I have always bought and had very good luck with Craftsman tools which have exclusively been sold by Sears. It's generally the only brand of tool I have purchased for years. I see where Lowe's is selling some Craftsman tools now. Is Sears doing so poorly that they are now selling off their Craftsman tool line? I probably missed this in the news somewhere along the way.

Sears sold Craftsman to Black and Decker in Jan 2017.
Black and Decker and Lowes closed on a deal in Oct 2017.

I wonder how solid Craftsman tools will remain when they're made by B&D.

I didn't realize Kobalt had a lifetime warranty now. I haven't bought many of their tools, but they appear to be pretty solid.

There is almost no traffic at our local one. The only traffic they get is in tools and appliances over the weekend. The store is absolutely empty Monday through Friday.

You can always go buy a 300 dollar snap on ratchet. Lol.

I've broken one craftsman tool but had countless garage sale buys replaced. I do not make a living with my tools but they are used far heavier than most. I work on vehicles and equipment on the weekends pretty much every weekend. I've never considered craftsman, kobalt, or husky to be crap tools. I have literally used them side by side with Mac and snap and there is zero justification for paying a premium on those tools. I getting mine at garage sales or shop closings for pretty cheap. I'd take a craftsman tool with a lifetime warranty for slightly over priced any day of the week.

Everyone has lifetime warranties. Even harbor freight tools. Lol.

Martin Q. Blank said:

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Sears will be dead within years. Craftsman won't be far behind. They used to be set apart because they made quality, American made tools. Now they are cheap Chinese crap like everyone else. Doesn't matter since all tool manufacturers offer lifetime warranties. Might as well get Husky or Kobalt and exchange in store when they break.

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Cheap ass Pittsburgh brand from harbor freight has a lifetime warranty.

$3 30' tape measure? Why the hell not.

Edit, yes as the guy above me just pointed out

I really like my Kobalt hand tools. No experience with their power tools. But their ratchets, sockets, wrenches, and screwdrivers have been great for me. I'm just a weekend DIYer though. I use Ridgid power tools.

Our Sears is dead. Just announced it's one of the many that are closing.

I have the kobalt power drill and impact drill. I really like them. I plan to keep adding to the set over the years with more kobalt tools.

Kobalt's warranty is actually pretty crappy.

Does Kobalt make a portable power tool set (with one battery that can be used on all tools)?

I have a Kobalt ( I think that's what it is, blue case from Lowes) socket set. I have had one socket wrench replaced under warranty (no I didn't put a cheater pipe on it ). It was a painless process, go to Customer Service with my broken tool, they look at it, I go get a replacement off the shelf & sign a receipt.

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Sears will be dead within years.

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People have been saying this since the '80s.

Flashdiaz said:

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Sears sold Craftsman to Black and Decker in Jan 2017.
Black and Decker and Lowes closed on a deal in Oct 2017.

I wonder how solid Craftsman tools will remain when they're made by B&D.

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Black & Decker has had the Proto brand for many years. Those are high quality tools.

Dewalt is also a Black & Decker brand.

I think all of these brands are made in the same factory in China. All of them are crap compared to the old ones. I can break a Husky or Kobalt ratchet in short order. Keep your receipt. You'll need it.

You and I aren't the only ones recognizing the fact that the only difference between kobalt, husky, craftsman....and Pittsburgh is the time spent polishing the final product.

I thin garage journal did a test between these tools and found that China makes hand tools of equal or better quality for a fraction of the cost.

I do not know where MAC, Snap On, or KD are made, but I'd be surprised if the cost wasn't due to brand name and cost of manufacturing in the US.

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I think all of these brands are made in the same factory in China. All of them are crap compared to the old ones. I can break a Husky or Kobalt ratchet in short order. Keep your receipt. You'll need it.

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I need a receipt for a house brand exclusively sold at HD or Lowes? That kinda sucks....Harbor Freight doesn't need anything but the tool (as far as I know).

91AggieLawyer said:

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Sears will be dead within years.

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People have been saying this since the '80s.

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did they have multiple years in the 80s where they closed hundreds of stores?

expresswrittenconsent said:

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91AggieLawyer said:

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Sears will be dead within years.

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People have been saying this since the '80s.

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did they have multiple years in the 80s where they closed hundreds of stores?

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And the internet?

BrazosDog02 said:

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You and I aren't the only ones recognizing the fact that the only difference between kobalt, husky, craftsman....and Pittsburgh is the time spent polishing the final product.

I thin garage journal did a test between these tools and found that China makes hand tools of equal or better quality for a fraction of the cost.

I do not know where MAC, Snap On, or KD are made, but I'd be surprised if the cost wasn't due to brand name and cost of manufacturing in the US.

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I think all of these brands are made in the same factory in China. All of them are crap compared to the old ones. I can break a Husky or Kobalt ratchet in short order. Keep your receipt. You'll need it.

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I need a receipt for a house brand exclusively sold at HD or Lowes? That kinda sucks....Harbor Freight doesn't need anything but the tool (as far as I know).

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I generally think anything can be made well in any particular location on the globe with the right management and oversight but there is no way these new ratchets are as good as the old ones. As the price goes down and the companies struggle they make it harder to return them. I have broken many more of the new tools while being more gentle with them than I did the ones I abused 20-30 years ago. If you were to use a Snap-On you would immediately feel the difference.

IF I made a living with my tools I'd buy better. eBay is a good place to find truck brand tools if that's what you're into. For me though I'm using my tools very sparingly on weekends in my garage, and rarely putting them through any kind of abuse so the box store brands have been ok for me. The stuff made in Taiwan does seem to have a noticeable quality difference to me though. Way better than china stuff.

Which tools are made in Taiwan? Just curious. I realize Craftsman is not what it used to be, but they have held up well for me. I am an after-work and weekend tool user, mainly, though.

It varies. You need to look on the packaging. Most of my hand tools are kobalt and the ones from Taiwan have been awesome, but I've bought a few randoms made in China and they've been garbage.

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did they have multiple years in the 80s where they closed hundreds of stores?

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Sears has been closing and opening stores for decades. Not sure what this has to do with people constantly saying Sears demise is imminent. Montgomery Ward, one of Sears big competitors, went out in the late '80s or early '90s. People wondered out loud when Sears was going to follow. MW then sold brand name electronics while Sears sold their own house brand, yet the former was buried long ago and the latter lives on.

Best Buy rose up and Circuit City came online around this time. Again, people wondered how Sears could compete against chains that had lower prices and brand name merchandise (though Sears has had brand name appliances for a long time). Sears outlasted CC and it looked for a while like they'd outlast BB. They may still do that.

Is the run finally over? Possibly. But my point was that they've somehow survived intense competition and market conditions that weren't favorable, not to mention management stupidity. What will likely do them in is something they don't have a lot of control over: the unfavorability/poor location of malls that the Sears stores are in, and the rise of internet shopping. While I wouldn't buy Sears stock, I also wouldn't bet money they're going out of business anytime soon. My comment was directed at the fact that many have made that bet for 30+ years and lost.

Lol. Their death started in the 80s because a little store named Target exploded across the nation and target and Walmart killed Sears and Kmarts all across America. People say "They've been dying since the 80s" because they have lost a crap ton of market share since the 80s and have seen their biz shrink and their # of stores shrink year over year. Next please tell us how people have been saying that print media (newspapers and magazines) have been dying since the 90s, but you still get a copy of the BCS eagle each day and your Redbook and Good Housekeeping each month on the 14th.

Target and Walmart haven't really competed with Sears much and didn't 30+ years ago. Both Walmart and Target are discount retailers, something Sears isn't and never has been. Neither Target nor Walmart sold large appliances, much in the way of hardware compared to Sears, almost nothing in lawn and garden, no air conditioning, and certainly no auto servicing and home remodeling work. Sears sold pest control and other home maintenance services as well. Until the mid-80s or so, Sears hired a lot of full time workers and their commission schedule and profit sharing allowed them to make fairly decent money (50-75K or even more back then) for what they were doing. We're talking Vietnam era adults with little to no college selling 25K or more a week in appliances and making 3% on their sales PLUS their salary. Easily a thousand a week which was REAL good money back then. Plus, when the manager was handing out spiffs for certain products and/or maintenance agreement sales, they could easily double that -- but that was two or three times a quarter, not every week.

Around the mid-80s, Sears started hiring mostly part timers except management and let the full timers leave or retire on their own. The thing was, the commission schedule was the same and the salary level wasn't significantly different, but there weren't any benefits or profit sharing. The problem with all this was that you could walk into a Sears store and get actual help on an issue from a sales person there. If they couldn't help, they'd help get you to the service center. Try getting that now at Home Depot or Lowes -- or Target/WM if you really want an adventure.

Sears' issues are not anywhere near as simplistic as you seem to think. They were heavily invested in other businesses -- real estate (Coldwell Banker), financial (Dean Witter/Sears credit card/later Discover card), and insurance (Allstate) not to mention brands like Die Hard and Kenmore. Divesting of many of these business during the last 20 or so years alone probably bought the Sears Co. a decade and a half of life easily. Sears is and has been for the last 50 years a serious cash cow and what is killing them more than anything is the dying off of their very loyal customer base currently around 70 and older, along with the mall and internet issues I've mentioned. Plus, poor management at the store and corporate level.

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Their death started in the 80s

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This contradicts what you asserted above -- that the difference in Sears' status now compared to back then was "hundreds" of store closings. Now you say it started back then.

My point is that Sears' death has been wrongly predicted for decades. What exactly is your point?

Ed Brennan started the death spiral for Sears, and Bernie Brennan killed Montgomery Ward.

My point is and has been that their retail stores have been circling the drain for decades. You did a nice book report on their real estate holdings and then admit that those other businesses were likely offsetting losses in their retail biz. I don't care about their investments or that they outlasted Montgomery Ward. Prior to your book report you claimed they had closed some stores and opened others, implying that business as usual was leading them to replace old stores with nice new ones and that there was no decline, it was all just silly rumors.

One noticeable shortcoming with tools are the screwdrivers. I use them daily for electrical components and they are terrible. I recently bit the bullet and bought some Klein tools (screwdrivers, pliers, side cutters, needle nose pliers) and they have been much better and will use them until they cause me trouble. For me, if I'm going to be on top of a center pivot irrigation system 10' off the ground, I was tired of struggling with bad screwdrivers.

Wrenches and sockets have traditionally been a craftsman/Proto/Blackhawk fan, I don't get to use them as much as I would like, so they are certainly serviceable for what I do. I can't justify spending Snap on/Mac tools money for as little as I used them.

I do use snap on tools. Side by side with kobalt, husky and Pittsburgh.

I break more Pittsburgh tools. Do you know why?

Because THATS the one I'm putting a cheater bar on. Lol.

Flashdiaz said:

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Sears sold Craftsman to Black and Decker in Jan 2017.
Black and Decker and Lowes closed on a deal in Oct 2017.

I wonder how solid Craftsman tools will remain when they're made by B&D.

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Black and Decker is an umbrella company that owns several tool brands, including MAC, Proto, Craftsman, DeWalt and others. They are like any other company in that they have various lines of price and quality.

Craftsman has always been a high end mid tier, lower upper tier tool. What made them great was the fact that they had a lifetime warranty on hand tools and that Sears stores used to be located in every town in American just about, so access was always relatively easy. The Craftsman Professional series of tools (I think that was mainly a Sears line?) is no longer, but they have their Industrial line of tools still out there that are hell for stout. I hope the line they sell at Lowe's and Ace is on par with the Sears quality of tools, they would be silly to not keep that level of quality up.

It all comes down to price though - the overwhelming majority of folks don't want to pay what it costs for good tools. They want cheap quality prices, high quality manufacturing. Doesn't work that way. I don't make my living with tools, so no need for a special salesman with Snap On or MAC for me, Husky, Kobalt and Craftsman are all along the same lines of quality and availability.