Folowing the herd leads nowhere. If they want to produce shiney chinese tools for the guy who turns a wrench once a year.....they will be like everybody else. You need someone at the helm who understands the consumer. I knew "evolve" would be a poor seller. People want their USA made craftsman stuff. Just by holding on to USA production, they have become unique. Brand differentiation is the buzz right now in the big retail store tool market. Sears has that. Now they are moving in the direction that all others have. Why produce the same **** that I can get at Lowes or HF? Sears may have a week market with the Craftsman line, or at least are trying to grow it. I think some of what we are seeing with Craftsman is partly an attempt to bring in new customers. But mosty it is cheepening of the brand to boost the bottom line. Will get the woman who runs it a raise and she will be higher up when things crash. It is brand suicide to start bringing in imports to the main line of tools! Long time buyers like me are now staying away for fear of what kind of **** tools will be support should they break. New buyers who they are targeting could care less about COO and will have Zero brand loyalty. They will do well for a while as the two paths overlp. Great brand reputation and loyal base. But when it becomes the same junk sold everywhere else the thoughful buyers who care about quality and COO will disappear as they catch on over a few years and new buyers will just go to walmart and buy the Stanley set that is 1/3 the price.
They tried to keep it seperate and capture both markets with the Evolve line, not unlike the Companion line before that. But it is too tempting for the bean counters to slap Craftsman badges on Evolve tools. Sad, but not unexpected. Sears will squeeze the life out of the Craftsman brand, then dump it when the house of cards they are stacking falls apart. Typical Sears though, well run companies like walmart are starting to see the consumer trend and are bringing in USA made tools, Sears on the other had is late to the import party and waited so long they now have a golden goose. They are going to slaughter it and turn it into chicken nuggets.
