Our friends at Acme Tools took top honors in Newsweek’s best online shop rankings for 2024.
Newsweek partnered with a global data research firm to evaluate online retailers on different criteria that are important to shoppers, such as “user friendliness, security measures, and the likelihood of making a purchase.”
I placed another order at Acme Tools today – a couple of jumbo-sized Milwaukee Inkzall markers and 2 Packout drawer tool boxes. They’ve done a lot right to earn my business as a tool user, and it’s good to know I’m not alone in my affinity for the retailer.
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In the past couple of years, I’ve purchased all kinds of tools and equipment from Acme Tools. Not every transaction has been perfect, but their customer service has been great.
I didn’t recognize all of the retailers on Newsweek’s list, with some of their picks being specialty suppliers.
Here are how some other familiar tool retailers ranked:
1) Acme Tools
2) Ace Hardware
4) Harbor Freight
5) Tool Barn
6) Toolup
8) Leatherman
9) Maxtool
11) Ohio Power Tool
12) Kreg Tool
13) Worx
14) Snow Joe
16) Tyler Tool
17) Garrett Wade
Newsweek says that 6,000 shoppers were surveyed, and they gave awards to 1,000 shops.
Here’s a summary of the methodology that was published at the bottom of Newsweek’s rankings:
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More than 9,500 USA online shops were compiled according to a proprietary research database, online databases, online directories, and price comparison websites to “identify the most relevant online shops.”
Then, the ones with “the most American visitors and highest American revenue in 2022 were selected as candidates.”
Certain online shops were excluded to “allow a better comparison between the remaining candidates.”
The remaining shops were screened according to “36 objective criteria” and “10 subjective criteria on 8 dimensions.”
After “passing several tests based on 46 objective and subjective criteria,” 1,000 online shops were recognized in 39 categories.
Then, “an online panel survey of more than 6,000 American online shoppers was conducted to assess the appearance of the online shops in 10 subjective criteria” with weighting according to what the survey takers communicated was most important to them.
Sub-scores for each dimension was calculated out of a score of 10, and “the top 1,000 online shops with the highest scores were then awarded.”
There were a total of 18 online retailers in the DIY, Tools, and Supplies category.
Target, Big Lots, Kohls, Macy’s, and Amazon are on the list. But not Home Depot?
There are 18 DIY and Tool online retailers ranked, but 39 in the car, motorcycle, and boats category, and 97 in single-brand fashion.
There are 10 watch retailers, including one whose website I can’t access to do “attackers might be trying to steal your information” browser warnings.
One of Newsweek’s “top health products” winning websites resulted in pop-ups and malware warnings.
Lowe’s is on the list, at number 9 for household appliances.
The US Post Office ranked number 5 in “hobby, leisure items,” along with a bunch of vaping shops.
The listings are a bit odd.
But, Acme Tools is pretty awesome. I can’t say whether they deserve to be at the top, but I can say that they’ve been the best choice for an increasing number of my own tool purchases.
SlowEng
I wonder if this list/article was AI generated given the weird issues you pointed out on the list.
Jared
The list certainly doesn’t seem very credible. That’s not a criticism of Acme doing well, but how seriously can you take it in light of the obvious flaws and mysterious metrics?
It makes me wonder how it came about. Like did Newsweek generate this independently in an attempt to produce meaningful news (and just did a bad job), or was there some background motivation – perhaps companies paid to enter?
When they excluded certain online shops to “allow a better comparison between the remaining candidates” – was that because some businesses cast a much bigger shadow? Perhaps Home Depot was left out because it’s so much larger and influential than Acme. Who knows?
Stuart
I wondered the same, but the criteria suggests that some non-zero amount of human scoring entered the mix.
Newsweek is also advertising “licensing options” for award winners to use the official award logo, with package options to “help you boost your marketing, HR, and communication strategy.”
James
That last paragraph is so very sad.
eddie sky
Agreed. I mean, where is Woodcraft? Or Rockler? KCTool? Even Zoro has some deals.
S
Such a very weird award. The qualifications make less sense the further I read into them.
My gut says this award isn’t at all about the award, but the financial prospect of selling the branding associated with such a made up award, and nominee’s were selected based on their likelihood of paying for such a product.
Ace hardware is an odd one at #2. Their big sellers are hardware, mostly paint. Every ace near me has an extremely limited tool selection compared to the size of their houseware, hardware, lawn, and paint sections.
Tyler tool is also extremely odd, as CPO bought them out, which means they’re soon to not exist. CPO would have been a better company to place in the rankings given the very public acquisition news.
And Garett Wade appears to be more of a boutique wood working/housewares place.
they sell tools, but hardly compete with anyone else on the list on any products category.
Jamie Lee Davis
I built out my FLEX system at Acme…. Love em both.