Another Makita price increase just went into effect, as of May 1, 2023.
The Makita XGT 40V Max rear-handle circular saw kit, GSR01M1, which was recently on sale for $299, went from being regularly priced at $399 to $449.
Similarly, the 2-tool cordless hammer drill and impact driver combo kit, GT200D, which was recently on sale for $349, increased from $449 to $469.
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The Makita XGT 2-battery HEPA dust extractor, GCV02ZU, was $699 and is now $749.
The 18V 2-tool combo kit, XT288T, was $399 and is now $419. There also looks to be a new promo where you get a free 2-pack of 5Ah batteries. So, compared to last month, you’re spending $20 more but getting bonus batteries.
The GSA01 cordless blower/duster went from $179 to $194.
Makita USA raised their prices last April, and again in October. Some of the price increases since then have been quite steep.
The GSL04M1 XGT cordless miter saw was $1,299 last September, then $1,399, and now $1,499. I didn’t note the price prior to last year’s first increase.
All of the models I noticed having increased in price in October have increased again.
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For example, the GT400M1D1 4pc combo kit was regularly priced at $649 last September, then increased to $699, and is now $739.
I have not yet found examples of Makita cordless power tools that were not affected by the recent increase. It looks like there are higher prices across the board, but there could be exclusions.
Let’s hope that Makita’s latest price increase is the only one of 2023.
Some stores have not yet updated their pricing.
Jared
“Some of the price increases since then have been quite steep” – is what I was thinking as I read this. These new increases aren’t small either.
We will probably never know, but it would be nice to have some insight into what causes the increases. I’m sure something generic like “increased production costs” could cover it, but it would be interesting to know if components and material costs were increasing for example, or tariff changes, maybe it’s decreased sales, a loss of retail channels? There’s probably an interplay between many factors.
Mike
How about greed? Securing corporate profits makes executives rich. Just look at the” inflated” foods pricing and record profits being announced.
Stuart
I haven’t seen 2022 numbers yet, but here are Makita’s revenue and profit breakdowns for 2021:
https://toolguyd.com/makita-tool-business-performance-2022/
Mike
In capital markets, growth is the most important factor topping even profitability. Amazon was a paper tiger for a decade making no actual profit and enjoying essentially unlimited growth. If they business stagnates, the stock falls. Look at Netflix in 2022. Profitability was fine but no earnings growth per share. This is end stage capitalism and mimics the definition of a cancer. Growth for the sake of growth. Raising prices is far easier than developing new products.
The Festtool system operates in niche for very specific buyers. I do not see Makita that way. But annual or more often increases have been socialized across the economy as business as usual and we have been “trained” to accept it.
Stuart
I imagine that there’s a high cost to every percentage point of market share gained in North America, given the current dominance of Dewalt and Milwaukee in the pro cordless space.
Makita is still very actively expanding their cordless lines; I don’t think developing new products is the issue here.
Dennis
Or you can look at how the US has Inflated the Dollar by printing money or is letting
B R I CK S challenge the dollar as the world reserve currency
If BRICKS succeeds were only seeing the beginning of inflation
Stuart
No politics.
Robert+Cunner
Unfortunately this is very true.
Dennis
Unfortunately politics has caused inflation
Makita is probably getting a head of the curve or is seeing rising material costs
Dewalt and Milwaukee are either looking at market share before raising their own prices or thinking inflation will fade
Ball_bearing
It is not only Makita rising prices, but everyone. Even food prices are going through the roof. Eggs are at 4.25 a dozen, they used to be 1.25 a dozen. A gallon of milk is 6.97. ground beef going between 3.99 and 6.39lb.
Hon Cho
Lots of things driving the price increases in many industries but I’m of the camp that thinks that a lot of it is driven by the the ability to use the cover of inflation to increase revenue and profits. At least in the USA, one thing going for the power tool consumer is that the segment is extremely competitive. Pricing promotions for the most popular tools and tool kits are very common, lessening the impact of the higher MSRPs.
Aaron SD
I’m not so sure. Raising prices risks loss of market share and lower sales. It is usually more about maintaining profits as their costs have gone up too.
b
The data doesn’t exist to support this thesis.
It’s easy click-bait and passes the sniff test, but the wildly simplified “analysis,” does not have any robust validity.
Robert
Wow indeed. At $1499, the GSL04M1 XGT cordless miter saw is more than the new Festool cordless miter saw. Regardless of the relative technical merits of the GSL04M1 XGT, that’s eye opening.
DC
I haven’t purchased Makita in over 5 years because of their absurd pricing. I mostly purchased Milwaukee or DeWalt at less than Makita and even better.
Bob Baker
I have 20 or so LXT tools that I purchased between 2019-2021 that I’ve been happy with. Unless the rest of the market skyrockets in similar fashion, I can’t see myself ever moving to the XGT platform or picking up LXT tools again if they ever need replacing.
fred
I wonder if the Makita USA price increases are mirrored by the same jumps in other markets like Australia and Europe. I think that most of the Makita items that I’ve purchased recently came from China – with a few from Thailand. So. production cost increases in those countries may have some impact. I’m also not sure how US tariffs on goods from China may have impacted any Makita costs into the US. In any event – like other recent price increases – this is a bummer. Even if MSRP cost increases end up getting discounted – buying Makita tools will still cost us more.
MoogleMan3
Yeah Makita is all but dead to me. They’re not leaps and bounds above their competitors, so I’m not sure where they get off thinking they can raise prices without the effect of sending new customers to their competitors.
Julian Tracy
I say this as a long term die hard Makita tool user.
Makita has both priced themselves out of the market and have introduced very few tools that are compelling and quite a few that are down right duds, such as the inflator that you have to keep the trigger pulled, the crazy bulky nail guns, the higher priced brown color tools, the pretty much abandoned cxt lineup , etc.
I have a ton of lxt tools, lots of batteries and a lots 18vx2 tools. Absolutely ZERO interest in needlessly bulky Xgt hand tools and can make do with the 36v versions for the ODP tools.
Aside from some combo deals for new users, very little deals compared to the fairly remarkable combo/free item deals Dewalt 20v and MW m12 tools the last few years.
I’ve always thought the makita lineup was for discerning carpenters, the D and MW and Rgd lineups for more meathead contractors. But no longer. Dewalt has hugely stepped up their 20v and 12v game and MW has surpassed anyone in the 12v space.
Joellikestools
I agree with your sentiment. In addition I wonder if makita is doing what Bosch has done and is focusing on European markets and is retreating market share in North America. I have a couple makita corded tools that are great and their stuck vacuum, but don’t consider them for other cordless tools. They used to be the standard for discerning tradesmen, but TTI and SBD are coming out with good tools.
ITCD
The XWT08 was $279, then went to $329 then like a month later went to $349. That’s a 25% increase in a pretty short amount of time, shoot it might be even higher now, haven’t bothered to look lately because the price already made me nope out of dropping the dollars on it. Crazy how it shot up $70 while a bunch of other things in that timeframe went up $10 or sometimes $20. Glad I got the trim router when it was still $129 I think it was, at least.
JR Ramos
Since I’m not in the game anymore I wonder sometimes what comes from the company and what comes from the distributors/retailers (and these days with the law-skirting pricing rules it’s hard to tell).
Higher prices certainly don’t do Makita any favors but they’re still in the range they “ought to be” with the competition. I noticed about two years ago that Milwaukee cordless pricing had a couple small rounds of steady increases. A lot of it started as about 12% retail and then it seems like about 20% or a tad more became the norm.
When I was in purchasing things were fairly steady but we could generally count on biannual changes to the sheets (sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes a mix of both) and that became more common as so much manufacturing shifted overseas…many companies had just done annual sheets (whether pricing changed or not). These days it seems everything goes up rather consistently.
I would imagine, presently and for the last few years, that a lot of this has to do with freight increases as well as fuel prices, both of which went way, way up and have not subsided really. Some may take advantage of “inflation” periods whether they need to or not but it seems like this round of inflation is hitting hard and across the entire board of products and goods.
Eliot Truelove
These price increases I think are a reason to set the bar high so that when deals come they can be sold for what they sold for normally a few years back, and throw in a few batteries during these deals as well. Makita did the $100 off promo last month and a free battery for XGT tools that was tempting, I’m sure they’ll do something similar.
Makita may be realizing to keep up with durability and not sacrifice quality they have to raise their prices. The alternative is keep prices low and cut corners. If anything this could bankroll alot of their product R&D and who knows, maybe result in a sawstop-like tablesaw next year when all the patents have finally expired.
ITCD
They had better holiday deals last season than they did the year before, somehow. Instead of saw 2 batteries and a bare tool for $249 I think the bare tool was swapped for 2 more batteries and you know how expensive batteries are!
They also had the 2 4Ah batteries and a charger with bare tool for $189 in 2021 because I got it. Last season it was the same deal same price but this time 5Ah batteries. So of course I had to do it again.
Daniel
Power tool maker Makita to lay off hundreds, including Georgia workers.
Just saw this headline, but article was behind a paywall. I did find the WARN notice for Georgia.