Sears is selling the Craftsman brand

[NutmegCT]

Sears - lots of memories for me in the 1960s. Remember this?

 

[PAUL161]

Sears - lots of memories for me in the 1960s. Remember this?

Tom I have one! It still works as it did when new. Dad bought it for me many years ago. Not much good on newer computerized vehicles though. :friendly_wink: PJ

 

[pdplot]

Craftsman was Sears better line. Dunlap was their cheaper line. Craftsman sold to Stanley Tools of New Britain, CT. Once a great name, it became mediocre some years ago when manufacturing went offshore. My son worked for Stanley for about a year but left because he got tired of facing irate customers with broken tools. I still have Craftsman, S-K, Irwin and Snap-On tools from the 1950s - good as new. Never broke one.

 

[Basil]

Craftsman was Sears better line. Dunlap was their cheaper line. Craftsman sold to Stanley Tools of New Britain, CT. Once a great name, it became mediocre some years ago when manufacturing went offshore. My son worked for Stanley for about a year but left because he got tired of facing irate customers with broken tools. I still have Craftsman, S-K, Irwin and Snap-On tools from the 1950s - good as new. Never broke one.

I still have most of the Craftsman tools and tool box that my wife gave me for an anniversary present about 40 years ago! I took the ratchets apart once to re-grease, but otherwise no issues. Think I had to return on small wrench that I abused and broke.

 

[PC]

The running joke in business is that Sears was the largest retailer in history to go under, they just don't know it yet.

Having watched the death spiral for years from a consumer's vantage point, I always wondered about it. If this article is at all accurate, it's easy to see why it all fell apart.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-sears-death-spiral-billionaire-134128865.html


When I first heard that Craftsman was being sold to S/B&D, my reaction was "great, the guys who bought Porter-Cable then immediately shuttered its factories and shipped everything out of the country."

But really, Sears had already done that anyway. (Shipped work overseas, they haven't had factories of their own in decades. I can only speculate that their US suppliers had to cut back their workforce.)

S/B&D is claiming they'll bring some production to US factories. We'll see.

 

[NutmegCT]

This is reminding me of Radio Shack.

Thanks for the memories, and Rest In Peace.

 

[DrEntropy]

About three years ago they closed my "Revolving Charge Account". I owed them around $100.00, paid on time every month. Sent 'em the stated balance and a letter stating we were third generation Sears customers, everything from hand tools to lawnmowers, to bedding and clothes.Tens of thousands of dollars. What we got back was a check for a $3.65 overpayment. The next letter I sent was a rather snarky one, to the Illinois Hq, restating the three generation loyalty and the statement that we would never again frequent a Sears or Kmart store. And the check would be framed and put on the bathroom wall. Haven't spent a dime in their stores since and intend to keep it that way.

 

[Rhodyspit75]

I had a number of problems with Sears probably 30 years ago. Vowed I would never go back. I did cut through one of their stores years ago to get out of a mall. That's the only time I have set foot in one of their stores. Not going to miss them.

 

[John Turney]

My wife finds that Sears is good for returning Land's End clothes that she ordered on line.

 

[SD Bugeye]

Really to bad
could allways count on a good product with out paying the proto mac price for the weekend wrenching
now it's all garbage unless you pay thru the nose so my buying has changed to looking at tools as throwaways .

 

[Steve]

I have read that Stanley plans to increase the Craftsman tool range, and to have more production based in the USA. If this is so, it's a wise move that I can see paying off for them. I would buy Craftsman tools if they were American made.

 

[wkilleffer]

Other posters have brought up issues with Sears credit. Seems like that happened to my parents about 25 years ago. They've always been careful about paying bills on time. I can't remember exactly what happened, but it seems like Sears credit accused them of missing or late payments. They had their bank records showing that payments had been made, but it ended up being such a hassle and a headache that they said they would never shop there again. Prior to that time, all tools were Craftsman and almost all appliances were Kenmore. They no longer have a lock on quality the way they once did.

Story is that the current CEO is an Ayn Rand fan. I like her writings as well, and found the book "Atlas Shrugged" to be an interesting, thought provoking story. But it's a work of fiction, not a business textbook. Supposedly, he got the idea to make all the divisions in the company fight each other for resources and advertising from that book. Looks like that was a bad idea...