Whether you were building a mechanic's tool kit for maintaining a car or shopping for woodworking power tools to advance your skills, those of you in Canada may have purchased products from KMS Tools before. It carries some of the most trusted power tool brands in the industry and offers them at discounted prices at certain times of the year.
KMS Tools is a Canadian-owned business with deep roots in British Columbia. It was founded by Stan Pridham, a mechanic and entrepreneur, who was frustrated by the
limited availability of reasonably priced tools in his local community in the 1980s. Driven by his professional needs and his hobbies in woodworking and cars, Pridham developed an idea for a power tool store in his basement in 1981. Two years later, he opened the first official KMS Tools location in Coquitlam, B.C. He named his store KMS after the initials of his wife, Kathy; his daughter, Marilee; and himself, Stan.
KMS Tools faced challenges in its early years, including a devastating fire that nearly wiped out the business. However, since surviving that incident, the store has become a fixture in Canada's industrial and professional tool market. Stan Pridham still owns the company, and KMS Tools now operates more than a dozen outlets across British Columbia and Alberta. It also operates an e-commerce website. Though KMS does not release sales figures, sales intelligence platform RocketReach pegs its annual revenue at $222.2 million.
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Can US Customers Buy From KMS Tools?
Although KMS Tools only has physical stores in Canada, it accepts orders from customers in the U.S. via its online store. However, according to the company's terms and conditions, it only ships items within Canada and the continental U.S., which means Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories are excluded from this service. Additionally, its free shipping offer only applies to Canadian orders; hence, U.S. customers will have to pay shipping and delivery fees for their items.
KMS Tools offers a diverse selection of tools and equipment from many brands, including Bosch, DeWalt, Makita, Milwaukee, 3M, and its store brand, Magnum Industrial, which it manufactures in Taiwan. Should you need DeWalt tools for automotive work or Makita tools for carpentry projects, and you reside in Canada, then KMS Tools is a good place to find what you need, especially during the store's clearance and special sales. That said, you can often get a great deal, even without sales. The pricing on its website is subject to its Minimum Advertised Price deal with manufacturers, but calling customer service may reveal a discounted price.
If you are based in the U.S., you'll have to consider whether the cost of shipping outweighs any deal KMS Tools can offer. If it doesn't, you may opt for local alternatives, like Lowe's and Home Depot, which also carry a wide range of power tools.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
