Hey All,
I stopped in my local (Baltimore) Woodcraft today and noticed
that all of the Festool items had their price obliterated. When I
asked if this was in anticipation of the March 1 price increase the
sales dude told me no, it was a Festool policy not to display their
prices. He related to me that there was one Festool vendor that had
its "license" to sell Festool revoked because they displayed prices.
He was not sure if that was another Woodcraft or a more independent
vendor.
The new Festool catalogue is also devoid of prices. This makes
sense since they won't have "out of date" catalogues when they raise
prices again but if the vendors can't display prices on the floor it
will require potential customers to interact with the store staff
(which may or may not be a desireable task).
I do not know if this is national policy or if it is just limited
to Woodfcraft, or if it is just the Woodcrafts owned by the local
franchiser, but it seems counter productive to me. It disrupts my
eagerness to buy stuff if I have to ask prices each time I contemplate
buying something. I really doubt this is a nationwwide policy but
maybe it is Festool's version of buying a yacht; If you have to ask
how much it is, you really can't afford it.
On a slightly different note I'm not that excited about the Rotex
90. Unless you really need a small diameter sander the larger
Festools appear to have better balance. I have a Rotex 150 and it is
very easy to keep the pad flat when only holding the barrel . The 90
feels barrel heavy and I think you'd need to hold down on the head as
well as the barrel. Still, maybe some day I will "need" that 3+ inch
diameter pad for sanding something.
If you are a Festool junkie I think you'll also be happy seeing
the new catalogue. There are a couple new battery jigsaws and some
new battery drills including an 18 volt. That's got to be an
expensive drill based on their other models.
Not much else to dwell on so I'll head back down to my shop.
Hope you all have a productive - and safe - weekend in your shop too.
Marc