Home Depot’s own product page for a Milwaukee M18 five-tool combo kit currently shows $299, marked down 50% from $599, badged as a “Daily Deal”. Search that same retailer’s own curated Milwaukee M18 Labor Day Sale page, though, and it returns zero results. Home Depot isn’t treating that kit as part of its holiday event at all, it’s just a standing markdown that happens to still be up this weekend. We ran the same check, official Labor Day category pages against individual product pages, plus current pricing at a second retailer, on two other flagship kits carrying Labor Day-style badges. The pattern didn’t repeat the same way twice, which turned out to be the more useful finding.
The Milwaukee kit that isn’t actually on sale for Labor Day
The kit is the Milwaukee M18 2694-25: a drill, impact driver, reciprocating saw, oscillating multi-tool and work light, plus two batteries, a charger and a bag. Its product page reads $299, down from $599, tagged “Daily Deal”. But Home Depot’s own Milwaukee M18 Labor Day Sale listing doesn’t include it, and the site’s broader Milwaukee Labor Day category is built around FUEL brushless kits like the 3697-25, not this one. “Daily Deal” is the retailer’s own label for an everyday promotional price, not a limited holiday cut, and Home Depot’s site structure confirms it isn’t being merchandised as one this week. For contrast, Milwaukee’s higher-spec five-tool kit built on its FUEL brushless line, the 2695-25, currently sells at $749 with no discount shown at all. Only the value-tier kit carries a permanent-looking 50%-off sticker, which is a strange thing for a genuine one-weekend discount to do.
Ryobi’s bigger percentage claim is also missing from the actual sale
Home Depot’s Ryobi ONE+ six-tool kit, model PCL1600K2, with two batteries, a charger and a 65-piece bit set, shows $223.97, marked down 40% from $373.97. That’s the largest percentage claim of the three kits checked here, and it also does not appear on Home Depot’s own Ryobi Labor Day Sale page, which instead features a smaller four-tool Ryobi kit at $199 marked down from $249, a real and comparatively modest 20% cut. So the kit with the flashiest badge on its own page is absent from the retailer’s actual promotional lineup, while a plainer kit in the real sale carries a far less dramatic discount. There’s also a longer-run signal worth noting: DealNews recorded this same PCL1600K2 hitting an all-time low of $199, discounted off a $299 reference price, in a previous holiday sale. That $299 reference is $75 lower than the $373.97 figure Home Depot is using today to calculate its “40% off” claim. A reference price that climbs between sales makes every future discount look bigger without the item ever getting cheaper.
DeWalt’s drill kit: a real cut, and it’s actually in the sale
The DeWalt DCK240C2, a basic drill-and-impact-driver combo with two batteries and a bag, shows $169, marked “Special Buy,” down from $239, 29% off, and unlike the other two, it’s actually listed on Home Depot’s official DeWalt Labor Day Sale page. That’s the clearest sign of the three that this is a genuine event-tied markdown rather than standing signage. Even so, the $239 reference price doesn’t hold up against the wider market. The identical DCK240C2 currently sells at Acme Tools for $179, with no sale or promotion attached. That’s Acme’s everyday price, $60 below the number Home Depot uses as its “was” figure, though still $10 above Home Depot’s actual $169 checkout price. So the walk-out price here is real and modestly better than a competitor’s standing price, even while the inflated $239 baseline makes the discount look bigger than it is.
The pattern across all three
None of these kits is a ripoff, and the tools inside them work fine. What differs is whether the badge reflects an actual event: two of the three kits with eye-catching percentages aren’t in the retailer’s own curated Labor Day assortment at all, while the one that is carries a more modest, still real discount off an inflated reference price. Before trusting any Labor Day tag, check whether the item shows up on the retailer’s own official sale category page, not just its individual product page, and compare the checkout price against at least one other current retailer selling the same model number. A kit that’s absent from the actual sale list, or that costs the same at a competitor with no sale running, isn’t a holiday deal no matter what the badge says.
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