I heard it said that rabid dogs are dead, they just don't know it.
Seems to apply to Craftsman, and Sears as a whole. They still twitch and growl, but they're dead. There is nothing that will bring back the glory days of both profitability and weekly tool specials on tools that would be worth owning.
Sears was in deep sh!t before K-mart bought them. They were in trouble back in the later '70s and early '80s, when it was said that the financial arm of Sears was propping-up the rest of the company.
Face facts: Craftsman is already so tainted that the sale of the name won't bring what it could have. Sears had real problems with Die-Hard when they went cheap and put the name on Exide products. Took a year or two to bring back Johnson Controls products, because Exide is junk. Ironically--and perhaps a lesson for Sears that they've refused to learn--once they brought back Johnson Controls and returned quality to the product, Die-Hard recovered it's reputation. Kenmore products have already been shopped-around to low bidders, accounting for the spotty performance/satisfaction of Kenmore-branded stuff.
Sears clothing and housewares, shoes, purses, no-one will miss. They had pure junk for electronics twenty+ years ago. Does Sears even sell Sears-branded bedding, dressers, etc? I wouldn't know--I haven't been in the store in over a year. Haven't bought anything there in longer than that.
Sears is grossly, completely, utterly mismanaged, starting at the top and going down level after level. They were a powerhouse, now they're a waste of real estate--and that's the only thing of value left to sell.
