Craftsman now mostly made in China. Bummer.

[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!