Not much for a dignified death are you Sears.
Not much for a dignified death are you Sears.
Sears will die with or without Craftsman Tools. Its only a matter of time.
I just hope whomever buys Craftsman returns some of the quality to them.
I am disappointed. I thought Sears had already died.
Funny how they drive their brand equity into the ground and then try to sell it. Good luck! Harbor freight tools have as good a reputation now, guys. Caveat emptor on a 2 billion dollar purchase.
Wow. If they ditch their top brands, what reason could anyone have to go to Sears? Next, they'll be selling off Allstate Insurance. Oh, wait.. That went public in 1993!
I went to Sears yesterday, only because I happened to be going to another store in the same strip mall, and I wanted to see if they had any decent work pants.
All applicable pants were "on sale" for about 40% more than their competitors charge at regular price.
There were about 40 people in the whole store, 36 of whom were employees.
I'm guessing the day's take at the register didn't even cover payroll.
I'm not sure how they're in business.
In reply to 1988RedT2:
There's no reason to go to Sears now except their entrance is closest to the food court. I hate to see it because it is reminding me I'm old as every place I went growing up is disappearing but after all the E36 M3ty Craftsmen tools I bought in the last few years they did it to themselves. At least I can still do my Christmas shopping at Macy's for now anyway.
they have been running themselves into the ground for years. I am honestly surprised they are even still around.
Agreed that they did this to themselves and it's only a matter of time. But it's still sad to see as someone who remembers them as THE titan of retail stores, and has owned more Kenmore and Craftsman stuff than I can count. But not for a while now. The appliances started going downhill before the tools did, IMO.
Regardless, my kids will someday inherit a bunch of Craftsman tools. I bought most of my basic stuff like wrenches, hammers and screwdrivers back in the 80s and 90s when it was still good stuff.
Stupid internet! I got to looking up old Sears brands including Fieldmaster, which is on a shirt I have owned for countless years. It's a rough-textured pullover that I never liked much, so I would wear it for rough, dirty, jobs. Danged if that shirt doesn't get covered in dirt every time I wear it, and it always washes up looking like it did when it was new. It's indestructible!
I didn't actually find much on Fieldmaster, but I found this website, which tells me that Sears discontinued the SilverTone brand in 1972. I can tell you there is a very fine SilverTone console stereo system in my parents house. I'm pretty sure it still works.
http://www.searsarchives.com/brands/silvertone.htm
Yup, Sears was a giant. And they had a pretty good run.
I bought two pairs of cargo shorts at Sears the week before the Challenge(because that's how I roll 
) for $9.61 after tax - for both pairs together. The girl at the register did almost everything short of groveling to get me to sign up for their credit card. At one point she said "If you sign up today your whole order will be free." Still not worth it...
Regarding the Craftsman brand, I think Tim & Margie should pick up a couple investors and buy it up!
In reply to petegossett:
I worked for them in college as an appliance salesman. On commission...
They have a credit card quota that they get yelled at if they dont meet it. When I worked there, they seemed to think that the credit card was what would save the company (riiiiggghhhhhttttt)
That was about 10 years ago.
Ahh... Sears. I used to love going there as a kid with my dad to look at tools, small engined things, and hit up the Funtronics section for video games. Heck, I even still play my Sears TeleGames-branded Atari 2600 all the time!
These days, there aren't many left around here, and those that are left are basically appliance stores that happen to sell other things. When they merged with K-Mart, that was the beginning of the end. K-Mart was always crap, and why they made that move was puzzling. Craftsman stuff was sold there too, and quality was diluted. That name used to mean something, and it was kind of special to get their products in one place, as opposed to all over the place.
Also, their website BLOWS. It's one of those sites that sells products from lots of other non-Sears vendors, but they don't tell you that up front all the time. All they had to do was make a Sears-branded Amazon-like store (which does have many vendors, mostly fulfilled by Amazon), but they over-complicated the hell out of it and added "bonus points" to everything and like 100 warranty options to the point of frustration. And it's all cheaper elsewhere.
They have been staving off the inevitable for a long time. It will be sad to see them go, but bad business is bad business.
My Ace Hardware has been selling Craftsman tools for quite awhile.
Back when I was a dirt poor grad student, I took my second gen RX-7 to Sears to have its two trashed rear tires replaced (I had two fresh Yokohama’s on the front). When I got my car back, the two trashed tires were still on and the Yokohama’s had been replaced.
I really thought they were joking, nobody could possibly be that stupid, but then the reality of the situation began to unfold as they “weren’t able to find” my Yokohama’s. The situation digressed to the point where they had the Service Manager and two of his goons surrounding me saying “are you calling us liars”.
If somebody tried to pull that E36 M3 on me today, I’d immediately be on the phone with the police, my attorney, several local papers, Sears’s corporate relations department, Grandma (not that she could help but I like talking to Grandma), etc.
But it was a different time…I was younger, dumber, more easily intimidated, and had fewer resources…the best I was able to accomplish was to have two cheap tires put on in place of the two trashed ones.
Of course I don’t hold my horrible Sears experience against their current employees that are about to lose their jobs, I’m just saying that I have first-hand experience with Sears pulling totally over the top, ridiculous E36 M3 going way back.
Well, here's to happier times Sears:
Apexcarver wrote: In reply to petegossett: I worked for them in college as an appliance salesman. On commission... They have a credit card quota that they get yelled at if they dont meet it. When I worked there, they seemed to think that the credit card was what would save the company (riiiiggghhhhhttttt) That was about 10 years ago.
I remember reading that many years ago that Sears made more money off their credit card business (Discover and after) than actually selling products. So, their stuff wasn't competitive in price because where else would their customers go? They sold a large variety of stuff mainly to encourage their customers use those credit cards.
The sharp increase in financing by anyone and everyone made that credit card heavy model less important. Other smaller retailers began offering cards and it spread to mom and pop stores being able to offer it.
Problem is, while they focused on that model (which, at the time, made some sense), they let the quality of their core brands lax. It might have been negligence or a way to squeeze more profit out of the products they sold as the credit card business began to dry up.
Lots of people say they missed the boat on online sales. While that may be true to some degree, I don't know that actually selling products was most important for them, so selling online might not have been as an important target.
Besides those above factors, the decline of malls in general and less brick and mortar stores (of which Sears is heavily invested) is pushing their decline even further.
Finally, in regards to Craftsman specifically, tools are a declining market. The days of dads building a treehouse or repairing his lawnmower or figuring out how to fix his TV are long gone. Working on your own car is very uncommon. Sure, the quality has decreased, but people are buying less tools because they just won't end up using them. I am amazed at how many friends of mine don't even have a simple set of hand tools, much less the 5+ foot tall toolbox of tools that most of us have. And, I would also argue that their quality going down would be seen by hard core guys like us, but not for 98% of your tool buyers. (See: Harbor Freight)
It's a sad spiral that Sears has been on for a long time. They are a dying entity like many others as the world changes the things it focuses on and ways they choose to consume. I'll miss them only because of the memories I had as a kid, not that they offer anything that makes them more appealing, anymore.
-Rob
You want to talk real strange, the Sears Outlet stores are no longer part of Sears Holding. So those Sears Outlet stores have no connection whatsoever to regular Sears stores now, and their inventory comes from all over including Home Depot and Lowes.
K-mart bought Sears years ago and the last 2 K-Marts here in Grand Rapids are closing up now.
I have a craftsman cordless impact wrench with lithium ion battery.
We brought it to the challenge and it lasted the whole weekend without charging and is still kicking. Probably changed 20-25 wheels, and most of those required also changing bolt on spacers, so say between 150-200 lug nut on/off cycles.
I would definitely buy another if this one ever kicks the bucket.
Robbie, but would the new one be as good as the one you got? That's the question.
In reply to 1988RedT2:
My guitar amp is a Silver Tone
I am going to say that the beginning of the end for Sears was when they stopped producing the "wish book" for Christmas. With that Catalogue they had virtual monopoly on toys for Christmas-and of course if the parents were buying stuff for the kids, they would look through it for stuff for themselves, and other relatives
I have a Sears dehumidifier that was made in the 1920's I got from my Father in law. When he told me it was that old I thought he was confused, but a couple of years ago the wiring to the switch frayed and I had to open it up. Sure enough a quality control label from 1923 or something like that. He still has lots of electrical tools like drills, routers, sanders, table saws. All from the 50's and 60's. All weigh a ton with solid metal bodies, but all still work perfectly after 50 plus years of hard work. Like building a house and used in a business for 50 years hard work. Amazing quality.
These days when I drive past one the parking lot is 99% empty. I went in one a couple of years ago when I found a $25 SEARS gift card at the back of a draw. The place was deserted other than clueless staff. Most of theach shelves were 50+% empty.
My 83 FIL mentioned above has strong loyalty to them, but a couple of years ago he went in for a new kitchen appliance. I don't recall if it was a dishwasher, fridge or what. They had one in stock on the floor, but it was something like $100 more than on their own website and they wouldn't match it or even do free delivery and removal. He went else where and got it cheaper than their online price estimate. Even he's given up on them these days. It honestly surprises me they are still limping along. So sad to see such a rapid decline. I've only been here since 1994, but even then my craftsman tools I bought are still perfect. Anything from the late 90s on has been crap though.
To think you could buy houses, aeroplanes etc fromy them once and know you were getting quality. Sad, very sad.
Ahh I remember getting that and the jc penny ones and circling what we wanted for xmas every year.....the Christmas catalog that is
The house I grew up in was supposedly a Sears kit home. That company has long since died.
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