Sears sells Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker

@jowybyo
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I have been looking at your recovery bar with great anticipation, BTW.

 

DeWalt has been owned by BD since 1960's

 

Cool. Are you wanting to buy one? We've sold a good number of them.

 

Oh, now I feel dumb.

 

I need time.

 

While American Made used to be great, I have to say that only time will tell if that is a good thing or bad thing. Those fine craftsmen (no pun intended) of the past have gone (or are later in their life). It makes me wonder if the new generation of workers have the same skill and pride in their work that the previous generation did. I am young myself, but the pride among workers is not nearly the same as it used to be.

 

Saw this "letter" in my Popular Mechanics (I had to chop it up to make it big enough to read without being blurry). I have many old Craftsman products ; 2 block grinders - a 1/3hp and a 1/2hp - from the 60's, a Craftsman King Sealy drill press from the 40's, tool box from somewhere in between plus wrenches and ratchets of various kinds. All of them still work very well and will be restored in time, along with a few Wilton bullet vises and other vintage tools I have laying about. I hope the new owner can bring back the quality near where it once was.






Some of my vintage stuff

 

I think some of the Stanley tools that i have a pretty decent, so hopefully they can leverage their business skills to help craftsman, they wouldn't have bought it if they didn't think they could grow it.

Sears holding is really a mess from what i can see. JC penny and Kmart are all in the same bundle there and not one of them is competing well in their market. from what i understand sears holding was purchased up by some investors... well they didn't do a good job with their investment as it seems they have just made things worse.

Also with rising wages in China and shipping costs still a major factor manufacturing here in the USofA is becoming a smart bet again. we have more highly skilled workers with steadier wage growth. One person here, with the help of technology can make what they use 10 people for overseas.

 

Any of you guys looking for good quality mechanics tools should check out the Carlyle line at Napa. A little pricy but excellent quality. Look at the quarterly tool sales flyer to get the best deal. I have purchased so much of it they gave me a code to get anything that's not on sale about 30% off.

 

Interesting article.

1. This won't happen. SBD bought Craftsman because the brand has the ability to play in so many markets. Particularly in the garage. The garage is a natural extension of brand itself. It's where most Craftsman tools are used and stored. I think we'll see SBD leverage the brand power to move into new markets.

2. I think we can expect a similar level of customer support that we see for other SBD brands.

3. This unlikely to happen. Sears has full rights to use the brand how they want. SBD does still hold the rights, so in theory they set the rules, but it all seems very messy. SBD is counting on Sears crashing and burning anyway.

4. We'll see about this one. Have a look at other tool companies websites...most of them suck. I don't have high hopes the new Craftsman site will be better.

5. I think the quality will be better under SBD. Even so, the brand is a DIY/homeowners brand. The price points reflect something better than B+D, but not as good as DeWalt; better than Stanley, not as good as MAC.

6. There is a huge push by SBD for this one. It's not just labor that is the obstacle though. Majority of what comes back will be highly automated, so labor is less of an issue (but that also means less jobs). There's also regulatory issues, environmental issues, material procurement issues, capital and equipment overhead, and a huge lack of manufacturing engineers (at least compared to China). The other thing is that in China they are willing to bend over backwards to make your product. Many of the factories are government subsidized so they have extra people and extra equipment always ready. Here it seems like you need to get in line to talk to someone and the lead time for getting a part is forever. The mindset in the US needs to shift for manufacturing to be successful again here. Never-the-less, SBD seems to realize that Craftsman is an American brand that should be made in America, at least for products that can support the margin hit.

 

Well I just returned a flex head ratchet that stripped on me only to find out that the replacements you get now at Sears are re-manufactured and not new. Is this common on most lifetime hand tools or is it finally time to jump ship? It was this ratchet.

 

Save yourself the hassle and look at Carlyle tools from Napa.

 

The ones from 20 years ago aren't the same as the ones Sears is selling now.

 

Does no one use Snapon tools?

 

I don't know why anyone that doesn't make their living with their tools would.

 

Every tool I own is USA Craftsman, then my second go-to is Armstrong. It will remain that way until Craftsman is made in USA again.

 

This over 2 decade old Black and Decker Workmate I got at Sears is still going strong in the shop.