^ owned by "Hardware Wholesalers Inc." - tools are stamped "HWI". Perhaps they had identity issues?
Yep, smells like beans to me.
Craftsman tools disappearing?
- Thread starter Tizzy
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Yep, smells like beans to me.
Aaron_W
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Yeah I think we are the weird ones. I will buy 5 different brands of tools to get the ones I feel are the best value for my needs at the price point, so I've got a bunch of different brands, but most are for the kind of tool that brand is closely associated with.
It seems like many people just want a brand name they recognize even if the brand has nothing to do with the product type which explains things like Black & Decker toasters.
Black & Decker was the first tool brand I noticed doing kitchen appliances and misc back in the 90s. At the time I thought maybe they were marketing towards guys, but now I think it was just the beginning.
The Luxury Japanese brands were more than just brand identity, they also allowed an increase in import quotas.
neophyte
Well-known member
Black & Decker licensed the Workmate design, from the English inventor.
Other than being a tool, it wasn’t a power tool, which was what B&D was known for manufacturing.
Supposedly, 30,000,000+ Workmates have been sold since, which would probably work out to $2 billion+ in gross sales.
As for appliances, Black & Decker were already manufacturing power tools, and probably had the knowledge base in their design headquarters, along with the manufacturing facilities to try making small kitchen appliances.
Maybe some employee started off making a mixer or some other appliance as a personal side project.
By far my favorite B&D tool was purchased in the 90’s. I had a cordless Ryobi drill, but my second cordless tool was a NiCad B&D blender. Very popular item for frozen cocktails on the course during the golf tournaments.
BTL-A4
Well-known member
I'm just enjoying the mental exercise!
Would you buy a SnapOn blender, camera, corn chips, or wheelbarrow? Where does label slap end? I've always thought the name SnapOn was odd, since not everything snaps on, as you pointed out. I guess it's become a brand synonymous with tools. But not blenders, cameras, corn chips or wheelbarrows.
I'm just enjoying the mental exercise!
Would you buy a SnapOn blender, camera, corn chips, or wheelbarrow? Where does label slap end? I've always thought the name SnapOn was odd, since not everything snaps on, as you pointed out. I guess it's become a brand synonymous with tools. But not blenders, cameras, corn chips or wheelbarrows.
Aaron_W
Well-known member
I actually bought that Black & Decker toasters, because it was Black & Decker, but more thanks to Tim Allen's stand up than thinking it would be a superior toaster.
I was moving out on my own so buying a "man's toaster" seemed like a good idea. It was a decent toaster.
I bought it in the housewares department at the hardware store I worked in, so it very well may have been there for me to buy due to the B&D supply chain with the store as mentioned earlier.
Licensing the Workmate was a good decision by somebody.
I was moving out on my own so buying a "man's toaster" seemed like a good idea. It was a decent toaster.
I bought it in the housewares department at the hardware store I worked in, so it very well may have been there for me to buy due to the B&D supply chain with the store as mentioned earlier.
Licensing the Workmate was a good decision by somebody.
finn
Well-known member
Pretty sure I saw where SBD sold the group that makes/ markets the toaster and other small appliances, along with the rights to use the Black and Decker name for use on kitchen appliances.
Just like GE no longer makes or markets GE or Hotpoint appliances, both being under Haier now, and for the last 8 years.
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Aaron_W
Well-known member
Quite possible, I bought that toaster in the early 90s. I think my Dad still has it, so it was at least a decent toaster.
IRQVET
Well-known member
Still waiting on Craftsman to be (once again) made here in the U.S. before I give them another thought. Tools made in China are a dime a dozen, brand stamped on the tool doesn't mean much these days when they're coming out of the same factory . . . I look at today's Craftsman in the same lens I do Sino Tools or (enter Harbor Freight Tool Brand Name Here). . .
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You might be waiting a while, perhaps forever
Last of what we thought was the best and final try turned out to be a colossal failure.
IRQVET
Well-known member
I bet that once stabme-inthe-backendecker get close to return on investment with the craftsman name they'll start phasing it out. By the time they make their money back, the line will be dead.
They were smart to buy the name (ultimately to preventing competition from using it) and drum up all the interest with USA manufacturing to generate as much in sales as possible. They hit the nostalgia crowd with the flying V **** but snuck it in with foreign manufacturing. Now that they have abandoned the USA manufacturing promise, the next logical thing would be to shut it down once it's paid for. Sales will continue to drop much like SK and big-red-commie-greatstar...
They were smart to buy the name (ultimately to preventing competition from using it) and drum up all the interest with USA manufacturing to generate as much in sales as possible. They hit the nostalgia crowd with the flying V **** but snuck it in with foreign manufacturing. Now that they have abandoned the USA manufacturing promise, the next logical thing would be to shut it down once it's paid for. Sales will continue to drop much like SK and big-red-commie-greatstar...
Andres26tnt
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I don't think you understand how much money craftsman generates for SBD, they have issues but nothing in the terms of shutting down a name they payed 900mil for. They are popular in Amazon(top selling brand), they also sell successfully in the primary retail partner(lowes). They have issues at ACE and Napa but those are due to not having enough floorspace or inventory. Funny you mention SK, believe it or not they are selling successfully in Amazon
. They even are introducing the long awaited flex head x frame ratchet wrenches at Sema this year. Fyi the v series line is high quality and currently on sale for excellent prices. The biggest blunders is the Texas plant closure.
Andres26tnt
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Have you been living under a rock? Jk
Complete failure, due to money(covid), bad tooling, bad machines from a non US friendly country(Belarus), not enough workforce, and not enough work experience. Give them some credit, they spent millions and hired the people. Ultimately they made some hard money wasting blunders.
I don't think you understand how much money craftsman generates for SBD, they have issues but nothing in the terms of shutting down a name they payed 900mil for. They are popular in Amazon(top selling brand), they also sell successfully in the primary retail partner(lowes). They have issues at ACE and Napa but those are due to not having enough floorspace or inventory. Funny you mention SK, believe it or not they are selling successfully in Amazon
Fyi the v series line is high quality and currently on sale for excellent prices. The biggest blunders is the Texas plant closure.
Yep, milk it for what it's worth
Andres26tnt
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I like the v line sockets, I believe they are coming from infar. Very similar to the Icon set.
They basically flush $900 million down a rat hole
four.cycle
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yeah okay... as we stand back and watch that "V" stuff fly off the shelves at Lowe's and ACE. 
If you’re referring to ZD’s comment, the Texas US made factory was a boondoggle.yeah okay... as we stand back and watch that "V" stuff fly off the shelves at Lowe's and ACE.
Is the V Line flying off the shelves?
Yeah like bud light...
Andres26tnt
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yeah okay... as we stand back and watch that "V" stuff fly off the shelves at Lowe's and ACE.
Currently they are flying offthe shelfs in Amazon. Can't find a large selection at lowes. Can't deny the sales data. People most certainly put up their blinders on this website.
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four.cycle
Well-known member
ya think?!?!!?
four.cycle
Well-known member
Seriously.... some of you guys think the largest tool manufacturer in the galaxy is stupid?
RLY?
RLY?
Well, the best thing you could do with any “boondoggle” is keeping going, yet, they pulled the plug on that factory within a couple of years
Why was that?
I’m thinking that they realize that there’s no way they can’t use “automation” to make top quality tools to sell for peanuts
Cool packaging, good for them.Currently they are flying offthe shelfs in Amazon. Can't find a large selection at lowes. Can't deny the sales data. People most certainly put up their blinders on this website.
At 30 some odd dollars at Ace Hardware, you're getting close to where a person would buy this and throw the sockets in the bin, what with all the expensive socket rails people buy.
You know what would be an interesting poll. How many people on this site don't already own a 1/2" drive metric socket set.
Need to be more specific- chrome or impact? Deep, mid or standard? Laser etched or stamped? On rails or in a blow mold case?
The one in the purty picshure shown in both posts.
I forgot to ask if the sockets were 6, 8 or 12 point or spline drive?
This is the wrong crowd to ask about something like that because a fair percentage here probably have metric sockets in 6+ configurations. Standard depth 6 point chrome metric? Probably 80%+ of GJ members.
Exactly. Probably more like 95%.
'Flying off the shelves' for a thing almost everyone bought decades ago is hard to get excited about.
Generally, that's the issue with CRAFTSMAN IS BACK!!! is that it's nearly all such mundane stuff. At least that six point ultradrive wrench set was kind of interesting.
My teenage son is putting together his tool collection. So far he doesn’t have any Craftsman he has bought new. I have a ton of them from when I was a youngster and also from my dad. My kid is far more into Icon and German tools than Craftsman. There are still people buying new tools out there, unless they’re waiting for their parents and grandparents to kick the bucket!
four.cycle
Well-known member
^ Only "mundane" to you and the rest of us here who already have five other sets of 1/2" drive metric in the drawer.
To the kid with his first car, it's the cat's meow.
To the kid with his first car, it's the cat's meow.
four.cycle
Well-known member
^ Those are going to find their way under many a Christmas tree this season. 
Andres26tnt
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Now it's the time to buy the V line, so cheap on mostly the entire tool lineup.
WTF that is an insane price. Their reversible ratcheting wrenches are only $30 too …Now it's the time to buy the V line, so cheap on mostly the entire tool lineup.
Andres26tnt
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Yep bought two sets just under 116$ one for me and one for brother. The regular wrench set was sold out. Will probably get the 1/4 set it's also 39$. The sale is indefinite for the year, so no end date for the rest of the year. Stanley is either liquidating or stroking the flame to Generate hype and sales of the v line. Feels like they liquidating to focus just on the regular line, that line has received a lot of updates of late.