History Hold on to your Craftsman tools...

ace hardware and craftsman ...good tools and one of the last decent hardware stores..

 

A&W is just another brand to the company that owns them here in the US. Once the original restaurants and franchisees faded away in the 1980s they lost the majority of their character and appeal. Yum! Brands does much better with their other companies - Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC.

Under different ownership A&W in Canada is still doing well.

It seems A&W in the US will become another of those brands that giant companies buy and sell every few years until it's just a novelty or fades away completely.

 

I was in Sears and looked breifly at some of their blackend tools may have been "Sears" tool not a "Craftsman" tool I did not know or notice at the time, I did notice when I turned it over that it was made in china, got back to work and demonstrating the event to a friend with blue point ratcheting/open end wrench when I turned it over it said taiwan.

 

Hot rods. not politics. I have opinions too but I try to avoid them here.
I'm a Ford man. Thats problem enough. Craftsman never did me wrong.
They wouldnt take back a feeler gauge set though. The guy was cool about it and gave me the REALLY?! look.
I showed him. I bought another set and made him ring em up.

 

Pics or it didn't happen

 

The feeler gages are "wear" items.. The only place where it sez "Craftsman" is the handle...

 

Hahahahaha!

 

Think I'll go have one.

 

There all made in CHINA anyway

 

Now you know why they are going broke. (Ha! But, hey... they said they'd do it!)

 

Crafstman is a big enough brand to stand alone, and I'm sure will be parted out corporately. It's probably one of the only brands Sears owns and carries that makes profit. I wouldn't worry too much.

 

Most of the basic hand tools, like sockets, ratchets, wrenches, etc. are currently made IN THE UNITED STATES by the Danaher Tool Group, makers of Matco, Stanley, Allen, and a ton of other familiar brands. Danaher in turn is owned by the Danaher Corporation, which owns even more companies & brands.

Screwdrivers, and (I think) pliers are made by Western Forge in the U.S. Most of the hand electrical tools are or were made by Skil/Emerson Electric...the larger tools like table saws are made by a variety of companies. Better Craftsman tool boxes/chests are made by Waterloo; the cheaper ones are, I believe, imported.

The stuff like jacks, stands, ramps, etc. is imported. Craftsman lawn mowers/power products are or were made by MTD.

Craftsman hand tools have been made by several different companies over the years, like New Britain (absorbed by Stanley), Stanley (absorbed by Danaher), and Easco (absorbed by Danaher).

Western Forge was bought by Emerson Electric in the early '80s, and sold to the Ideal Corporation (electrical products) a couple of years ago.

Keep in mind that the lesser Sears tool brands like Sears, Companion, & Evolv are pretty much all imported for a long time now.

Dunno if all this interests anybody, but there you go.

 

I've had those for years... A couple had the gear gutz missin' from them and when they gave me all new ones, I wasn't going to complain..

 

Yeah, was bummed when the one by my work closed
was a location that existed sine the 40's i think

 

I think the one on Warren Ave. off of Southfield is still open... Then again, I don't hang out in that area...

 

This one was in Trenton

By Elizebeth Park

My Sears near home closed too

 

Kmart owns Sears......

 

Me ol' pappy worked in Trenton... The Ford Woodhaven Stamping Plant... Man I miss him..

 

My Craftsman tools, tool chest and toolboxes have alway been good to me.

 

We still have a "huge" Sears store at the Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn..

 

Same here.... All 37 draws of them..

 

Geez-ain't somebody got something positive to talk about? like something you fixed on your ride with your Craftsman tools while drinking an A&W rootbeer ?

 

For me Craftsman died years ago. I still have most of the Craftsman tools I got for HS graduation in 1973 and they have been USED!. A couple years ago I bought a Craftsman socket and extension set that included a 3/8" ratchet. It LOOKS like my 1973 ratchet but is sure as Hell doesn't FEEL like my old one! The chrome peeled off many the sockets within a few months, the few '73 sockets I have left have were used and abused for years and still have the chrome. My wife got me a new Craftsman floor jack a few years ago for Christmas. The Craftsman jack is junk. I'm going to take my 50 year old American (brand name) in and get it rebuilt.

A & W going under would me far more of a loss to me but even at that the few that are left around here are in with other businesses like Long John Silver or some crap like that and aren't even drive-ins. "The times they are a changin' "............ and I don't like it.

 

Hard to say what will actually happen. I doubt the stores will dissapear. In smaller cities the Sears Associate stores do well. I could see larger stores dissapear in some areas. As for Craftsman, it is already dead. Oh the name is there, but I was looking today made in china on every tool I picked up. They have turned into cheap tools with a semi expensive name and price. But they were supposed to go under 30 years ago when I worked for them. Besides the world is supposed to end in 2012..............again.........

 

from what I understand a plant in texas makes the tools for craftsman,kobalt,armstrong and a few others so its all good and if I could buy new tools today from anyone it would be armstrong,I have a ratchet from the 50s that has never EVER been rebuilt from them they are amazing tools and you get them from fastenal

 

I still have some Power-Craft boxed end wrenches that I think were sold through monkey Wards.. Damn, those things are tough!!

 

Fastenal sells Craftsman tools.

 

who the f&^k ever heard of a magazine called 7/24 Wall Street before this post? They're SPECULATING people, they have NO inside information (which would be illegal anyway).

They're saying A&W is going under because they're so small... what?

Sears isn't about to go "under"- Sears Holdings is a publicly traded company (SHLD:US) - and at 70-something dollars a share (and climbing) they've a long way to go before going under.

 

snap on snap off! Ha! Ha!

 

Go smoke another one and then come back when your straight...