i'm impressed with walmart's tool selection!

[dnschmidt]

OK, time for my best Wal-Mart story. *** crack and morbidly obese women with tattoos are far too common to include in this one. It's a Sunday morning after church. I stop into a local Wal-Mart to pick up some Blue Bell Ice Cream since WM has the best price on this national treasure. A couple of minutes later a SWAT team arrives in an armored vehicle at the Wal-Mart (19th Avenue and Bell Road) here in Phoenix with M16's drawn and invades the place. I decide to get the hell out of there. An announcement comes over the loudspeakers telling all customers to bring their selections to the checkout lines as the store will soon be closing. When Police are walking around with M16's I'm not bringing **** to a checkout line, I'm getting the hell out of the place. I don't know if my Blue Bell melted onto the floor of the place or not but as much as I like ice cream I wasn't going to get shot over some Cookies and Cream.

 

[nbpt100]

Like most of the posters I try to limit my exposure to Wal-Mart. Never saw anything like that in NH or MA where I would occasionally frequent a Wal-Mart.

The closet one changed over to a Super Walmart a few years ago and their tool and auto section actually shrank. I guess they had to make room for the food. They did add an Auto repair center so their battery selection is very good. When ever I do go for oil or some kind of auto fluid they are usually out of stock of at least one thing I want. i.e. break cleaner, gasket maker, Trans fluid......what ever.
Before the change they were pretty decent in that area.

The tools are mostly Mostly Stanley and Hyper what ever.....I like their dremel tool selection and pricing.
Like one other person said I was in a pinch and bought some Stanley metric hex bit sockets there and they have done ok. I don't use them much but it must be 15 years now. I did like their Popular Mechanics brand and have had good experiences with them but they have been retired for some time. Not sure why they killed it as they were decent Tiwain made tools at a good price.

I am not sure if the Wal-Mart Crowd will pay up for the craftsman brand mechanic tools vs. the Stanley.

 

[kctyphoon]

Is that really true ^^^^^^^. If so that's the first thing I've heard about NYC that I truly like.

Labor unions and city council will not allow Walmart to open stores in NYC (which is all 5 boroughs, not just Manhattan) Funny, cause many of the same people that complain about low paying jobs and outsourcing will also complain about unions, despite the fact the reason unions exist is to help protect against the very things they complain about. Walmart and NYC is a prime example of that. So go figure..

 

[1982fxr]

OK, time for my best Wal-Mart story. *** crack and morbidly obese women with tattoos are far too common to include in this one. It's a Sunday morning after church. I stop into a local Wal-Mart to pick up some Blue Bell Ice Cream since WM has the best price on this national treasure. A couple of minutes later a SWAT team arrives in an armored vehicle at the Wal-Mart (19th Avenue and Bell Road) here in Phoenix with M16's drawn and invades the place. I decide to get the hell out of there. An announcement comes over the loudspeakers telling all customers to bring their selections to the checkout lines as the store will soon be closing. When Police are walking around with M16's I'm not bringing **** to a checkout line, I'm getting the hell out of the place. I don't know if my Blue Bell melted onto the floor of the place or not but as much as I like ice cream I wasn't going to get shot over some Cookies and Cream.

lol I woulda done the same. Did you ever find out what the reason was?

 

[jd_1138]

OK, time for my best Wal-Mart story. *** crack and morbidly obese women with tattoos are far too common to include in this one. It's a Sunday morning after church. I stop into a local Wal-Mart to pick up some Blue Bell Ice Cream since WM has the best price on this national treasure. A couple of minutes later a SWAT team arrives in an armored vehicle at the Wal-Mart (19th Avenue and Bell Road) here in Phoenix with M16's drawn and invades the place. I decide to get the hell out of there. An announcement comes over the loudspeakers telling all customers to bring their selections to the checkout lines as the store will soon be closing. When Police are walking around with M16's I'm not bringing **** to a checkout line, I'm getting the hell out of the place. I don't know if my Blue Bell melted onto the floor of the place or not but as much as I like ice cream I wasn't going to get shot over some Cookies and Cream.

Thankfully all the Wally World women aren't ugly. Last week I stopped at WM only because the wife texted a demand for some potato salad and some buns, and WM was the most convenient place on the way home.

I stopped there and bought the stuff and in front of me in line was a beautiful late 20's woman -- blonde, blue eyes, freckles, body to die for, dressed in some extremely short shorts.

So I got some buns for dinner and saw some nice buns on that young lady.

 

[Coach James]

.....Despite what Coach thinks, if there are low-lifes in your community the FIRST place at which they shop and to where they gravitate is WM. ......

I wasn't saying weirdos don't gravitate towards WM. My point was that if WM wasn't there, the weirdos would simply go to some other store in the community. Despite what some folks seem to think, the loony tune crowd doesn't spontaneously generate at WM. WM or not, they are there in your community, waiting for the perfect moment to stuff their size 25 @$$ in to a pair of size 3 stretch pants and brawl with their boyfriend's newest baby momma in the aisle of whatever store they happen to be in.

Coach

 

[donovanl12]

If anybody here is located in Broward County in South Florida, there's a Walmart like this on Powerline Road and Atlantic Boulevard. I was genuinely shocked when I went in. They had a couple different toolboxes/generators/air compressors and two big aisles of tools. I was really surprised at all the OEM stuff and open sockets/wrenches. It's a little ways from me, but I was checking out a Northern Tool for the first time and it was near there.

 

[greg9719]

Stopped in my local one yesterday and saw the same thing the op posted. Mine had the sockets and wrenches locked up behind glass doors though. Was kind of shocked myself to see them carrying such a "nice" assortment.

 

[finn]

I'm not much of a Walmart fan, but I spent 4 months in Texas this winter and found that Walmart had the cleanest public restrooms, by far, in the entire state.

Not sure what that says about tool selection, though.

 

[thesilverone]

what a wall of ****

 

[Stevenn1]

In high school I would of liked to have this.

 

[ex-x-fire]

I wonder if the improved tool selection you guys are see has anything to do with Meijer's popping up everywhere? They always had decent tools, Tekton tools now.

 

[6PTsocket]

Having loose tools like that seems like it might have a lot of shoplifting and things out of place. Having it behind a locked case might be best for the cost, but I'm sure walmart knows what they're doing by now.

Prices and what is stocked or accessable without a key is adjusted accordingly. Shoplifting is built into the cost.

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[Wamsutta]

I'm impressed by how far this thread has gone.

 

[6PTsocket]

3 walmarts in close proximity? I'd move.....

Here in Central Jersey there are so many I'd have to go to their site to get an accurate count.Howell, Freehold, Brick, Englishtown, Old Bridge, Hamilton. In fact, practically every town has one. On the other hand, we only have HD, Lowes TS and HF and of course Sears and K mart. We have none of the Midwest based chains that appear to be well stocked and frequently mentioned here. Menards sounds like a great store.

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[6PTsocket]

First of all, Wal-Mart sells different items in different stores based on what's popular in an area and the competition in that area.

Second, see all that yellow? Imagine all that changing to red with the most respected name in general consumer tools on them. Anyone else see what SBD is thinking?

(I think they will still carve out a notch for Stanley too)

What is respected and what you can afford or are willing to spend are two different things. SBD has a whole bunch of divisions. Their Stanley hand tools are just what you said, consumer grade. They are low end for low money. They also make better for those willing to pay for it but not with the Stanley label. I had a set of company supplied Stanley sockets at work. Pure junk.

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[Ign]

Here in Central Jersey there are so many I'd have to go to their site to get an accurate count.Howell, Freehold, Brick, Englishtown, Old Bridge, Hamilton. In fact, practically every town has one. On the other hand, we only have HD, Lowes TS and HF and of course Sears and K mart. We have none of the Midwest based chains that appear to be well stocked and frequently mentioned here. Menards sounds like a great store.

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Agreed. And yeah, I'd love a Menards or Meijers. We just got a TSC a few years ago, at least that was a step in the right direction.

 

[HanShotFirst]

Thankfully all the Wally World women aren't ugly. Last week I stopped at WM only because the wife texted a demand for some potato salad and some buns, and WM was the most convenient place on the way home.

I stopped there and bought the stuff and in front of me in line was a beautiful late 20's woman -- blonde, blue eyes, freckles, body to die for, dressed in some extremely short shorts.

So I got some buns for dinner and saw some nice buns on that young lady.

Be VERY careful about which ones you bite into...
SPECIALLY if you're married!!

 

[zendriver]

I'm impressed by how far this thread has gone.

Bashing Walmart has become a great American pastime.




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[L.Cheapo]

I wasn't saying weirdos don't gravitate towards WM. My point was that if WM wasn't there, the weirdos would simply go to some other store in the community. Despite what some folks seem to think, the loony tune crowd doesn't spontaneously generate at WM. WM or not, they are there in your community, waiting for the perfect moment to stuff their size 25 @$$ in to a pair of size 3 stretch pants and brawl with their boyfriend's newest baby momma in the aisle of whatever store they happen to be in.

Coach

Not always.

As said earlier by KC, there are no WMs in NYC. I live across the bridge in NJ. They all come here for their cheap import item fix, to avoid sales tax on clothing, and to circumvent the oppressive NYC sales tax on everything else.

And to drive cluelessly at half the speed limit.

 

[redvalkyrie]

In regards to shoplifting at "lower class" Walmarts-- I did an interview a local judge and got to watch numerous cases. Shoplifting is by far the most common crime. I was a little taken aback by that fact.

This judge, who had become all to familiar with this certain inmate, told the inmate that there must be something wrong with him mentally. The judge explained that anyone shoplifting from a Walmart must be insane because Walmart has at least 150 cameras and two dozen plain clothes security guards. There is no way to shoplift at a Walmart...

 

[rmsg0040]

When I was in Buffalo, the tool section looked similar to the OP pics, should have bought the Stanley extendable ratchet, next time I will

 

[Bighead38]

Only 1 Walmart in my county and it's the worst Walmart I've ever been to. Airmont store in rocklamd county. Besides being the smallest I've ever been to the Hasidic have ruined it.

 

[kctyphoon]

Not always.

As said earlier by KC, there are no WMs in NYC. I live across the bridge in NJ. They all come here for their cheap import item fix, to avoid sales tax on clothing, and to circumvent the oppressive NYC sales tax on everything else.

And to drive cluelessly at half the speed limit.

I wouldn't go as far as to say all that. Most people born and raised in NYC avoid Jersey as much as possible. As stated, NYC is 5 boroughs. NOBODY is driving 2 hours and paying all those bridge tolls from Brooklyn, Manhattan, or the Bronx "just" so they can save a few $$ on taxes. There are plenty of Targets and everything else nearby.

As far as the driving goes, you can blame that on the fact that you cant make a left turn anywhere in NJ. But I gotta say, watching someone from jersey try an manage around NYC traffic - now THATS funny. If I put a traffic cone out in the road in nj, people need 3 flaggers and a cop before they figure out how to go around it.

 

[nbpt100]

I did not want to go there in my first post but it seems when ever WM comes up as a thread topic, people cant but help talk about the characters that you see there. I don't know why it is that way but you see all walks of life at any large discount store. I know it can be a bit of a shock to those who live in a homogeneous area. At night it may even be down right scary. I now just accept it. There was a spoof website devoted to this at one time. The people of Walmart.com or something like that.
I have never saw any criminal problems at any WM i was at. Let alone a squat team. Yikes.... I know they have problems. In my area they all have clearly posted signs letting you know you are on Camera. Even in the Parking lots. They have up front parking spaces reserved just for the local cops. God help the poor ******* that carelessly parks in it.

I have never seen sockets behind locked glass before in any hardware, auto parts or Sears store......Spray paint, yes. High priced tools , yes. Not two or three dollar sockets.

 

[Engine]

The nearby WM doesn't have what you could call a large selection of tools, but they seem to carry enough that you could get by in a pinch. Nothing very specialized, but something to get most jobs done.

I don't recall seeing any tools locked-up in a case like with the knives and guns, but in some departments they have these little clips that keep you from taking items off the display until an employee opens it. Mainly on electronics, cameras, and high-priced, easy to steal things.

Speaking of theft, I talked with a guy sometime last fall who was working with the local police dept. helping them upgrade their computer system. He said that over 2/3 of the shoplifting calls they respond to are from WM. He didn't mention if much of that is related to tools.

 

[mudflap]

I did not want to go there in my first post but it seems when ever WM comes up as a thread topic, people cant but help talk about the characters that you see there. I don't know why it is that way but you see all walks of life at any large discount store. I know it can be a bit of a shock to those who live in a homogeneous area. At night it may even be down right scary. I now just accept it. There was a spoof website devoted to this at one time. The people of Walmart.com or something like that.
I have never saw any criminal problems at any WM i was at. Let alone a squat team. Yikes.... I know they have problems. In my area they all have clearly posted signs letting you know you are on Camera. Even in the Parking lots. They have up front parking spaces reserved just for the local cops. God help the poor ******* that carelessly parks in it.

I have never seen sockets behind locked glass before in any hardware, auto parts or Sears store......Spray paint, yes. High priced tools , yes. Not two or three dollar sockets.

I have been in a few Advance auto stores that keep the Gearwrench stuff behind the counter..but their Autocraft line out in the tool isle. and one Advance near me has stopped selling Gearwrench...

 

[WittHay]

In the KMS tool store near me, The Gearwrench is in the open. and the Proto and Knipex is behind glass.

Our Canadian Tire stores in high crime areas have all the hand tools under glass. Think of the large Craftsman displays in Sears, but all under glass. If you want to buy something, a employee takes the tool or tools up to the register for you.

 

[zendriver]

Stopped in my local one yesterday and saw the same thing the op posted. Mine had the sockets and wrenches locked up behind glass doors though. Was kind of shocked myself to see them carrying such a "nice" assortment.

Maybe someone from Walmart management, walked into Harbor Freight and saw the 10 people, always lined up at each checkout, buying imported tools.

 

[nbpt100]

Maybe someone from Walmart management, walked into Harbor Freight and saw the 10 people, always lined up at each checkout, buying imported tools.

Good point! Makes lots of sense! What is the difference in quality between Pittsburgh and Stanley? I would say they are pretty close these days. Will Walmart honor the Stanley warrantee at the store or will they make you mail it somewhere and wait 2 months? IDK.

 

[mudflap]

Good point! Makes lots of sense! What is the difference in quality between Pittsburgh and Stanley? I would say they are pretty close these days. Will Walmart honor the Stanley warrantee at the store or will they make you mail it somewhere and wait 2 months? IDK.

I just bought a new 6 in 1 Stanley screwdriver ( had $7.00 left on a Sears gift card)..on the back of the package it says "do not return to store" an 800 number you can call....so you can mail it somewhere and wait 2 months....lol

 

[nbpt100]

I just bought a new 6 in 1 Stanley screwdriver ( had $7.00 left on a Sears gift card)..on the back of the package it says "do not return to store" an 800 number you can call....so you can mail it somewhere and wait 2 months....lol

I know that is Stanley's official stance. I am just wondering if Wal-Mart, Being the largest retail brick and motar in the world, would basically do it for you.

 

[Ign]

My TSC locks up only the tape measures. They said "they tend to walk off" otherwise. I thought that odd. I bought a Komelon and then spent a solid 5 minutes in front of the store trying to cut it out of the packaging LOL

 

[Local]

Sometimes they will carry Vaughn mill faces 19oz framing hammer for 10 bucks. They also carry a Vaughn hatchet for 15.

 

[FlushingDIYer]

I wouldn't go as far as to say all that. Most people born and raised in NYC avoid Jersey as much as possible. As stated, NYC is 5 boroughs. NOBODY is driving 2 hours and paying all those bridge tolls from Brooklyn, Manhattan, or the Bronx "just" so they can save a few $$ on taxes. There are plenty of Targets and everything else nearby.

As far as the driving goes, you can blame that on the fact that you cant make a left turn anywhere in NJ. But I gotta say, watching someone from jersey try an manage around NYC traffic - now THATS funny. If I put a traffic cone out in the road in nj, people need 3 flaggers and a cop before they figure out how to go around it.

Very, very true on all fronts. We've started to go into NJ with some regularity now because my brother and his kids moved out there. I certainly know some folk who love to shop there for the no tax Ikeas, malls, and the like. (And yeah, perhaps I should have done that to save a hundred on my Ikea kitchen a few years back...) But my immediate family and I have never done so. To get to the tunnels we have to traverse all of midtown Manhattan (or downtown Manhattan) or hope some semi hasn't broken down on the approach to the GWB... NY-NJ needs at least 3/4 more tunnels or bridges to make the commute human!

I suppose if you live in upper Manhattan close to the GWB or to those buses that take you into NJ specifically for shopping, sure.

Three things that make driving in NJ different from driving in NYC:
- the signage... every exit or turn has 9+ signs!!!
- no left turns or u-turns...
- and having someone else pump your gas...

And yes, I apologize for driving slower than the necessary 85mph+ on the NJ highways...

 

[EOC_Jason]

I've noticed the more rual the walmart, the more tools they have... Like one I went to out in the boonies actually sold welders, right there on the shelf!

 

[miguelvldz]

Thank you for posting this! I've really in one tools. Yeah the quality isn't great but it gets the job done. Okay I only buy it because of the green tools! #greentoolsmatter


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[Coach James]

Only 1 Walmart in my county and it's the worst Walmart I've ever been to. Airmont store in rocklamd county. Besides being the smallest I've ever been to the Hasidic have ruined it.

Now I'm curious. How have the Hasidic ruined a Wal Mart?

Coach

 

[Al Borland]

Very, very true on all fronts. We've started to go into NJ with some regularity now because my brother and his kids moved out there. I certainly know some folk who love to shop there for the no tax Ikeas, malls, and the like. (And yeah, perhaps I should have done that to save a hundred on my Ikea kitchen a few years back...) But my immediate family and I have never done so. To get to the tunnels we have to traverse all of midtown Manhattan (or downtown Manhattan) or hope some semi hasn't broken down on the approach to the GWB... NY-NJ needs at least 3/4 more tunnels or bridges to make the commute human!

I suppose if you live in upper Manhattan close to the GWB or to those buses that take you into NJ specifically for shopping, sure.

Three things that make driving in NJ different from driving in NYC:
- the signage... every exit or turn has 9+ signs!!!
- no left turns or u-turns...
- and having someone else pump your gas...

And yes, I apologize for driving slower than the necessary 85mph+ on the NJ highways...

You forgot to mention having to stop every 38 feet to throw change into the basket at a toll barrier...
Or, WHY anyone would call New Jersey "The Garden State"...
How they can put that on their license plates is beyond me.
Christie and Booker do make me laugh though.

(I'm from Newark originally. I don't go back. I don't miss it.)

 

[MikeF2316]

I'm impressed by how far this thread has gone.

Me too. Next thread: Garage Journal members respectfully discuss Snap-on vs Harbor Freight.

In the KMS tool store near me, The Gearwrench is in the open. and the Proto and Knipex is behind glass.

Our Canadian Tire stores in high crime areas have all the hand tools under glass. Think of the large Craftsman displays in Sears, but all under glass. If you want to buy something, a employee takes the tool or tools up to the register for you.

My local Canadian Tire is like that. All the loose sockets, wrenches, pliers etc. are locked behind glass. As are some of the sets. What a pain in the ***. Princess Auto has some stuff like that too. In both cases they have to walk you to a cashier, you don't even get to touch the item until you've paid for it.