I’m bracing myself for disappointing holiday tool deals from Dewalt.
Retailers’ holiday season and Black Friday deals aren’t in full swing yet, but there are clear teasers that clue us in about what to expect.
What we’re seeing so far suggests that Dewalt has been significantly impacted by tariffs.
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Their parent company said they would have to raise prices, and they’ve done that already. They had a poor showing for the Father’s Day deals season, and I was hopeful things would be different for the holiday tool deals season.
Consumers expect deep discounts and huge bargains for Black Friday and the surrounding weeks.
Home Depot just launched this new seemingly exclusive Dewalt 20V Max cordless power tool starter kit, model DCB225-2C.
You get Dewalt’s compact charger – the one they’ve been bundling in cheaper promo kits – a non-XR 5Ah battery and a non-XR 2Ah battery.
The price is $199.
My closest store reports that they have 69 in stock, and there are many dozens at every nearby store. One store has a whopping 170. Home Depot is reporting 15,821 available for online delivery.
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That tells us that this is going to be one of Home Depot’s flagship Dewalt deals.
Dewalt’s deals tend to vary a bit year from year, but there is typically a $199 starter set that you buy to get 1 free tool.
Last year’s deal featured a standard Dewalt charger, 6Ah battery, and 4Ah battery.
So far, it’s looking like the new cheapened kit will be part of their “buy a starter kit, get a free tool” promo for 2025.
Relatively speaking, this is very disappointing.
The charger isn’t terrible, and the battery sizes still useful despite being older tech. But it’s not as good of a bargain as we’ve come to expect. We also haven’t seen the free tool selection – that’s something that I’m concerned about as well.
Lowe’s went in a different direction. Their Dewalt cordless power tool deal features a typical charger and 2x 5Ah battery starter kit, but they raised the price to $299 and are giving you (2) free tools.
Lowe’s says that if you choose a 5Ah battery as one (or both) of the freebies, each has a value of $169. Amazon is selling a 2-pack for $169.
It seems to me that a lot of the “free tool” values have been inflated.
Is it still a good deal? Yes. The lowest you can buy 2x 5Ah batteries for is $169 right now. With Lowe’s deal, you can get 4 of those batteries plus a charger for $299.
But relatively speaking, these deals deliver a lot less value than in previous years. They’re not bad, but aren’t great either.
Amazon has this Dewalt table saw for $599. Others have it for $649.
$599 is the best price we saw last year. The list price has been inflated to $719 since then, giving the appearance of a better bargain. A year earlier (fall 2023), the promo price was $549 and for a limited time it was eligible for a coupon offer at multiple retailers that dropped the price to $474.
This, $599 is a “deal,” but I see it more as a “business as usual” type of price.
One of Dewalt’s best Prime Day deals was their 20V Max cordless sander kit for $118. That was pretty good, but still not the best value I’ve seen.
All of the signs I’m seeing suggest we’re in for a disappointing holiday season.
There will still be Dewalt deals, but I’m bracing for lower values and smaller bargains. Other brands haven’t showed their hands yet, but most cordless power brands have been impacted by the tariffs.
I’ve lowered my expectations for the holiday season and Black Friday, and hope to be proven wrong.
fred
I guess these headwinds are at least in part the contributor to SBD’s stock price falling this year (down 35% yr over yr) versus S&P500 being up 14.8%.
From my limited view – I think TTI brands and KKR brands may be eating Dewalt’s lunch. Perhaps SBD is too bloated – trying to sell too many competing brands – with each cannibalizing some of the sales of each other.
Andrew Holmes
Not defending SBD here but I think looking at other tool brands stock prices is probably better than the large index’s. TTi is down 17% and Makita is up 2% (which surprises me). Both still much better than SBD, but I digress.
Rog
SBD is bloated, way too many brands to divide their interest. I like Dewalt and want them to succeed, but man are SBD a (seemingly) boneheaded company sometimes
DH
SBD has been raising prices going back to 2024 and sales were slowing before that…
TomD
I was looking at the non-Black Friday options at Home Depot yesterday and the Milwaukee default deals seemed – normal?
How come they have not been hit by these tariffs as hard – did they stock pile of billion tools in the US last year?
fred
I bought 6 Milwaukee cordless tools (2350, 2479, 2847, 3469, 3476 and 3675) for “Santa’s sack” this year. They were all made in Vietnam (20% tariff ??) versus China (50+% tariff ??). That may be a factor.
fred
I also noted that with 2 of the tools Milwaukee showed some savvy by designing them with proprietary saw blades. The 48-40-4062 blade for their 3469 pipe cutter is 24T – 115mm dia. – with an uncommon 12mm bore. Their 48-40-4064 blade for their 3675 rebar cutter is a 30T 5-3/8-inch blade with a 27.75mm bore and an added set of 3 drive holes spaced 120 degrees apart around the bore – to engage with pins on the tool.
Nathan
There are also too many basic DeWalt tools. In my opinion. How many models of drill and impact driver are being made. How many omta are being made at one time I think there was 4. Etc. Seems more that other brands