Sears. Craftsman, Die Hard, Adios

craftsman tools, at least the product name if not the quality, are available at Lowes.

Craftsmanmtools used to be quality like SnapOn. Now its junk like the cheapest Harbot Freight tools. I uave thousands of dollars of Lifetime warranty Craftsman tools that I can no longer get replaced.

Sad to see. I have a garage full of Craftsmen tools. My Dad was a 40-year Sears man.

SEARS has been in trouble for quite a while now. Bought a Radial arm saw in Aug 2014 and had to wait for it to ship from China. I was so disappointed. Saw is ok, but I'm still disheartened it came from China and not USA made. That was the last item i bought from Sears. No wonder they are going under.

Sears sold the Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker about a year ago.

They stupidly bought a failing KMart and that debt destroyed the company. They also ignore the internet until it was far too late just like Toys R Us. If you think about it, Sears was the original major home seller with the Sears catalog.

Someone in a cabin in next-to-nowhere Montana could order out of that catalog and get all sorts of things delivered to their local post office. But they did not see that the net was the modern version of their catalog, slept right thru the internet revolution.

This happens to lots of big companies, I don't know how many of you recall A&P supermarkets. But they missed the move to the Suburbs and the rise of shopping centers (another dead marketing idea) And died because their customers moved away.

As for Black and Decker that's another ruined brand. Their power tools used be high quality, now they are junk and I won't buy one. I have one of their 1/4 drill motors that must be 30 years old. Still runs. One of their current models would be lucky to make it to the Fourth of July next year.

agesilaus wrote:
They stupidly bought a failing KMart and that debt destroyed the company.

Kmart bought Sears

On November 17, 2004, Kmart's management announced its intention to purchase Sears for $11 billion. As part of the merger, the Kmart Holding Corporation (the company that owns Kmart) would be transferred to the new Sears Holdings Corporation and Sears would be purchased by the new Sears Holdings Corporation.

it was K mart who bought sears. I used to work at sears and when K mart who was a failing company bought sears they brought sears to it's level. sears went down on both knees at that time. their warranties went from great to BS. Sears used to be a company who stood by their products not so any more

rk911 wrote:
craftsman tools, at least the product name if not the quality, are available at Lowes.

Was at Lowes tool shopping the other day. Some employees said don't buy because they were having to make space for all the Craftsman stuff. Others thought Craftsman wouldn't last long in Lowes either. I bought Dewalt.

Customer service in the stores was pathetic, glad to see Sears close.