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the manager was telling you the truth, at least in so far as he didn't know anything about it. In my experience, store managers very rarely know much of anything (which is why they're managers).

I sincerely hope HD doesn't become the only place in town to buy Klein, because of the aforementioned pricing strategy, so I hope what you heard was true, but somehow I have doubts.

 

[Blacknwhitepit]

I went to my LOWE's and verified this today. Replaced by IDEAL. Klein items were 30% off and all they had left were screwdrivers... Sad.

-BWP

 

[boiler7904]

Klein is out of our local Lowe's except for an oddball tool or two.

This whole game of Home Depot being the only national retailer of lines of tools *****. First it was Milwaukee and Makita power tools. Now it's Klein. What brand do they have their sights on next?

 

[Garage_Mahal]

Went to Lowes yesterday. Not a single Klein tool in sight. Irwin, Stanley and Kobalt where about it.