Lowes started selling Craftsman tools

[rfuerst911sc]

Maybe I missed the announcement but I was not aware that Lowes would be selling Craftsman tools . Apparently last Monday was the roll out for Lowes/Craftsman . I know the Craftsman name was sold to Stanley with full rights to manufacture and sell to who they ( Stanley ) want to . I have to think this will hurt Sears walk in traffic and they will continue their swirl down the drain . I read online today that in its hey day Sears employed 1 out of every 204 working Americans !

I'm not sure what the Sears business model is but I was kind of hoping they would downsize to just selling tools and appliances . But if Stanley lines up a few more stores to carry Craftsman I don't see any chance for Sears to survive .

[wayner]

Sears Canada no longer exists. Unfortunate to see a company like that go downhill and then close up altogether

I’m Canadian culture and economy sears was as significant in Canada as in the US

[mreid]

Danaher or their joint venture with Cooper (Apex) make most of the hand tools we all use, regardless of brand name. Apex was sold to Bain a few years ago, but like many products most brands are produced by one or two companies. Stanley makes most of the brands that Apex doesn’t make. This is bad news for Sears.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by mreid

Danaher or their joint venture with Cooper (Apex) make most of the hand tools we all use, regardless of brand name. Apex was sold to Bain a few years ago, but like many products most brands are produced by one or two companies. Stanley makes most of the brands that Apex doesn’t make. This is bad news for Sears.

Is this tied to the small NC town?

[mreid]

I wish. Apex is headquartered just north of Baltimore.

[dad911]

Harbor Freight tools are better than Craftsman these days. Well, not quite, but my 40 yo craftsman ratchets work fine. 2 year old craftsman set, it skips and binds.

At this point I'll buy HF and toss it.

[aschen]

Cratsman tools have been transitioning from mostly decent to mostly crap for the last decade unfortunately. There is a real hole in the medium quality tool market these days. It is hard to "run and get" a decent set of sockets these days.

[Baz]

Maybe this is what they are doing to try to survive.

The way box stores have taken the retail market - gotta get part of that, perhaps?

Years ago I worked for a company and we manufactured and were the only outlet for our professional grade fertilizer. All of a sudden some bigwig makes a deal with HD to become a retail outlet for our product. It really pulled the rug out of many customers and sales associates. Our company has since been sold a couple times and IMHO that decision was the beginning of the end, unfortunately.

I truly hope Sears fares better....

[ckelly78z]

Last time I was in a Sears store, I was waiting for my 4' 12 drawer tool cabinet to be inventoried from the truck so I could pick it up, and take home. What a bunch of bumbling fools regarding my order. We ended up walking around the nearly deserted store looking at tools/hartdware. I believe there was only 2-3 employees in the whole building, and it showed.

I have always had a good set of Craftsmsn tools starting with the big set my parents got me for high school graduation, and growing ever since. Lowes sounds like a good retailer to take over selling them, hopefully the quality hasn't taken a nose dive.

[asphaltgambler]

Originally Posted by aschen

Cratsman tools have been transitioning from mostly decent to mostly crap for the last decade unfortunately. There is a real hole in the medium quality tool market these days. It is hard to "run and get" a decent set of sockets these days.

Absolutely true -

As most here - the age where we've seen a few things come and go in last 50 years or so, the Craftsman brand of _________ was at least middle quality if not slightly past that mark. It represented good value overall.

In their tool line, years past, I've seen many young man start out with their products. In the 80's - Craftsman had an upscale line of tools / storage boxes aimed at the professionals. Those tool boxes were 'black' powder coated and very well made. I had a set of their cabinets and lower box in my motorcycle shop that I then used to custom build a unit into my garage.

Today, HF has definitely stepped up their game while almost everyone else has stepped waaay down in quality. HF is definitely a serious contender for anyone needing tools.

As a note, my local Snap-On dealer gave me a flyer last week listing 'specials' - Now before I post this, I'm a Snap-On guy all the way...................but

In his flyer was a 37 piece 1/4" and 3/8" allen and torx drivers with a few other odd style bits. The price? Wait for it....................................$939.00!!!.........................................

I asked him is this correct? - of course it was............I said what then is the normal price?????

[onewhippedpuppy]

Harbor Freight is my go-to for most tools. The sad reality is that just about any tools sold at a retail store are now made in China, at least Harbor Freight doesn't lie about it. I also find that their stuff is surprisingly good quality. Even stuff like ratchets, which rarely lasted more than a few years when I bought Craftsman, seem to be really good. I also have one of their impact wrenches that won't die.

[LWJ]

My BIL is a big fan of the Home Depot brand. I forget the name. I bought some. It seems better than HF. I think it picked up the niche that Craftsman used to own.

[vash]

i bought a set of harbor freight impact sockets. tapping on them, they had a weird "ping!". they felt oddly lightweight.

i put one on my impact, tried to take off my truck wheel. i got to "bra...." and the thing blew up. good thing i had heavy leather gloves and eye protection. that thing shattered.

i toss the entire set. i drove my ass to Sears.

i still need to find a great 3/8 long handled ratchet to replace my Craftsman. i'l probably flag down one of the fancy tool trucks to see what they have going.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by dad911

Harbor Freight tools are better than Craftsman these days. Well, not quite, but my 40 yo craftsman ratchets work fine. 2 year old craftsman set, it skips and binds.

At this point I'll buy HF and toss it.

My God, my 1/4 Premium is an absolute POS. The 3/8 is OK tho.

Do not buy this in 1/4



PS the Gearwrench xp120 is bad ass. Check it out.

[VincentVega]

I started buying Gearwrench stuff too, I really like their sockets and holders.

Too bad about Sears tools. They still have a few nice toolboxes, of course made by International or Waterloo. I still use a ~25 yr old set of their Pro wrenches, they are top notch and nothing like what they sell today.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by LWJ

My BIL is a big fan of the Home Depot brand. I forget the name. I bought some. It seems better than HF. I think it picked up the niche that Craftsman used to own.

Same with the Lowes stuff, I think Cobalt is their house brand. My knock with both is that they don't sell a lot of individual pieces, often times you have to buy a set to get what you need.

[sand_man]

Bought my first set of Craftsman tools when I was in 9th grade ('83). Was the typical 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" bundle with ratchets, a smattering of sockets, and some combo wrenches. It was an okay starter set...an introduction. It was all forged and stamped USA. As I got more involved with wrenching, I started acquiring Snap-on, Mac, Hazet, Wera, Stahlwille, and Gearwrench. Though I still have those first Craftsman ratchets, I typically always reach for a Snap-on or Gearwrench 120XP. I just prefer the feel and ratcheting mechanism.

[sand_man]

I also noticed that whenever I needed to return one of my older broken Craftsman tools, the one I got as a "replacement" was absolute JUNK!!!

[Mark Henry]

I hope Lowes honors the warranty on old craftsman, I have a couple ratchets that need kits. Sears is gone here.

Craftsman and Mastercraft (Canadian Tire) were the best semi pro sets forever. Both were going downhill, Sears is gone and Mastercrafts quality is suffering.

We don't have Harbour Freight here, but we have Princess Auto which is totally modeled on HF and sells 90% of the same stuff. Powerfist is it's low budget line, but they have come out with ProPoint tools and to me the quality is just as good, sometimes better, than the old Craftsman and Mastercraft tools.

[legion]

3 years ago I was sure that Sears was going to die in the next year. Today, Sears is still in the local mall by Macy's, J.C. Penney, and Bergner's are gone.