Years ago I bought a B&D 3/8 vsr drill at a great price and when priming an oil pump it smoked. I replaced it and a few weeks later delivered a repaired car to a local hardware store and my customer was involved with the factory reps from B&D over a display. I interrupted hoping to get back to work and one of the reps asked me about the display they were setting up. When I mentioned how poorly their product had performed for me they asked what color it was. When I said it was red they immediately insisted that it wasnât their product but instead it was a Cheap Wal-Mart product that used bushings instead of bearings along with armatures and fields that were not up to spec. The âreal B&Dâ drill cost a retailer more than the shelf price of the cheap copy. I wonder if there are any âreal B&Dâ drills being manufactured today.
Yup!
Many years ago, I was a Lands End customer, but about 15 years ago I switched to LL Bean because of their superior quality and their unmatched customer service. I might not be at the height of fashion (and I donât care if Iâm not!), but almost all of my clothing and shoes come from LL Bean.
Thatâs where I was coming from, too.
All the older Stanley tools I have are pretty nice. I guess they were geared more to woodworking stuff than automotive until recently.
DieHard brand batteries is also for sale. You canât stick a fork in them yet, but itâs close. The Sears near me does great business, but so does just about every store in town.
Is the quality of L.L.Bean clothing as good as ever? Twenty years ago a factory within a rocks throw of my shop was producing L.L.Bean coats and jackets and the plant workers were always happy when they had a run of products for that company because of the specifications. The seam allowance, thread count, etc., were very generous and reduced problems allowing the workers to exceed there quotas and make bonuses. The ladies who did the sewing often bragged about the products they made for L.L.Bean but the plant is now closed due to the production going to Mexico and Vietnam.
Yes, many of their products are now made overseas, but the quality is still pretty darn good. And, if a product doesnât meet your needs/desires/standards, you can send it back at any time for a full refund, so there is really little risk in buying from LL Bean. And, it should be noted that most of their footwear is still made in Maine.
AnywayâŠwhoâs to say that manufacturing clothing overseas is a bad thing? After all, I can think of somebody who was recently elected to aâŠvery majorâŠpolitical office, and who decries foreign manufacturing, yet has ALL of his brand-name clothing manufactured overseas.
Go figure!
Yup. LL Bean has an outstanding reputation. Their products are absolutely top quality and they stand behind them for years on end without question. Theyâre well, well worth the extra cost. They may be the only retailer about whom Iâll happily make that statement.
I get almost all my footwear from LL Bean now, and they last a lot longer than anything else Iâve owned short of Walter Dyer. $68 for slippers is a bargain if they last 4 or more years. Walter Dyer still sells the moccasins I owned as a teen, but I donât think Iâll spend $390 on themâŠ
Most of what LL Bean sells is outsourced to other manufacturers. One of their jackets I own is made by Woolriche. Excellent quality.
Bean still makes the Bean boot. Mine are 30 years old now and Iâll never get rid of them.
i split my craftsman socket last week but got a replacement at homedepot for $1.79. aint worth driving 8 miles to sears for 1 socket. turns out i didnt need to remove part with socket since it was not in my way afterall. thats life.
I also think that Sears is screwing over those people who bought into a âSears Hometownâ franchise; the smaller stores individually run.
Those people had to put up 100-200k dollars of their own money and then Sears started allowing other businesses to sell the Craftsman line of tools. That would include Ace Hardware and a statewide chain of farm and ranch stores here in OK.
Sears is essentially sending your customer tool buying base to other vendors. I expect those Hometown franchisees are going to end up broke and in bankruptcy court.
All of them in my neck of the woods disappeared over a year ago, IIRC.
Anyone whoâs never been to the store in Freeport ME, if you get up that way itâs worth the trip. Store is huge. Open 24/7. And if you go to the Fishing department at 3am youâll find very knowledgeable salespeople working there who know their products (even at 3am). Same for every department.
Yup!
Part of my agenda when I visit Portland is to drive up to Freeport after dinner.
IIRC, it only takes ~40 minutes to drive there from Portland, and by 10:00 PM the store is a real pleasure, due to not having to deal with the crowds that the store attracts during the day.
Parking is easy, and shopping is a true pleasure.
The company founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, began the practice of opening for business in the wee hours of the AM in order to serve the hunters who would pass through before the sun came up.
My wife bought some new underwear for me from J.C. Penney. I told her that I wanted Sears Craftsman underwear. One of my Christmas presents was a pair of pajamas with Craftsman one leg and the Craftsman tools insignia. The pajama top has the Craftsman label on the front. The pajamas were made in China. After reading some of these posts, maybe I should have L L Bean pajamas.
I agree with the post that Sears has been going downhill for a long time. Back in the 1960s, I was in a lawnmower repair shop. The proprietor had a big sign posted that read âWe do not service Sears mowersâ. When I asked him about the sign, he told me that he had problems getting parts that were unique to Sears equipment. He said he didnât need the headache of getting the parts for Sears equipment when he had plenty of work. A television repairman had a switch fail on a Sears range. The Sears parts department couldnât supply the switch. An appliance dealer whose TV he serviced figured out the company that made the range and obtained the switch for him. A friend of mine bought an electric lawnmower from Sears that had a bad vibration. The local Sears store with a service department couldnât fix it under warranty. The mower had to be shipped to a Sears warranty service shop 120 miles away. The mower had the vibration from the first moment she tried it. Now it isnât that difficult to either balance or replace a mower blade on a simple push type electric mower. I bought a Sears Kenmore canister vacuum cleaner. I couldnât buy the paper dustbags in the retail part of the storeâI had to order them through the parts department and there was always a weekâs delay. I was examining the vacuum cleaner once and found that it was made by Singer. I walked into the Singer sewing shop which was in the same mall as the Sears store and they carried the bags that fit my vacuum cleaner. This was back in the late 1970s. It almost seems as though Sears really never cared about its customers. I hide under the covers when I wear my Craftsman pajamas.
This is very sad but not unexpected. Another long-time American company shredded to dust by Wall Street speculators.
KMarts are going down all over with the help of Walmarts being built within 2 miles of same location.
Craftsman and Kenmore were the reason people WENT to SearsâŠwere they still made in the U.S.? Ask Trump to save them somehowâŠlike he did only 800 out of thousands of jobs in Indiana.
I would believe that the above comment on the CEO is accurate as it seems to be the America of today.Is anyone else irritated by these email replies?
Thatâs a sad but true story as well. Kenmore brand products have been made by LG and Whirlpool for years as well.
Sears used to stand behind all their products and parts. I hadnât realized that it had been unravelling since the 1960âs.
Same story with large and small appliances. Hard to believe i bought a bedroom set from Sears in 1970....Deerpath
Maple furniture made in North Carolina. Like most ancient American-made products still together and functioning.
Our kids will never know what is was like to have quality durable items....like my Maytag washer that lasted 28 years!It always seemed to me that a good business organization faces its competitors and does something more for its customers than its competitors. For example, in home appliances, suppose Sears offered top notch service. I would buy Sears appliances rather than go to Lowes or H H Gregg where the service is contracted out. When service is contracted out, the needed part may have to be ordered.
Some years back we had a wonderful appliance store that sold and serviced Whirlpool appliances. I purchased a dishwasher from this store. A couple of years later, we had planned a dinner party. My wife discovered the afternoon before the dinner party that the dishwasher wasnât working. Our house had a small pullman kitchen and it was essential that the dishwasher be operable. I used my voltmeter and isolated the problem to the motor. I called my Whirlpool dealerâs service department. The serviceman arrived within an hour, determined that the motor was burned out, had a replacement motor on his truck and the dishwasher was going in 20 minutes. A week later, my parentsâ dishwasher, about the same age as mine quit working because of a defective pump. It took 2 weeks for Sears to get the machine working. They made two trips to fix the machine and the bill for the same repair was much higher than what I was charged. This was back in the early 1980s. IMHO, Sears should never have started this Brand Central campaign where they sold multiple brands. Sell Kenmore exclusively, give prompt efficient service and people like me would buy from. Sears. I needed a new belt for my dryer that was in the house when I bought it. The.dryer was a Kenmore. The belt broke and I found it also needed an idler pulley. I went to Sears and they offered to order the parts. I declined and went to an appliance parts store. They had.the part. The box said Whirlpool for the replacement parts, so Whirlpool obviously made the.dryer.
To.me, service after the sale is important. I would pay more.to purchase a Kenmore appliance if I could get good service down the road.