# Anyone have experience with Bostich tools from Wallymart?



## dhazelton (Feb 11, 2012)

Was in there the other day dreaming about a 55 inch TV and went down the tools aisle. I noticed corded and cordless drills with the Bostich name on them.. Price points were decent, better for the corded tools than I would expect but figured since Bostich is owned by Stanley, who also owns Black & Decker, that they were just yellow Black & Deckers and I should just keep on walking. The cordless drill sets were priced comparable to Dewalt or Hitach. Anyone have any experience with these?


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## ssnvet (Jan 10, 2012)

Bostich (formerly Stanley-Bostich) makes pneumatic tools and fasteners.

Stanley was bought up a long time ago and their quality went down hill rapidly.

They may be licensing the use of the Bostich name to sell their electric tools.

Doesn't sound like top shelf equipment to me. If I was going to buy tools at that level, I'd order them from Harbor Freight.


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Stanley has been trying to play both sides of the fence on tools for years. Selling less expensive lines to Wal-Mart and keeping the higher end lines for hardware & home improvement stores. The problem is that as soon as Wallyworld wants something, Stanley finds a way to make it happen. Case in point:

Years ago, Stanley FatMax used to not be available to WM, just hardware stores. Hardware stores were told that FatMax would NEVER be sold in WM.
WM griped until Stanley allowed them to sell FatMax. 
To try and appease hardware, they said "Hey, now Wal-Mart can have FatMax, but we designed these new FatMax Xtreme series tools that will NEVER be sold in Wal-Mart." 
WM griped until Stanley allowed them to carry FatMax Xtreme
To try and appease hardware ….....

Every time a new line is allowed to be sold in WM, Stanley gets beat up on pricing until the quality drops so far that the tools are no longer desirable by customers and profits drop too much. At that point, Stanley starts selling a higher end line to Wal-Mart so that sales will go back up, but then WM beats them up on price ….....

Fast forward to 2013. Hardware stores have been told for years that Bostitch would NEVER be available to WalMart. We are being told the same about the DeWalt brand. 
WalMart wants to sell a higher grade of power tool than the B&D line, so they start whining to the higher ups at Stanley. Since supposedly DeWalt and Porter Cable are not to be sold in WalMart, they designed the Bostitch tools so that WM could have their higher grade tools. 
Hardware stores are told "Hey, it's OK for WalMart to have the Bostitch brand, we will NEVER let them carry DeWalt"

What is my point? I think the current Bostitch branded cordless tools in Wal-Mart are decent-probably the equivalent of the cheapened new Porter Cable tools available at Lowes or the promo tools from DeWalt (such as the $99 drill during Black Friday). They are a step up from B&D or Skil, but still far below the premium tools from DeWalt, Milwaukee, Hitachi, etc. in materials and quality. My big question is how long you will get support for the tool-such as replacement batteries. Based on past history, Wal-Mart will beat up Stanley on price of the Bostitch tools, quality will drop, sales will drop and then support will drop.


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## Danpaddles (Jan 26, 2012)

So tell me again why we should all shop at Walmart?


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

To quote a famous secretary of state, "At this point, what difference does it make?" 
The entire market for tools and similar hard goods has been destroyed by the feeding frenzy for ever lower and lower prices so there is no incentive for a manufacturer to produce a high quality anything.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

The problem is the average consumer just doesn't understand. They think its them. They don't get they can't make the new Stanley chisel sharp because you can't make the new Stanley chisel sharp. And the new Stanley plane doesn't plane because its a piece of crap. They don't know that, so they buy it, it doesn't work, and they set it on the shelf.

So they think they can't do it themselves, so they call a contractor. They take the lowest bidder and still don't get that he can't do it, probably because he bought his tools at Walmart, or Home depot etc.

Then the guy who knows he need quality tools needs work, but can't find it because he's competing against the Walmart guys. He says screw it and becomes a Systems Engineer, and can again afford good tools to work for his hobby. Welcome to 201x.


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## bbc557ci (Sep 20, 2012)

I agree with *crank49*. Never thought of things/tools that way, but I believe he's pretty much dead on.

Most everything (affordable to most) is made in china, Taiwan, wherever. As I understand it, allot of the tool brands from overseas are made in the same building, or buildings. And the different companies have (so I was told) engineers on site who are supposed to ensure that their particular company's specs are met. I think there's quite a few overseas engineers or tech guys are sleeping on the job.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Question is….has anyone actually tried one of these???

Everyone was saying the same things about that Kobalt #4 smooth plane, too. I do have one of those, and it does work, after a tune up.

So, has anyone went out and bought a Bostich drill?


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## dhazelton (Feb 11, 2012)

I was just curious if anyone has tried one, but being as they (the cordless anyway) are priced like a Dewalt I'd just assume buy the Dewalt as I ASSUME the batteries will be available for a while. That said, I had a Craftsman 14.4 volt cordless drill that was made by Ryobi that I drove thousands of screws through steel siding and roofing when I built my pole barn. Then I bought a B&D Firestorm impact driver with for $50 over ebay and I've done a ton of drywall and deck work with it. I'm sure the Bostich tools are fine for what they are, I just question how long they'll support them.


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

I've tried them briefly and was not impressed-that is part of where my impression that they are similar quality to the Porter Cable comes from-the rest is the overall specs. Was it a long test? No, but evaluating tools is a large part of my job, so I have had to learn to make judgments based on some basic information and a quick test.

For the same price, I think you would be better off with one of the promotional DeWalt 20V drills (check out the DCD771C2). Similar performance specs and batteries and other parts should have a much better chance of being readily available a few years down the road.


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## lateralus819 (Mar 24, 2013)

If you know you'll use something for a long time, spend the extra cash. It's worth it in the long run.


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## Arminius (Dec 27, 2007)

I guess it makes sense, that conglomerate finished off the Delta brand, just about done destroying Porter-Cable and DeWalt, they would have to move on to Bostitch.


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## dawsonbob (Aug 5, 2013)

I'd rather save up and buy Bosch, not Bostich. It only hurts once.


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Should have added before: Or for just a bit more, take a look at the Milwuakee M12 Fuel Drill. Small, compact size, but performance is right there with the mid-line 18/20 volt offerings.


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## ohtimberwolf (Dec 17, 2011)

Agree with many here. I bought a lot of my tools in the 80's and before. I still have them, they still work fine and they probably will go on after I leave. The ones I'm talking about are quality tools not the cheap ones at the time. larry


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Today, it's all about creating a market. Quality if you can afford it is for the consumer who knows and appreciates tools. This is a minority group that can't sustain a quality tool maker. The new generation of DIY'ers are looking for quality at an affordable price, but they don't realize that quality costs a lot. They equate quality with well known names, like Stanley and Delta. These companies know they can't make money from a limited market of knowledgable tool users. They go after the bigger group who are not "tool savey". Not many DIY'ers are going to spring for Festool. Most of them probably have never heard of them and if they did, would say "overpriced; for that I can get 3 Dewalts for one Festool".


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## BostitchEvents (Feb 23, 2014)

That's right, Stanley Black & Decker is coming out with yet another line of corded and cordless power tools, this time under their Bostitch brand.

Word has it that the Bostitch tools are intended as affordably priced power tools. It's hard to tell from early images, but to me it looks like the new Bostitch power tools are rebranded Porter Cable and Stanley FatMax designs.

What is interesting is that Stanley Black & Decker is giving the cordless Bostitch power tools "18V Li" branding instead of 20V Max. Perhaps this means that an upgraded 20V Max lineup of cordless tools is already planned and in the works.

Update: Bostitch's new power tools will be launching at Walmart, and will follow at online distributors.

It will be interesting to see how well Bostitch power tools will sell in larger cities. Walmart has for a long time taken a firm anti-union position, which doesn't sit well with a lot of unionized tradesmen.

They now own the following names:
Black and Decker
Stanley
Bostitch
Poter Cable
DeWalt


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