Home Depot’s PRO Black Friday 2019 tool deals are live! Well, all but a few of them. Milwaukee’s Packout 3 tool box stack is already on sale at holiday/special buy pricing at some other retailers. But at Home Depot? I’m not quite even sure how to describe it.
Update: I checked again after 1am ET, and the Packout combo is NOW on sale for $199.
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I visited a nearby Home Depot to see if there were any new Pro Black Friday tool deals, just in case there were any new or late additions.
I checked online prices this morning, and was surprised that the Milwaukee Packout tool box combo was not yet discounted – it was still coming up at $279.
Maybe it was an in-store promo? Nope. This Home Depot store had big signage with a $279 price sticker placed across a much taller $199 price. Smooth.
But…
Looking at the inventory for nearby stores via Home Depot’s website, I see that some stores have dozens of Packout tool box combos in stock. Dozens.
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You know, I thought 6 of these Packout tool box combos was a lot. My store has them nice and neat in the gift center bay, and one or two elsewhere on the sale floor. This image was from earlier in the month.
Well, according to Home Depot’s website, that store actually has 64 Packout tool box system special buys in stock. The store I visited today is said to have 33 in stock. Another store nearby has 72 in stock. A couple of the next-closest stores have ~4 dozen Packout combos as well, each.
In the past, there would be a couple of Packout tool box combos and then that would be it. A few more showed up at one of my local Home Depot stores last year a little later in the season.
But several dozen Packout tool boxes at each store?
Unfortunately, we don’t have any way of asking Home Depot corporate for details about what’s going on with this. There are some people I could email, but I’m tired of waiting for replies that never show up.
So, let’s guess as to what’s happening. In my opinion, this will be a DoorBuster-type Black Friday tool deal. Maybe the decision was to save the deal for Black Friday instead of PRO Black Friday week.
Home Depot’s online Pro deals usually go into effect on Mondays. Maybe these tool boxes will be included in “part 2” of the Pro Black Friday tool deals that will kick off next week?
I just…
Isn’t there a better way of communicating things to customers?
I considered that maybe the signage went up early, but there’s “up” and “down” guidance for stores at the bottom left corner of the sign, and it says it’s supposed to be up today, 11/14/19, which corresponds to the start of the other Pro Black Friday deals.
Maybe some stores don’t have enough supplies yet?
Having “was $279” pricing next to a large $199 price that’s crossed out with a smaller $279 price sticker? That’s just comically confusing.
I think the most likely explanation is these tool box combos will be on sale, but that maybe the start date has changed. If you can’t wait for Home Depot, other Milwaukee dealers have this and a slightly different combo on sale for $199 each right now.
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
See Also(Active Packout Combo Promos)
Update 2: Go Go Go
As of 1:18am ET, the $199 deal is currently LIVE on Home Depot’s site. You can order online for home/work delivery, or select in-store pickup. Hopefully someone can report back with in-store pricing tomorrow.
Update 1: Summary
To clarify, there is signage indicating that these Packout tool combos are supposed to be on sale. It was a Pro Black Friday in the past. Other retailers have it as a current special at $199. Home Depot stores have unprecedented levels of these tool box combos in inventory.
But, Pro Black Friday kicked off today. Discount pricing was covered at a local store. The online price is still $279.
There’s no indication as to why the combo is not on sale now, but all the empirical evidence screams “this combo WILL be on sale.”
There is one big unknown: Why isn’t it on sale now?
And then, when will it be on sale?
This isn’t something that happened at one store. The Packout special is full-price at Home Depot’s online store, and the one nearby store I checked today. Maybe it’s a regional kickoff delay? That’s a main purpose of the post, to share notes and collectively figure out what’s going on.
rob
Agree Stu, a bad look for Home Depot and the Milwaukee merchandising team. Why put the sign up and then put a sticker over it.
Gordon
By slapping the sticker straight on the cardboard they won’t get it off without damaging it. That either means it isn’t coming off, or someone couldn’t be paid to care. Last time I saw HD put the holiday cardboard up early they atleast put a piece of paper over the sale price before putting the sticker on it.
James
Milwaukee heat gun to the rescue! ?
Mike
yeah my local store has a ton of these things and I don’t really think the demographics support a lot of $300 (after tax) plastic tool boxes. They better eventually put them on sale to get rid of them.
PETE
You must not follow pac_king_out on IG lol They’re never going away.
Mike
Good lord. Pac_king_out either works for Milwaukee or he is seriously deep in debt – like Snap-On kind of debt.
PETE
You do know thats not all of his packout boxes, right? Probably 95% of his pictures are reposts of someone else’s pictures.
Frank D
Why would anyone put the reduced sign up and put a sticker over it???
#facepalm
Clearly HD must have printed those to go around nationwide!
What typically happens is, those signs appear the last work day before BF (TG means all retail closed in this state) with black plastic over them, some tape, do not touch, … Then it gets unwrapped by the early shift on BF before the store opens.
My store has about 18 stacks that I have seen. Doubt they’ll sell many. Especially if the Ridgid stacks come back at $99.
Just checked online. What a crock.
The HD website has BF sales goin on now, save now, packout featured, $279.
Full price!!!
HD can be so mis-managed, it is not even funny.
And, our store has 48.
LOL and Facepalm.
Adam
Show them any other retailer that has it for $199. Their price match policy states that they will do it.
Get lucky, and have
https://www.homedepot.com/c/PM_New_Lower_Price
Frank D
Is that a YMMV or pretty much an all clear these days?
Because in the past online matching was not guaranteed. I have known HD to insist on a local retailer flyer like Lowe’s or even that the item was in stock at Lowe’s, where they called them up.
One can even run into the issue of HD Retail not price matching HD Online and vice versa!
Have had some chats about that in the past in store and online – basically like they’re separate entities … and then given up on trying to work with HD. I even quit going to their store for a year as a personal boycott over another issue.
Anyhow.
I’m genuinely curious how one fares trying to get a price-match these days.
Might try it for a packout box or two 🙂
Gordon
I’ve had issues with price match and an online price. They wanted to see the item in stock locally, and an advertised price.
Meanwhile, Dyson price matched a Lowe’s clearance price via webchat. She even called me to collect the credit card number so it wouldn’t be transferred via the 3rd party chat. I scored a V6 stick vac for $54.
Frank D
That has been my experience in the past:
They insisted on local hardware retailer in stock price matching
Not that I fault / blame HD for that policy; I just get curious when people say, oh just get them to price match random e-tailer x, y or z and you’ll be good.
MrWeedley
Last Friday I bought 2 of the 8424 tool boxes for 34.99 each. Showed the a website that had them at that price… no problem.
B-Rad
From the HD website: “How the Low Price Guarantee works for online purchases: Our Price Match Guarantee includes the price of the item(s) plus shipping cost. Price Match items must be available from competitor to ship to customer’s location.”
Just did it for another tool. Totally works for online competitor prices. They even match Amazon, but the seller has to be Amazon, not a 3rd party seller. Did it over the phone.
Just had them match the internationaltool.com deal (now sold out) for the M18 Fuel Circ Saw and free 8.0 ah battery for $169 (is $249 on HD website). Did it all over the phone. They have you add HD item to cart and check out online while on the phone, then they plug in your order number and refund the difference to your card.
HOWEVER, they are adamant the item model number must match EXACTLY to what they have on the HD website. So the Packout deals online elsewhere for $199 likely won’t work since many of them have the foam insert small case, not the one HD carries with silver handles as part of the packout kit, with different model numbers.
Good luck!
Chris
How in the world did you get HD to price match when it doesn’t show the $169 price since it’s sold out? I would love to get the deal. Thanks
Corey Moore
I’d venture a guess that those quantities, and the haphazard price confusion might mean that they’re going to be below $199 when they do go on sale, and that may be why they’re anticipating moving so many units. Could explain why your store potentially ruined the lower price card with the sticker-neither may be accurate soon.
Wave
I just saw them today at $199. I live in So Cal.
Stuart
But did they actually ring up at that price? That’s what I believe happened here – someone tried to buy one at $199, they honored it, and then replaced the price with what the system was currently showing.
Wave
I just saw them with their posted price. I was busy looking for work/camp flashlights. Please post a flashlight deal for Black Friday.
MattF
If there is actually any rational reasoning behind all this, I can only imagine HD and Milwaukee agreed on a lower than $199 price if they delay discounting until some date. That special agreement then didn’t get edited into whatever sheet the marketing team was working off of.
Will
I bought this at 0630 pdt and the big sign said $199. Bought other stuff and didn’t realize $279 price until I read this article and checked my receipt. Now get to go back and get correct price.
Will
Crisis averted LOL. Went in this morning and they adjusted price.
Steve Goodman
I timed it just right. They had the 199 out there but had not put 279 over it yet so they had to sell 2 to me. Love sticking it to corporations.
MrWeedley
That’s interesting, they were 199.00 online this morning
James
They were taking down the BF signage and covering the stacks with a large cardboard box when I was at my store today.
Barry
I was in two separate HDs today. One still had them listed at $279. The other had the $199 sign up so I snagged one. It still rang up at $279, but they adjusted it based on the sign. I guess we’ll see if they go even lower.
Robert
They’ve been doing the same thing at my Home Depot, which has led to some confusion… A sticker went over the 12ah M18 battery that said $139 and a free 8.0 battery. The batteries disappeared quickly, only to be told it was a mistake. A couple people got the deal through complaining…
It’s amazing to me that some of the cashiers don’t know a drill from a circular saw, hence, poor sticker placement…
Seth
Could they have possibly pushed back the sale date due to the Menards 11% off which they match?
Tom D
Wait what? Tell me more?
Also Menards doesn’t carry Milwaukee.
Seth
It’s 11% regardless, and they don’t advertise this
https://www.homedepotrebates11percent.com/#/home
You may need to have a Menards locally though
Tom D
A winner is me – the Hudson Menards and Home Depot almost share a parking lot.
11% discounts yuuuum.
Dewaltlandlord
It was $199 at my store. I didn’t try buying one, but that was the listed price on the display at the middle of the store.
I did buy the slim organizer today for $29.99, and I believe that was off of the normal $39 price.
Frank D
I’ll probably fetch two slim ones tomorrow, and put them aside for the a few weeks just in case, but they’re 25% off as shown on the HD site.
Tom D
That’s the one tempting me; though Ace has the half-width normal one for $20.
Frank D
The half width one could be handy for a select number of frequently used small parts. I quite love the wide slim ones. With custom dividers a whole host of small parts are easy to carry … I could envision having six slim ones and a big one as a daily carry unit … but … at that point would love a centered carry handle up top, rather than grabbing the middle side handle and carrying it like a briefcase. The wheeled based is rather heavy and not handy for stairs … while living on a hillside with a four level home.
Dewaltlandlord
May I suggest you get the thin ones in multiples of 2. That way you can set them standing up on the edge when they are connected.
If you only have one, they have to lay flat, kinda cumbersome to set them flat when you are moving between boxes to get to a specific container.
James
They just went back down to $199 online now. It’s now after midnight here on the east coast, so maybe they just weren’t supposed to drop the price until Friday?
Tom D
I suspect that the price was supposed to be $199 yesterday but the computer wasn’t updated and the guy who can change it (it a EBDIC text file on a mainframe from the 60s) was on vacation yesterday.
Josh
Is there a weight capacity rating on these?? can they handle being loaded with Mechanic’s Tools???/
Stuart
The rolling tool box has a 250 lb weight capacity. Large box is rated to 100 lbs, small tool box to 75 lbs.
Tom D
Is that total weight on the roller or just in the box? Because 250+100+75 might be why we hear reports of the wheels giving out.
Stuart
They don’t clarify, but I’d assume that’s the total weight for either solo use or under a stack of Packout boxes.
OldDominionDIYer
My local HD has them on sale for $199.00 and shows a quantity of 42 units. I already have a set (plus many more) but I am seriously thinking of purchasing another since mine a full to the rim…
krashtd
We had several items that didn’t get the price change loaded for our merchandising teams yesterday. Normally this would happen before 6am so that individual stores aren’t taking the markdown for each item sold, instead corporate would eat that adjustment. It’s not uncommon for a few items to get overlooked, but yesterday was a lot. And not small amounts.
krashtd
Nothing like the Milwaukee tool chest fiasco a couple of years ago, but still enough to have our guys scrambling
Frank D
Went to our local HD.
Lots of extra stuff showed up to attract holiday sales, filling up the front aisle end to end, making for some tough through navigation, once again, as soon as one person stops to look at anything, ugh ….
Anyhow. Milwaukee.
The main aisle packout area had no cardboard display and no price.
The packout holiday display (as in image 3) in the interior garden section had the 199 price.
Picked up three packout slims for 29.99 (25% off) … will set them aside in case there are further discounts … as I really can’t see HD selling so much premium product.
They had the ratchet wrench half packout set. Interesting, but too limited and toop pricey. It should be a universal set in full packout for 125 or so, before I could justify a side-grade to a new set and gifting an old one away.
Ideally, give me a packout base on wheels with a mechanics tool set in it in drawers, for a reasonable, non-premium price. If Kobalt can do this for $99 https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-227-Piece-Mechanic-s-Tool-Set-with-Case-Metal-Latches/1000642747?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-tol-_-google-_-lia-_-218-_-mechanicstools-_-1000642747-_-0&store_code=2265&cm_mmc=src-_-c-_-prd-_-tol-_-google-_-tools-_-MHLIA_TOL_Tools_High%20Priority-_–_-0-_-0&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsMn89I_t5QIVi5-zCh23OwcKEAQYAyABEgIUG_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds … then there have to be options for Milwaukee to do something for packout base + a couple hundred.
Rock
Anybody looking for the smaller packout storage container, Ace hardware has $10 off, $29.99 everywhere else for $19.99.Milwaukee PACKOUT 9.72 in. L x 15.24 in. W x 4.61 in. H, 48-22-8435