Craftsman Sold To Stanley

I see craftsman at SummitRacing and True Value and at a few other stores , and ACE.

 

Ace Hardware has had a deal with Craftsman for a while now also. Not sure if those are in your area.

 

Kmart bought Sears?

Has anyone been into a Sears lately and try to get help or anything that resembles help?

 

No the other way around, Sears took over Kmart.

 

Nope!



On November 17, 2004, Kmart Holdings Corporation announced its intention to purchase Sears, Roebuck and Co. The new corporation announced that it would continue to operate stores under both the Sears and Kmart brands. The merger of Kmart and Sears closed on March 24, 2005, following affirmative shareholder votes of both companies. Sears Holdings now operates Sears and Kmart stores. The company continues to market products under brands held by both companies.

 

Although now with the Stanley ownership you will likely see tools at Target and Walmart. Whah...whahhhh.

 

Yep, I just googled it, Sorry for the bad info, I will take myself to the woodshed. Hope I make it back

 

80 % of my tools are craftsman . The last 8 years there ratchet have sucked and there screwdrivers are not much better ! I have replaced 3 ratchets and 2 screwdrivers . Finally I started replacing as they brake with Auto Zone deralast life time warrant brand. I hard they are made by snap on tools . They seem to be pretty good.

 

It's looks like it will be a wind fall for some investors

 

Which would be fine, but Stanley has nothing to do with the retailers it sells at. Since Sears owned Craftsman, swapping a tool out in sore was no problem. I doubt Walmart will let you swap tools outside of regular return/exchange time frames. Probably have to mail it off like any other Stanley tool you want warrantied.

 

^^^THIS.

Also, Lowes and Home Depot never sold Huskey and Kobalt tools- when they first started. This and the fact Lowes and Depot sell appliances put a death nail in the coffin for Sears.

Department stores, are becoming a thing of the past with Outlet malls, etc. In the late 70's and 80's when most malls were being built, the large department store concept was new. Now they only have huge sales, and are still going out of business...

 

Kmart sells them

 

According to CNN Money, "Sears will continue to sell Craftsman tools in stores." I assume that to mean the lifetime warranty return policy will still exist in its current form... then again, that is just an assumption.

 

...and OSH (Orchard supply hardware) here in SoCal. Not sure where else they have this chain.

 

Sears/Kmart and Macy's both have large store closings...

 

"Sears will continue to carry Craftsman products at its stores. The license will be royalty-free for 15 years, and then generate 3 percent afterward."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ftsman-brand-from-sears-for-about-900-million

They will still sell them, but warranty I'd assume to still be through Stanley themselves. Guess we will have to see. None of us know what the 'License' says.



On another note:

“To accommodate the future growth of Craftsman, we intend to expand our manufacturing footprint in the U.S.,” Stanley CEO James M. Loree said in the statement. “This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40 percent in the past three years.”

Maybe we will start seeing more US made tools again.

 

When I saw Crafstman tools being sold at the Costcos here 2 years ago and read "Hecho in China" on the box I felt that it was the end for them. I am lucky to have my dad's Craftsman tools from the 60s-70s plus my own I bought when I was younger having to work on my own cars, in a time when USA manufactured and stellar quality meant something.