Sears sells Craftsman for $900 million. Old news, but for those who haven't heard

Stanley Black & Decker bought Craftsman & are supposed to be building a new US facility to bring production back to "Forged in USA" :thumbsup:

craftsman is a good product and i am glad it is coming back to the good ol usa

Unless they are subsidy farming they will go broke.
Joe public wants cheap.
Joe public can no longer tell the difference between quality tools and trash they rely on the name on the look & Craftsman was always a medium quality tool.
To make it pay they will have to spend another $ 900,000 to outspend Snap On and brain wash the ill informed that a slightly better than middle of the range tool is the best you can possibly buy.
Not impossible HD has relied on this for decades.
I thought the days of owning the market segment by buying out all of you competitors have gone but apparently there are still executives with too much testosterone around.
The only way to ensure a profit is to own the entire chain from digging up the ore to recycling the packaging.

Even more so these days when hand tools are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Maybe the trade restrictions have something to do with them moving back into the country, just a guess.

I:biggrin: am so happy American made again

I have something to add to this thread about hand tools ............ Ok my first set of hand wrenches was from our local owned lumber yard, when I was 5 years old.....Named after the town it was in ......

Then I found out about sockets and a ratchet when my Paran' also my uncle, turned me loose on a 3 1/2 HP Briggs engine when I was 8 years old .... (That was my inspiration to do what I'm doing now)... My dad never owned those kind of tools, just some hand wrenches, which I had a third of what he had LOL...... Also he had the different size screwdrivers..... Blah Blah.....

Then I started work at PHI as a Aviation technician helper....... Washing hell holes in a helo is hell LOL... Washing the engines in them were fun because I started the engines also and could talk to a buddy doing the other ones over the radio on a different channel .... But turning wrenches was fun too with the help of some good friends that I made there ......

That's where I found out about the quality of tools.... I didn't know about the 2 different ratchets Craftsman made, the lever control for the for / rev action was different in 2 ways from the round head style..... The round head type are a finer click and better in a tight spot....

The Tech's also told me that the same amount of tools of each in their respective tool boxes the same size one of them will be lighter........ Snap on won that one ....... Craftsman was right behind Snap On on quality since they were a USA made Co........ Also I had some Craftsman tools that were made in Japan ... Same great tool also .....

The bad thing about Craftsman is they didn't drive around in the trucks like Snap On did .........If you are a mechanic working at a shop then the Snap On man will sell you tools on credit..... He knows where you work and the shop will dock your check if you don't pay up........... At least that how it works down here where I live ...........

I will checkout what is going on with the buyout... Got my attention for sure ~!~!

Plus Tard ............

Have about seven hundred dollars in Craftsman tools, but have one BIG complaint. If you have a tool that breaks and you take it in to be replaced, the quality of the replacement is no where close to the original. Now if I need a new tool, Snap On is my go to.

I used to have a storeman ( store woman to be correct ) that was always rabbiting on about how great her defacto's Snap Ons were.
So we did a test Snap - On vs Dufor using a length of 1/2" Allan key.
I broke all 3 of his spanners with a 40 year old tool .
I offered to test the new ones against my old one but he declined.
They never mentioned tools again.

And yes Snap-On has won the marketing war down here .
40 years ago the local pros used Sidchromes then the idiot money men got control of the company and downgraded the quality to a price the supermarkets were willing to pay.
Now days a professional mechanic would not even pick one up.

FWIW I use old Aussie tools in the mobile tool box & Hazet / Stahlwilie / Sidchromes in the workshop.

I heard even Harbor Freight hand tools have a lifetime quaranree.

I worked as a Millwright in a steel mill for 40 years and tools you never see are Craftsman or Snap On

Tools by Williams and Proto are common. There are other brands but using large impacts I never reimbursing one fail, some 6 inch sockets. I think Stanley owns Proto.

I used to buy from Snap-On & Mac Tools off the trucks, my beech was when you broke a tool, or sometimes ordered a tool, the next few times they came around they "forgot" it or it's back-ordered, got tired of the B/S, switched to Craftsman and auto parts stores (the High-Quality brands) Proto, Husky, Black-Hawk, SK-Wayne, Wright, Armstrong, etc. etc. I know every "wrench-bender" has a certain tool, from a certain brand, that just "FEELS" so right in their hand, I thinks it's a shame that the Baby-Boomer generation of mechs. are retiring more each day, and most that enter into the trade nowadays, would prefer a NEW box & tools, I was glad to get "hand-me-downs" when offered, sometimes when at flea-markets and yard sales I see a complete set, Upper, Middle and Roll-around Bottoms that cost THOUSANDS being offered for a pittance of the initial cost. My box and tools are still with me (started my "collection" 1959,) pains me I have no family member to pass them on to, they'll most likely wind-up in a yard-sale ..