Let sears know how i feel about chinese tools

[Monte]

Solution: buy Channellock, Wright, Cornwell, Wilde, American Hammer, Bondhus, Cook, Chapman, Estwing, Nupla, Pratt Read, Eklind, Kastar, Mayhew, Klein, Reed etc. etc. etc.

 

[otis66]

It's the way things are. DYI'ers and casual buyers will opt for the lower price every time. Said it a dozen times, take a ride to both this weekend, compare the crowd at the Sears tool dept. (Lowes and HD too), to the one at Harbor Freight. There will be more at HF than the other three combined. THAT'S what the bean counters are looking at, and that's why Craftsman and a lot of others are going off shore.

Yeah, and if I have to buy a china tool it will not say Craftsman on it I will go someplace else to buy.

 

[otis66]

Solution: buy Channellock, Wright, Cornwell, Wilde, American Hammer, Bondhus, Cook, Chapman, Estwing, Nupla, Pratt Read, Eklind, Kastar, Mayhew, Klein, Reed etc. etc. etc.

I started buying Wright ratchets when Snap On Tools decided to remove USA from the ratchets. I only got stuck with one Snap On dual 80 because I did not relize what Snap On had done untill it was too late. If a tool is not marked USA then it is not made in the USA. I should not have to look on a web site to see were my tools are made, it should say so right on the tool.

 

[mrholeshot]

Solution: buy Channellock, Wright, Cornwell, Wilde, American Hammer, Bondhus, Cook, Chapman, Estwing, Nupla, Pratt Read, Eklind, Kastar, Mayhew, Klein, Reed etc. etc. etc.

The only three of these are avaialable Is Channellock, Estwing and Klein. All three of those are very limited as Estwing and Klein and Estwing are now only sold by Home Depot in my area.

 

[kythri]

this would depend entirely on the specifics of the contract. Normally what happens is sears places a request for a tool, gets a sample, then makes any requests/changes based on said sample after which production would begin. Physical design changes, say for example the plastic selectors on the raised panel ratchets, dont normally just "appear" without approval from someone.

Sears would know ahead of time where production would be taking place as well of course.

I'm quite sure that none of this happened without SHC's explicit approval.

When SK couldn't produce the tools contracted to them, Sears needed to find another supplier for them.

Danaher/Apex is surely that supplier, and Sears surely approved the manufacture of these products in China. They very likely could have had these produced domestically, but for whatever reason (profit margin, greed, idiocy, etc.) were fine with them being made over there.

So, roll call - what all former SK stuff is now being made in China?

We've seen:

Professional/full polish flare nut wrenches
Full polish flare nut crowfoots
Professional/full polish combination wrenches (wasn't aware that these were SK, but the timing of the production shift is very coincidental)
1/4" and 3/8" thumbwheel ratchets (these were SK as well - just saw the Chinese replacements on the shelf at my local Sears)

Anything we're missing?

 

[Fedwrench]

So, roll call - what all former SK stuff is now being made in China
Professional/full polish combination wrenches (wasn't aware that these were SK, but the timing of the production shift is very coincidental)
Anything we're missing?

SK hasn't made the Craftsman Pro combination wrenches (either long or stubby) for over 10 years.
It's not just the formally SK items that are being replaced with China made models. The Cross Force wrenches for example, were never made by SK and are now China made.

 

[Monte]

Internet !

The only three of these are avaialable Is Channellock, Estwing and Klein. All three of those are very limited as Estwing and Klein and Estwing are now only sold by Home Depot in my area.

 

[dankicksass]

Another Craftsman China tool, Edge utility cutter:

It's a utility cutter with replaceable knife blades, didn't check the COO, saw China stamped on the back after I discarded the packaging. The anvil is plastic, don't think I'd purchase this again, but it does okay for hose cutting and bush pruning. All the blades are stamped Made in USA, so at least some honest people were involved somewhere along the line in the creation of this tool.

 

[Indy_500]

I got the 10 pc spiral extractors from craftsman, i expected them to be china and they were, just hoping they're better than HF extractors. I finally bought them after going to 20 different stores looking for irwin/hansen ones

 

[jeffk14]

Somewhere in the 80's walmart exploded and pretty much the whole country started buying cheap junk for every aspect of their lives. "We" decided that foreign products were ok in all other areas too, because "we" thought we were getting more for our money. This includes tools, cars, drywall, you name it.

Now fast forward 25 years and what do we have? Struggling economy, money being drained from our country, nearly nothing but **** / poison / dangerous products available, and wages depressed greatly. Yet people act like saving $10 today is whats best for them. Instant gratification / throw away society are two of the key problems. Hmm, should I save 50% today at the cost of making 50% of what I could have on my paycheck in 10 years...hell yes.

This is not how I feel, but it is how the typical American consumer acts, and is exactly why we have what we have at sears. Price is king. Everything else just is there to differentiate between equally priced products to most people.

I'll keep buying high quality USA stuff because I'll do my part and I appreciate high quality items. I'd rather spend it once and know I can rely on it, than hope my tools don't break mid-job. It is going to take our government stepping in and imposing tarrifs and trade barriers to get this country back on track.

Its a self purpetuating cycle unless you apply rules to it. Regulate trade! Some will argue against regulation in all instances. Why? Because it hinders their ability to make huge profits today, by selling out the american worker and the future of this country to make a buck. What makes me more sick than that? The amount of American workers who are backing these yahoo's, saying regulation is socialism. Sorry folks, but unchecked capitolism is nothing but slash & burn mentality moneymaking and stepping on peoples necks to make a buck. Fine you're rich. Oh wait, our country will be third world in 25 years, but at least your kids got to drive BMW's....

^^^This Guy^^^ makes some very, very valid points. And I'm a guy who has historically been very conservative and for the most part, against gub-mint regulation of any kind.

Fact is, political leanings aside, the middle class is the glue that holds this country together and without a strong manufacturing economy to create decent paying jobs in large numbers, the middle class will continue to disappear.

 

[BerninicaCO3]

here is the reply I posted on the sears forum:

"I just purchased a toolbox, that came with some spare sockets from the previous owner.

Every one of the USA craftsman sockets was still perfect!
Every socket that was broken? Taiwanese. Facets were starting to rub, and two of them even opened up fully 1/8" (without cracking first! Now that is some very soft, very low grade steel).

Rather than insult you for moving more things to china, let me compliment you on keeping as much USA-made as you have-- home depot has nothing at all it seems, only a select few kobalt-brand wrenches are USA-made at lowes, and goodness knows nothing but the paper receipt you're handed after buying your shoddy tools at harbor freight is made in the US.
Craftsman is the last bastion for the mainstream consumer to buy quality tools. Please keep it that way

One of the mistakes that, for example, dewalt makes; is to appeal to the ego of a man with promises of testosterone. The engineering nerd in every tool user recoils at ploys of emotion. We're smart: TELL us why your tools are better! I'm reminded of Ikea's silly little booth, showing a chair being sat in thousands of times by a little hydraulic "person" to prove its durability.
Show us hardness tests, rust tests and chrome thickness gauges, durability tests, measurements of tolerance and roundness, blown-up microscope imagery of cross sections of a socket, showing how it's so much finer-grained, better-hardened, and homogeneously alloyed. Have examples of sockets of varying brands put through identical abuses, so we can SEE what happens when a harbor freight socket goes through 400ft-lbs of torque, and what doesn't happen to the USA craftsman one.
We're smart enough to understand it, and we'll respect you for it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see your giant billboard that explained toolboxes: thickness of sheet metal, rated weight for each drawer, type of coating. Home depot and lowes never did that for me: they threw $100 boxes and $1000 boxes all onto the same showroom floor and left me to wonder why one was so much and the other such a "better value" for being cheaper. The savvy consumer takes a half hour pulling drawers and making mental notes of design details, if he's educated enough to know what to look for, but he shouldn't have to. Educate us: give us a detailed billboard of very useful specifications for your sockets, ratchets, wrenches, everything, just like that board for your toolboxes. "