COO vs. Local retailer

[BRIANBB]

This is an interesting question. Here's my take.

A few years ago I considered Craftsman as acceptable quality, reasonably priced USA made tools. Sure they weren't Snap-On, but neither were they Harbor Freight. So here's the problem. In the years since, Craftsman quality has gone down, HF quality has gone up. Relative price has stayed pretty much stationary, now the "good" HF stuff is made in Tiawan, and Craftsman is made in the USA. So I can get a better tool, made in a "more prestigious" location at a better price from HF. That's my problem with Craftsman.

When it comes to supporting the USA store, remember if you order online, there's still USA jobs affected. Amazon (or whoever) is still paying someone to pack and ship, etc and so on. Maybe lower impact work than a local store owner, but an American job nonetheless.

Personally the new stuff I've seen from Craftsman is about the lowest quality of any name-brand tools out there, so even if I would ignore COO I'd probably go KOBALT or Pittsburgh Pro.

As it is, I've mostly gone with used Snap-On.

You do know that almost all of the current line of Craftsman tools are made in China and not USA right?

 

[MackMan]

You do know that almost all of the current line of Craftsman tools are made in China and not USA right?

Wow, quite a typo... yes, I knew that, and that was the whole point of my post.. I refuse to pay a premium price for an inferior product made in China versus HF Pittsburgh Pro line made in Taiwan. but somehow I mistyped... fixed now.

Now if Craftsman offered a higher quality product than the alternatives that might be a different story, but as it stands of the hand-tools I have looked at recently they are pretty much at the bottom end quality wise of anything with a name brand on it.

 

[Gregg33]

It's not just corporate greed but consumer greed to be blamed as well.

There are a lot of reasons for the decline in U.S. and Canadian manufacturing, free trade, unions, gov't regulations, high taxes, less privately held companies, corporate greed etc. but at the end of the day it all comes down to the consumer. If no1 would buy offshore (read Chinese) goods, companies would still make the goods here. It's as simple as that.

I worked in retail for almost a decade, only a very small % of customers placed an emphasis on domestic made goods. I'd guesstimate that less than 10% were adamant on buying domestic made products. I'd also say that less than half of the consumers cared at all (in other words they might prefer Canadian or U.S. made goods but wouldn't go out of their way to purchase them). I'm far from a marketing expert but 10% of the buying public won't influence what a major retailer sells. Almost everybody on here wishes that wasn't the case, but it is reality sadly.