That is how I look at it with my business. I am pretty swamped with work these days but continue to spend money on advertising. People ask “Why do you advertise if you are so swamped?” It is because I want it to stay that way. I can also weed out customers that set off red flags when I have this many. I used to have to accept any customer I got and some of them cost me more than I made because of all the hassle.
Sears and Kmart have kicked the can down the road as far as they can. They are essentially conducting a “controlled demolition” of the company if you ask me.
Musical chairs or rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? I thought it was interesting a day or two ago that a news source had two articles. One was how everything had gone wrong for JC Penney and are pretty much now kaput due to their leadership. Then the next article was that Lowes is closing stores and cutting inventory after hiring their new CEO from JC Penney.
I’ve seen this failure to connect the dots a number of times where leadership complains about a problem in one part of their report or speech, and answers it in another part, but seemingly don’t see the connection. I just slap my head and say “DUH”.
So if you are going to Lowes and they no longer have a good selection of tools, hardware, or their lumber bin is empty, you know its just to strengthen the business. Note to CEOs: I seldom go anyplace more than twice if they are out of stock or the selection is poor.
You talkin’ about John? You should see his brother Larry some time. That guy’s a fierce competitor in a royal jerk wrapper. Every few years before he retired John would fire him and then their mom would make John give Larry his job back. It would have been funny if it hadn’t involved abusing employees.
Menards has several house brands of tools. Performax and Tool Shop are junk, but Masterforce tends to be good to excellent. Especially their rolling cabs - I’ve got one for all my car tools and it’s fantastic, and a lot less expensive than anything in its class.
Yeah I’ve heard a lot of stories of how employees are treated. I don’t know if its still the case but it used to be they would never hire anyone that ever had belonged to a union. That knocks out a lot of us but if any manager would hire someone the manager would be fired. I don’t know if they check back to 1968 or not. I think it is better now. You do get 10% off but I’m not interested in working anymore.
I bought I think it was a Tool Shop lock installation kit to put in a dead bolt at the cabin. It was cheap but the dang hole saw wouldn’t even cut through the thin sheet metal on the door. The teeth just bent over. Same thing with the small bit, wouldn’t even drill through the sheet metal. 200 miles away but I had enough other tools to finally get the job done but don’t sell me something that doesn’t work-even once. I don’t expect a pro set, but it ought to do one door. So I’ve been a little gun shy of their stuff.
10% off isn’t worth it to work there. I put myself through college there. They run their stores like what they think the military is run like. A bunch of Barney Fifes trying to be soldiers. I barely made it through the four years without turning homicidal.
And yeah, when I worked there pretty much the only two things you could get fired for were stealing and even thinking about union activity, which I’m pretty sure John viewed as the same thing as stealing.
I learned a similar lesson with Tool Shop. I didn’t even know it was possible to break a dry wall saw off in dry wall without bending it like crazy, but…
Interesting… I won’t ever buy their Tool Shop brand. It sounds like getting something from Harbor Freight is a better option than that junk you describe. I never buy the cheapest one from HF as it is usually crap as well.
I have been considering the Lowes Kobalt 24V brushless power tool set that they put on sale for a crazy cheap price from time to time. I understand this isn’t Milwaukee quality but should do what I need it to do. I was considering the Harbor Freight Hercules which isn’t bad from what I have been reading but figure this Kobalt is likely a better option.
I agree Craftsman is nothing special these days but don’t think it is horrid either. Sears sold them to Stanley Black and Decker which has also put out some questionable tools lately so that makes sense that they might have dropped in quality since I last paid any attention. I bought a Stanley set from Wal-Mart a few years back, not knowing the sockets were just weak and brittle. They shattered like glass if I put much force on them at all.
That 24V Kobalt set looks nice on paper being brushless and all. It may just be marketing and junk like the rest. I have seen studies that show many 18V and 20V power tools are essentially powered by the same battery pack so it is all marketing. I guess you get 20V when the battery is completely full but somewhere around 18V throughout most of the usage of that battery. Milwaukee chooses to market as an 18V. Dewalt markets as a 20V. I know a lot of people who look down on Dewalt as well as others who wouldn’t use anything else.
One of my buddies works at a machine shop and I guess they are hard on tools and stuff just happens to them so they don’t want to spend a ton of money. Anyway, he is a DeWalt guy but says they have found some cheaper line that he has never seen before at work from DeWalt. He says it isn’t very good but is good enough for what they usually need it for. He sometimes takes his personal tools to work when something better is needed once a month or so. Apparently the tools at work get destroyed pretty quickly so the cheap line is probably not a bad idea for them. Apparently these cheaper DeWalt tools are something they get from a supply company and aren’t something you would normally find at a store.
A lot of them are powered by the same battery, but they’ll do something like slightly change the shape of the mating mechanism so that you can’t interchange them between brands.
However, you can get aftermarket batteries online for about 1/3 the price of a brand-name battery, and they work just as well and end up being even cheaper than re-celling the original batteries.
I don’t have much to complain about with my B&D 20v drills - about the only bad thing is that the chucks are poor-quality. Drilling out a rotor screw usually means I’ll get about 2 seconds of drilling and then the chuck lets go and spins around the drill bit. But most brands sold at big boxes have crappy chucks, and those can be replaced with something better.
It seems to me that’s Craftsman power tools must be SBD by now, unless some contracts are still in effect. I’m not saying Craftsman power tools are better than they were 20 to 30 years ago, but they might be as a result of the change in ownership. I’m not in the market for power tools now, but I have had some good BD power tools I need the past. DIY level, of course. I don’t need professional grade tools since I use them infrequently.
Craftsman power tools went through many changes. They would contract out to different vendors every 5-10 years. 40 years ago they were made by Milwaukee or Rockwell. For a while they were made by the old Singer Sewing Machine company. So quality was up and down for years. I still own a Craftsman drill that’s at least 50 years old and runs great. I had to replace the power cord once.
That is the deal. A lot of stuff, whether it be tools or electronics, is all made by just a few companies. One model from year to year may be completely different.
I was looking at some Milwaukee tools on the Home Depot website the other day. I found some that were cheaper than the equivalent setup at Harbor Freight. I thought this was too good to be true and realized they have many lines of tools as well. You want the brushless Fuel M18 set from what I hear if you are willing to go for the gold. Now that is EXPENSIVE!
Having all these various lines is annoying. I don’t need the top of the line contractor grade set but don’t want to buy junk with a good name on it as well. I see this with electronics all the time. The stuff sold on Black Friday or at Wal-Mart is just crap with an otherwise good name on it. I don’t know if tool companies prostitute themselves out like this but was wondering if this Home Depot set was only sold at Home Depot and made to a lower specification. Everything looked the same but I know it isn’t. It was the M18 18V and all but so was the set that cost 3x as much.
Harbor Freight has like 6 lines. This is at least not quite as confusing as there is a definite price difference and you can tell which ones are low quality just by picking up the tools. I don’t think you can go too wrong by buying a better grade at HF but doubt I would be happy if it was something I needed on a daily basis to earn a living. I understand that the lower end NiCd lines are likely going away soon and that my better Chicago Electric line may go by the wayside as well. Hopefully I will be able to get batteries as that has been the only thing I have ever needed to replace with these.
I was once given a Ryobi saw and charger because the battery died and they didn’t replace it. I understood why as that same set cost the same as a new battery. I held onto this thing for like a year and then sent it off with my junk the last time. That is my main fear with the Harbor Freight stuff. The batteries may be the limiting factor. At least I didn’t pay a lot and have gotten my money’s worth if you ask me.
I got into Porter Cable battery tools kind of by mistake. I wanted one of those vibrator saws for cutting trim and holes in sheetrock. Saw one on sale for about $35 when usually they are $80. I didn’t know then what “bare tool” meant. No battery. So ended up buying a PC drill with two batteries and charger and hour later for $100. So really I got the drill free. I like them but I bought the power saw too but it really is not powerful enough for much of anything.
Porter Cable was once considered a more premium tool brand as well. It is too bad that once good names have prostituted themselves to produce such junk for a cheap price. I guess this unfortunately applies in all industries these days. There is a big box store version and a real professional version.
@cwatkin. Packard motor company did the same thing. Before WW II, Packard was a prestige car. However, they developed a cheaper car to the senior line called the Packard Clipper. After WW II, the only Packards were the Packards that were really the Clipper models. They were simply called Packards, but everyone knew back then that these postwar cars weren’t the real Packards.
About 1955, there was a Packard and a less expensive nameplate simply called Clipper. It was too little too late. Packard had merged with Studebaker and in 1956, the Packard was a Studebaker President. By 1958, there was no more Packard.
Years ago, Sears top line tools carried the Craftsman name and the economy tools carried the Dunlap name. I hate to see a manufacturer, like either Sears or Packard lower the quality of a respected brand, but label them with the prestigious brand.
The 56 Packard was still a Packard, the 57 and 58s were rebadged Studebakers, Agree with everything else you said. I still have one Dunlap wrench in my toolbox, it is only a cast wrench rather than forged but has held up well for the 60+ years I owned it. I think it was my father in laws and dated to the 30s.
It seems like companies that try to survive or pickup market share by cheapening things usually don’t last long term. I guess the problem is that this works short term until people catch on and then it goes to crap. These companies either go under or get bought by someone else and become a sub-brand.
