If your intent is to pick up your purchase from a store, in the Twin Cities you have a couple choices if driving from Iowa. Directly up 35W there is a Rockler Woodworking in Burnsville and a Woodcraft store in Bloomington, Minnesota. Both are southern suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul and both are Festool dealers. You can get contact info from their web sites and make a call to see if they have what you need before driving up.

The Twin City's have 4 dealers. Woodcraft (Bloomington), 7-corners hardware (St. Paul), ACME (Plymouth) and Rockler.

I go to Woodcraft as it the closest and I like the personality of the store,  7CH and ACME are a bit further away for me but are good stores. Rockler I can't recommend... their lack of knowledge about the product.. One guy said yea I went to a two day training class and it was way too much to remember.... here's a catalog...  I took his catalog and I have never bough any Festool product from them since.

The Festool Rep for the area and maybe Iowa? Is at the stores on a Saturday once in awhile but you get don't always get much notice before they happen.   I can tell you it would be worth the drive up from Iowa...well depends where you are in Iowa... I grew up in Newton, IA 40 miles East of Des Monies, IA  I80.  MPLS is an easy 4 hour drive....snow storms aside.

The one thing I have noticed is that all retailers seem to be a little tight on inventory of everything.

For Festool, it is most noticeable in the fewer number of accessories they carry.

Always worth the call to see what is in stock... if you are ready to buy but need hands on to decide.

That is what I like about Woodcraft with the classroom area... I have taken Festools in and tested them and living here they have let me take the Demo unit to the job site and give it a real world test... They know how I treat my tools and they know I won't treat it bad.... all they ask is that I take the time when I return it to give them detailed feedback of what I found and thought of the unit while I was testing it.

Cheers,
Steve

My experience has been, If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  I have gotten a few toys from "Uncle" Bob.  I have never had anything damaged when he sent it.  The packaging has been such that I think if the toys were ever damaged inside of his packaging, it had to have been intentional.  I do like to get my hands on the toys before i get them home for playing.  I have, upon occasion, discussed a tool with Bob before purchase and have found him to be very subjective in annalysis.  If he ain't used it, he has told me so. If you are not happy with local stores, stick with where you have had satisfaction in the past.

 For me, knowledge by my dealer is more important than locality.  I do have one other dealer local to my area who is also knowledgeable and helpful. I try to split my purchases between both dealers.  Both are knowledgeable and that is what is most important IMHO.
Tinker

Woodie,

You should Call the Bloomington Woodcraft and ask to be put on their email list. Timothy Roseth is the manager and his phone is 952 884 3634 tell him Steve Rusk sent you.... he will know right a way the call is about Festool  .  Tell him you are interested in Festool events mostly.... Their email about classes and events like the Festool Rep being there.  The website for that store is minneapolis-retail@woodcraft.com it is just off of 35W and is easy to find.


You really do make a good point about Accessories. First if you don't by the kits such as your OF1400 experience speaks to... one, you don't save the money and Two, you don't get to enjoy the full potential of the tool.  Woodcraft is really good at sandpaper and blades.  It is the odd ball accessories that they and every retailer seem to not stock in the depth us green blooded people want to see.

The accessories do make the product more fun. When I look at the price of accessories, I'm betting the dealers could have a lot of money tied up in inventory that might not have many turns.... but in retail if the customer doesn't see it they would buy it.... the chicken and the egg thing.

Being an old Best Buy guy, I wonder if Festool corp would ever test a full accessory display with depth at corporate cost (not the retailer) to prove to stores that with just email and website ads they could build total store sales of all Festool product.

I have a dream....where every person owns Festool...

Ohh.... I see I'm running out of green Kool-Aid....have to go now.

Cheers,
Steve

Try here;

http://www.berlandstools.com/links/map.html

Tom

Last week I was working about 3 miles from the Lombard store. I never made it in there. The Joliet store had their normal stock when I was there a few months ago.

I agree, one can spend a couple of hours looking around at Berlands. Berlands Joliet is my closets Rockler's.

Tom

I'm on the West Coast and up until recently,  I've purchased my Festool tools and supplies from Beavertools, they are both friendly and helpful.  I decided to utilize one of my local Festool dealers recently and Japan Woodworker has a great supply and a friendly store to try products out.

[big grin]Now, that's my kind of store!

Another Cedar Rapidian here, and I have great news:

There is a TERRIFIC Festool dealer right here in Iowa!!!
It's the Woodsmith store in Des Moines.

Knowledgeable, friendly staff. Great selection. A whole separate room full of Festools.
When you're tired of drooling over those, you can explore the huge Veritas section on the other side of the store.
Assuming you don't get sidetracked by everything in between. Did I mention it's a big place?

Be sure to leave time for the lumber section in the back. And don't miss their AMAZING selection of veneers.
Looking for obscure woodworking books? There's another whole section of the store for that.

Truly, it's a fine woodworker's paradise. Plus it's a drop dead BEAUTIFUL store.
It even has its own garden center outside. But after 5 hours IN the store, I didn't get that far.

Hmmm... maybe we need to put together a field trip.

I second the WoodSmith Store...they are awesome.  Sadly, I've only made it there a couple times.