Smokefire no longer at Lowes


 
CZazzara said:
Great! Probably a way to get rid of the last of their Gen 1 SmokeFires and the poor guys at the FD will have lots of troubles until they upgrade all the hardware and software.

Sorry to be so cynical. It's a lovely gesture but...
Click to expand...
Got to love the cynical thoughts!

I am lucky here with no issues with my SmokeFire. I haven't cooked in any extreme cold temperatures. Good grief it is supposed to be 81° in Midland Wednesday.
 
Bought my gen2 ex4 New Year’s Eve directly from Weber. It’s been amazing and I am I glad I pulled the trigger. I have empathy for the public beta testers. But it has resulted in an awesome cooker.
 
I convinced my wife to let me get one while they were on Sale, just had to wait for our Stimulus Check. Well the check ran late and the sale ended so now I’m determined to wait till they go on sale again.
 
CZazzara said:
Great! Probably a way to get rid of the last of their Gen 1 SmokeFires and the poor guys at the FD will have lots of troubles until they upgrade all the hardware and software.

Sorry to be so cynical. It's a lovely gesture but...
Click to expand...
I had said before I would check my local Lowes to see if those 2 ex4's and the 1 ex6 were still there was in 2 days ago and yes they were at full price. These had to be ones they had built last year still had that white caulk on the pellet chute so my guess they never sold floor models so doubt they had any upgrades of course.

I kind of don't know who to blame here trying to sell these at Lowe's guess praying the consumer has no problems with them which at this point since they are Gen 1 that seems virtually impossible. Obviously since Lowes is the only big box store carrying these and certainly had to be notified by Weber to return stock so they could be replaced with the Gen 2's did that exempt floor stock which is a selling point they put the grill together you just pick it up and start grilling.

If I was Lowe's and I was the buyer and you would not be willing to take back the ones they had built and lets be clear not saying that is what happened but my answer as the buyer would have been no your going to take them back and if you don't we aren't going to carry them in the stores anymore. Which for the time being is what's going on no ship to store ship to your home which as I said earlier probably means they put the order in to Weber take a cut or whatever.

I guess in the fantasy world someone higher up in Lowes if in fact that is what happened would have sent an email to all the stores from corporate telling them to pull them off the floor and not sell them, pretty costly but it is what it is. Better to eat them then piss off customers who are going to spend way more than you will lose over the years.
 
Last edited:
The caulk around the chute is to keep water out so that the pellets stay dry.....

Oh, wait. There was a compressed gasket on the chute. I was thinking of the pellet hopper.
 
BFletcher said:
Are you indicating that white caulk distinguishes Gen 1 from Gen 2? If so, what do you mean by "chute"? The hopper itself, or something more specific?
Click to expand...
The new chute which you probably have sorry to have confused anyone is the hopper aka a chute which is black now I believe and it is welded I think they still used some caulk. Gen 1 did not have as steep a ramp it was silver they had a fix for that but since you bought a gen 2 I think maybe the entire chute is been fixed without that add on ramp maybe not since I have not seen a gen 2. Gen 1 for sure was a bright white caulk on the silver.
 
Jon Tofte said:
If Lowes has really abandoned the SmokeFire and Home Depot never did carry it, then Weber has some real trouble with no representation in the big box stores. Menards, a third alternative I am getting to know here in the Midwest, has a mostly dismal offering of grills - and no Webers at all.

I think Weber is going to have to work hard this spring to make a successful reboot of the SmokeFIre a success. They just cannot afford to be pushed out of this rapidly growing niche.
Click to expand...
Menard's does have the worst grill selection. Really poor.
 
I was in Walmart here in my old stomping grounds of Florida where I will be for another week. They had all kinds of options for pellet grills which seem to be already morphing into various shapes and designs. A couple I saw had more of a vertical oven look, at least one with a glass door. Way fewer gas grills and no Webers. I am glad for the latter, because I felt that Weber was cheapening its name selling their low end models there. At the same time, like I mentioned above, they can't sell a lot of pellet grills if they have no retail presence where people can see and touch them.
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
I had said before I would check my local Lowes to see if those 2 ex4's and the 1 ex6 were still there was in 2 days ago and yes they were at full price. These had to be ones they had built last year still had that white caulk on the pellet chute so my guess they never sold floor models so doubt they had any upgrades of course.

I kind of don't know who to blame here trying to sell these at Lowe's guess praying the consumer has no problems with them which at this point since they are Gen 1 that seems virtually impossible. Obviously since Lowes is the only big box store carrying these and certainly had to be notified by Weber to return stock so they could be replaced with the Gen 2's did that exempt floor stock which is a selling point they put the grill together you just pick it up and start grilling.

If I was Lowe's and I was the buyer and you would not be willing to take back the ones they had built and lets be clear not saying that is what happened but my answer as the buyer would have been no your going to take them back and if you don't we aren't going to carry them in the stores anymore. Which for the time being is what's going on no ship to store ship to your home which as I said earlier probably means they put the order in to Weber take a cut or whatever.

I guess in the fantasy world someone higher up in Lowes if in fact that is what happened would have sent an email to all the stores from corporate telling them to pull them off the floor and not sell them, pretty costly but it is what it is. Better to eat them then piss off customers who are going to spend way more than you will lose over the years.
Click to expand...
I don’t think the margin is that high on these. And unless the warehouse made a huge error, stores likely would have maybe 5 of these on hand, tops. This includes the floor model. Returns are a part of the business model in retail. You’re right, stores were probably notified of the issues, but there’s usually a window of time to execute, and unless they are burning down houses, there will be more urgent recalls. It’s likely that the stores where there are floor models still out of the Gen 1 don’t even reflect that they have the item in their inventory. I saw one in my local Lowe’s yesterday, for full price, but there was an unusual amount of grills on display there, most likely sticking to the Pre-COVID ideals that the Super Bowl might.bring out some shoppers. I found the chainsaw I wanted in the top steel that showed out of stock online. All this does is make me glad I’m not in the industry anymore.
 
I think you are right Cee on the inventory issue my Lowe's shows out of stock when there are 3 on the floor and they were at full price also when I was there.
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
I had said before I would check my local Lowes to see if those 2 ex4's and the 1 ex6 were still there was in 2 days ago and yes they were at full price. These had to be ones they had built last year still had that white caulk on the pellet chute so my guess they never sold floor models so doubt they had any upgrades of course.

I kind of don't know who to blame here trying to sell these at Lowe's guess praying the consumer has no problems with them which at this point since they are Gen 1 that seems virtually impossible. Obviously since Lowes is the only big box store carrying these and certainly had to be notified by Weber to return stock so they could be replaced with the Gen 2's did that exempt floor stock which is a selling point they put the grill together you just pick it up and start grilling.

If I was Lowe's and I was the buyer and you would not be willing to take back the ones they had built and lets be clear not saying that is what happened but my answer as the buyer would have been no your going to take them back and if you don't we aren't going to carry them in the stores anymore. Which for the time being is what's going on no ship to store ship to your home which as I said earlier probably means they put the order in to Weber take a cut or whatever.

I guess in the fantasy world someone higher up in Lowes if in fact that is what happened would have sent an email to all the stores from corporate telling them to pull them off the floor and not sell them, pretty costly but it is what it is. Better to eat them then piss off customers who are going to spend way more than you will lose over the years.
Click to expand...
My guess is that Weber paid for those that were built and not returned. The Ace hardware where I got my EX4 from told me that Weber told him to throw out the one he sold me for $200. (Which I was happy to pay)
 
Having recently decided to buy myself a Smokefire EX4 and having seen the 2 previous sales Weber had emailed me for $799.xx . I reached out to Weber and politely asked them to consider honoring their previous sale price. The gentleman on the phone was very receptive as he could see the 6 other Weber units I have registered to me. His boss, Not so much. No Special pricing for a weber loyalist. Was worth a shot I suppose. Waiting on a sale price up here in the PNW.
 
I don’t remember the sale dates? Was the second one Fourth of July or was that first? I it was second, the sale was most likely to clear Gen 1 units from inventory as I bought an EX4 then and still got a Gen 1 direct from Weber. So, if that’s the case hard to tell if/when the will be another sale from Weber.
 
Chris R. said:
Having recently decided to buy myself a Smokefire EX4 and having seen the 2 previous sales Weber had emailed me for $799.xx . I reached out to Weber and politely asked them to consider honoring their previous sale price. The gentleman on the phone was very receptive as he could see the 6 other Weber units I have registered to me. His boss, Not so much. No Special pricing for a weber loyalist. Was worth a shot I suppose. Waiting on a sale price up here in the PNW.
Click to expand...
I tried the same, but no dice. They did send me 2 bags of pellets though. Then shipping took forever, and they sent me 2 more bags.
 
The most recent [SmokeFire] sale began on Cyber Monday. When it ended, I do not know but it may have been January 3. I do know the sale was still in effect on December 25. And, so, given these dates it was for the Gen 2.

1613675549266.png
 
I was in the Lowes store in Odessa, TX, yesterday, and they had the EX4 and EX6 display models on the front aisle not shuffled to the back. Looking at the chute they were GEN 2 models and the packaging showed two meat probes. However, checking the inventory online, they don't have in-store availability, just online shipments.
 
Chris R. said:
Having recently decided to buy myself a Smokefire EX4 and having seen the 2 previous sales Weber had emailed me for $799.xx . I reached out to Weber and politely asked them to consider honoring their previous sale price. The gentleman on the phone was very receptive as he could see the 6 other Weber units I have registered to me. His boss, Not so much. No Special pricing for a weber loyalist. Was worth a shot I suppose. Waiting on a sale price up here in the PNW.
Click to expand...

They can't say yes if you don't ask. Definitely worth a shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top