Craftsman now mostly made in China. Bummer.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by lippy

I work at a fairly large company (9k people) that frankly is managed far better than Sears. I'm pretty certain Sears did no such analysis and just outsourced to improve margins.

If you were a shareholder of Sears, would you want them to maintain domestic production if it meant lower profits?

[lippy]

Originally Posted by patrickt

If you were a shareholder of Sears, would you want them to maintain domestic production if it meant lower profits?

The choice is either (1) improve margin in the short term but lose customers (who knows how many) and completely eliminate your differentiation from Home Depot and Lowe's, possibly significantly damaging the brand, or (2) lower margin or raise prices in the near term to maintain the brand and differentiation. I'd choose (2). Sears stock is largely a real estate play anyway.

[patrickt]

Alright. Well, you'll like this then: Sears accused of misleading public on Craftsman line- MSN Money that came out earlier this month.

[lippy]

Originally Posted by patrickt

If you were a shareholder of Sears, would you want them to maintain domestic production if it meant lower profits?

One of the reasons we make fewer things here is that there are too many lawsuits. So I don't think Sears should be sued.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by lippy

One of the reasons we make fewer things here is that there are too many lawsuits. So I don't think Sears should be sued.

The fact that they were selling tools labeled "Made in America" that were actually made in China is a tough one to sell.... But selling is what they're good at.

[G-Pete]

Nice disscussion, good topic and even Pat hold his horses. Now I, m gona smoke a good cigar and have a Hennessey.

[patrickt]

An argument can be made that today's "Made in China" is akin to the "Made in Japan" from when many of us were kids. It really meant "this is junk." But, by the time I was a young man, Japan had cornered the market on high end electronics, cameras, and quality made, lower priced, cars. They subsequently stumbled, but that's another story....

[Rare Iron]

Originally Posted by lippy

The choice is either (1) improve margin in the short term but lose customers (who knows how many) and completely eliminate your differentiation from Home Depot and Lowe's, possibly significantly damaging the brand, or (2) lower margin or raise prices in the near term to maintain the brand and differentiation. I'd choose (2). Sears stock is largely a real estate play anyway.

Sears (& K-Mart) have a third option: Remove ALL imported goods from their stores & begin filling them with USA & Canada-made items - in EVERY department. Want to differentiate yourself from all the other stores? You have to do something radical like this - something nobody expects. Think suppliers & manufacturers would want a piece of this action? Think shoppers would want a piece of this action? You bet your a$$. Competition among suppliers would start driving the prices down before long, & voids in the products would start filling-in. I would keep returning to their stores looking for new items. Pretty soon, they'd be kicking a$$ on Target, Kohls, JC Penny, etc. Nah, this is too easy to work........

[bobcowan]

Originally Posted by Rare Iron

Sears (& K-Mart) have a third option: Remove ALL imported goods from their stores & begin filling them with USA & Canada-made items - in EVERY department. Want to differentiate yourself from all the other stores? You have to do something radical like this - something nobody expects. Think suppliers & manufacturers would want a piece of this action? Think shoppers would want a piece of this action? You bet your a$$. Competition among suppliers would start driving the prices down before long, & voids in the products would start filling-in. I would keep returning to their stores looking for new items. Pretty soon, they'd be kicking a$$ on Target, Kohls, JC Penny, etc. Nah, this is too easy to work........

Dont' count on it. Those stores do so well because people want that cheap crap. Sometimes you'll find quality American products on the shelf next to cheap knock offs. Guess which one flies off the shelf, and which one sits there?

Americans are fortunate enough to have the very best of everything available to us - food, appliances, car parts, tools, everything. The very best quality is right there for us to buy and use. Unfortunatly, there's a small market for high quality products. That's why McDonalds and the Dollar Store have been around forever.

[ACademic]

Surprised no one has mentioned our "use and throw it away" society, as well as limited use tools by most shade-tree mechanics.

That's why Harbor Freight thrives. Buy a pneumatic grinder or electric Sawzall for under $20. If you get a project or two done with it before it breaks, you're still ahead. Unless you're a pro that needs the best for your daily trade, why pay $$$ for tools that you may never wear out with occasional use?

That's Sears more recent approach and they still survive because of these facts, IMHO.

I'd love to have Snap-On in my tool boxes (few would argue that). But I'd rather save that money toward quality parts and components on my cars. The cheap(er) tools still get it done.

[Tutosnake]

Originally Posted by ACademic

Surprised no one has mentioned our "use and throw it away" society, as well as limited use tools by most shade-tree mechanics.

That's why Harbor Freight thrives. Buy a pneumatic grinder or electric Sawzall for under $20. If you get a project or two done with it before it breaks, you're still ahead. Unless you're a pro that needs the best for your daily trade, why pay $$$ for tools that you may never wear out with occasional use?

That's Sears more recent approach and they still survive because of these facts, IMHO.

I'd love to have Snap-On in my tool boxes (few would argue that). But I'd rather save that money toward quality parts and components on my cars. The cheap(er) tools still get it done.

Agree with you!