10 Home Depot Shopping Secrets Too Good Not To Share!
10 Home Depot Shopping Secrets
I’ve got 10 Home Depot shopping secrets you may not know about. These tips will save you a lot of money on your tools, your supplies, and your equipment for your shop. My closest Home Depot is 90 miles away, but I love going there because I love looking for deals. One thing to note before we dive in, is that these secrets can vary from store to store, depending on management. Let me know in the comments if you have success at your local Home Depot!
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#1 – Damaged Box Discount – I was in Home Depot recently, and I found a large DeWALT air compressor with a box that was pretty trashed. It wasn’t terrible, it was enough to qualify for a 10% off if the manager approves. I didn’t need the air compressor because I’m out of room. But if I was in the market for an air compressor, I could have talked with the manager and asked for the discount. The shelf tag at the time showed the price to be $399, so if the manager approved it, a 10% discount would have knocked $40 off. You know you’re going to catch more flies with honey, so be nice and kind when you ask.
The product inside may be dinged or scratched, but it won’t affect the performance of the tool. You’re just not the first person to put a scratch on it, and you’re saving 10%. In the lumber section, you’ll likely find a bin of cull or scrap lumber that’s not going to be sold. You can often get up to 50% or more off of that wood, so be sure to check the lumber aisle.
#2 – Price Protection – There’s a 30-day price protection on your purchase, both in-store and online. If the price drops within 30 days of your purchase, you can get the difference back. Be sure to keep an eye on any major tool purchases for 30 days and you could save some serious cash.
So, if you bought that DeWALT drill package last week for $299 and this week it’s $199, go to the customer service desk with your receipt, and they’ll give you the difference back. If you bought online, you can just use their online chat with your order number, and the same thing will apply.
#3 – Price Tags – This is one of the best tips, except for maybe #9. The price tag will tell you the story of the product. If you were wondering if the product you’re going to buy is about to go on sale, and you don’t want to go through the price protection process, look at the price tag. If the price ends in .06, meaning 6 cents, that price will be lowered in the next six weeks. There’s even a date that will tell you when it was marked down. Six weeks from that date, it will get marked down again to a price ending in .03, or 3 cents. Once that price end in .03, there are three weeks before that product will no longer be on the shelf. If you see something you want that ends in .03, go ahead and grab it. That’s the cheapest it’s going to get. Now just because it goes from .06 to .03 doesn’t mean you’re only saving $0.03. The price could be $65.06 for instance and be lowered to $33.03 for the last sale.
You can also use a coupon on top of that discounted price. A lot of stores won’t allow you to do that. While most of the time the yellow price tag means the item is on clearance, that’s not what it means all the time. If you don’t see an original price on the tag along with the current price, that yellow tag just means that item hasn’t found a home in the store yet.
#4 – Price Match Guarantee – If you find the exact same product in another brick-and-mortar store, Home Depot will match that price, and then give you 10% on top of it. That’s a sweet deal. Let’s say you’re looking for a DeWALT drill/driver set. Lowe’s has it for $249, and Home Depot has it for $299. If you can prove Lowe’s has it at that price, Home Depot will give you the Lowe’s price plus 10% off.
There are some exclusions. It has to be in stock at both locations. Open box items are not eligible. If you can find it online, they should still match the price, but they won’t give you the 10% off.
#5 – Rebates - Home Depot has a rebate center on the website. It’s buried all the way at the bottom of the page, mixed in with other links under ‘Resources’. While there’s rarely ever tool rebates there, what you can find are rebates on other things. For example, on the mini split that I have in my shop, there’s currently a $300 tax credit rebate if you bought that mini split. If you’re looking for things like that, keep that in mind to save you some extra money.
#6 – Low Stock – Managers have a whole lot of leeway in their own store. Now, that varies store to store, and manager to manager. If you see a low-stock item, you can ask an associate in a department if it’s a low-stock item or an older-stock item. You can then ask if you can get a lower price because it’s an older item. A lot of times they can override the price and give you a discount. Again, it’s up to the manager.
Also, if the product you want is out of stock, it never hurts to ask the manager if you can get the next tier up version for the price of the out-of-stock item. The managers will sometimes lower the price to meet the out-of-stock price if it’s not too much of a discount. That could save you some money and get you a bump up on the tier of tool you’re looking at. Again, you’ll catch more flies with honey. Be extremely nice, be professional, and remember that just because the manager can lower the price doesn’t mean that the manager has to lower the price.
#7 – Workshops – Home Depot will host workshops. Some of these are virtual, and some are in the store, depending on your local store. At the end of these workshops, they will sometimes give coupons good for up to 15% off. Plus, it’s a great way to build your knowledge for a project you have coming up.
#8 – Coupons – Some Home Depot locations will honor the coupons from other stores. Some of the typical ones would be Lowe’s, Menards, and Ace Hardware. Again, this is up to the manager, but you can present the coupon you have and ask if they will honor it.
#9 – Deal of the Day – Home Depot offers a “Deal of the Day”. I check on this every single day. Now sometimes the Deal of the Day could be ceiling fans, sometimes it may be toilets. Most of the time though, it’s tools.
To find the Deal of the Day on their website, look for the Specials & Offers tab. Once you click on that link, you’ll get a pop-up, and from there you can drill down to Savings by Department. You can not only click on tools, but you can also drill down further to Savings by Tool Type and Savings by Brand.
#10 – Military Discount – Home Depot offers a 10% military discount for active-duty personnel, veterans, and even military spouses. To get it, go to their website and search military discount”. From there you can register online, and in fact I believe you do have to sign up online, not in the store. You can save up to $400 per year just for being in the military or the spouse of someone who is.
And if you are in the military, or the spouse of someone who is, my hat’s off to you. Thank you so much for your service to our country. I don’t know how we Americans can thank you enough for everything that you’ve done for us. We greatly appreciate what you do every day.
Bonus Tip – Almost every Home Depot has a clearance section where they put the items that are going away. You can find some of the best deals on these items. In my “local” store, 90 miles away, it’s in the back of the store next to the appliances. It’s just an endcap of clearance items. Be sure to always check it out, just to see if there’s something there that you just can’t live without.
You can watch the full video where I talk a bit more in depth about these 10 Secrets here - https://youtu.be/ikbzGgTxcUQ
