I visited the local Sears for the first since moving to the area nearly a year ago. I think I’ve been to one other Sears in recent months, a few towns over at a mall.
You’ve read about my trip to Home Depot’s 2016 holiday tool deals center, and then my visit to Lowes tool deals center. I spent a total of nearly $600 at both stores, on tools of both personal and review interest.
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So how did things go at Sears?
Almost nothing interested me, until I realized that I’d been meaning to pick up Craftsman’s version of Extech’s line splitter. The Extech version is $15.99 via Amazon, Craftsman’s is $10.99.
My visit actually started off horribly.
There was a handicap-accessible door at the entrance I parked at, which was great because I had my toddler son in my arms and infant daughter in her car seat on her stroller.
The handicap-accessible door, which lacked a button and seemed to be one of those “pull and it’ll open automatically for you” types, was LOCKED. It was locked on the way out too.
The regular door was not much trouble, but I found it mildly annoying that someone at Sears would lock the automatic door. If there was a good reason to do so, there should have been a sign. What would have happened if someone really needed that door and couldn’t open it?
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Apparently the tool department is on the bottom level of this 2-story store. I found the elevator pretty easily.
The elevator left me off at the start of the tool section.
There were some people in the store, but it was empty enough that I let my son explore a few feet from me without worrying about him being in anyone’s way. I absolutely couldn’t do this at Home Depot or Lowes.
Hey missy, what do you think about shopping for tools?
Overall, there were lots of tools of general interest to those growing their tool collections, but I didn’t really see anything for me.
There were less tools than in the past, less brands too.
I think that everything I saw was from Craftsman, Dewalt, Gearwrench, Gladiator, and Irwin.
Speaking of Gladiator, I saw this Gladiator Premier wall Gearbox in white:
I inquired about how many they had in stock – 0 – and they were showing up at the full price of $250. But the sales associate said she could honor the price for up to 1 week, and it wouldn’t be a problem if I wanted to order multiple units.
These cabinets are double the price at Amazon and everywhere else.
One problem: the order would have to be in-store with in-store pickup. I’m thinking of getting 4. Maybe 1 or 2 for my office, the rest for the garage.
I also saw the new Craftsman Professional ball bearing tool boxes, with their smartphone-controllable locks.
I wasn’t very impressed at first, but couldn’t make up my mind based on a floor sample. It’s the kind of thing I would need to use for a few days or weeks to see if I liked it.
The construction seemed to be solid, but the drawers lacked the soft self-closing feature I’ve been growing used to. They do have very high load capacity though.
The combos were also HUGE. Maybe too tall. I asked an associate if there was a trick to closing the lid without jumping. He kind of lunged up and forward to grab the lid.
The Craftsman Pro box combo is so tall that the top compartment floor was nearly eye-level. How am I supposed to plug anything into the built-in power strip? Retrieve anything from the back? Close the lid?
The sales associate said that all high-end tool storage products were tall like this.
The lid had spring-assisted stays that made closing it a little more difficult.
The top drawer was quite tall too.
It was quite discouraging. I couldn’t effectively use a tool storage tower this tall.
This image was taken to simulate eye level.
Milwaukee’s 30-inch tool storage combo, reviewed here, is quite tall. But not this tall.
To reach the back of the top compartment, I have to arch my arm up and over the front, uncomfortably.
Making things matter worse, the top compartment is very shallow. That’s not bad in itself, but it means the lid is not contoured or angled, which as been the trend. Combined with the very tall height, I just can’t reach the lid easily.
I asked about how the top and bottom attach, since the associate seemed to have been involved in setting them up a few days ago. He told me he didn’t know, but there were bolts in the bottom cabinet. Maybe a drawer in the chest came out and the 2 bolted together?
Both display combos, the 26″ and 41″ units, were askew, with the chests misaligned with the bottom cabinets they were resting on. I didn’t see any brackets on the sides or front, and the rears were inaccessible.
The more I examined the Craftsman Pro tool storage boxes, the more I felt my enthusiasm being sapped away.
On a bright note, the sales associate, who might have been a department manager – I wasn’t sure and he was later too occupied for me to ask – had a lot of enthusiasm for the Craftsman Pro cabinet. I didn’t get the feeling like he was out for the commissionable sale, but that he was truly excited about the new tool boxes.
He also had a good idea, suggesting that maybe the top box should have come with a worklight of some kind.
I also saw the Harley Davidson tool storage combo, and it seemed incredibly thin and flimsy. Was it this bad a few years ago when I first checked it out at a Craftsman holiday tool preview?
Overall, I saw a lot of the same deals I saw last year, with maybe a few new Craftsman tools mixed in. While there were some good deals in there, I felt the overall variety to be lacking compared to the offerings at Home Depot and even Lowes.
If I go back to Sears this holiday season, it’ll be to score a couple of those Gladiator work cabinets.
On the way out, the handicap-accessible door was still locked.
Chi
You guys are lucky. It is time to purchase discounted tools for upcoming Christmas.
I live in a seaside city near Hong Kong in the Far East Asia. I haven’t seen any big discounts for the brands Stuart mentioned here. Makita and Bosch are popular because of service centers available here while Milwaukee and Dewalt service centers are located in Hong Kong. If a power tool is out of service, it would take at least two weeks for repair.
Derek
I saw Home Depot had some Husky ratcheting wrenches that look just like the Gearwrench and Craftsman ones. Same packaging and artwork on the label.
julian
When in the last 10 years has going into the Sears tool dept NOT been depressing? About the only reason I’d ever set foot in one now is occasionally they have some good (pink tag) clearance deals, but that’s about it.
There is literally no defining reason to buy powertools at Sears whatsoever. Any possible cost/value proposition their Craftsman cordless tools may have had in the long ago past has been more than superseded by Home Depot’s Ryobi positioning as truly one of the best bangs for the buck in cordless.
I don’t own either, stick with the pro level brands myself, but Sears tool dept. is near dead to me now, whereas 20-30 years ago it was a pleasure to cruise through their aisles.
Tim
Didn’t even need to read the article (though I did) the title photo says enough about Sears/Craftsman’s impending doom.
Mr. Creek
It’s sad to see Sears about to die, when I was a kid my dad would take me there and sales associates would be knowledgeable. Now that I’m a dad, I took my son to Sears and every one of their sales associates are just kids. It would be cool if an American icon such as Sears could circle around and become awesome again. But I just see them circling the drain.
Toolfreak
It’s been written about plenty, Sears could make a comeback by returning to “Made in USA” products, the tools, the housewares, the clothing.
However, Eddie Lampert is more interested in making money selling off Sears’ real estate, their name brands, and their customer data than he is in making money the old fashioned way, having a store and selling products at a reasonable price to make a decent profit and stay in business.
Tim
Made in America will not cause me to drive over to Sears to buy their tools.
I know very few people that this would affect.
COO is insignificant to the kinds of tool buyers who shop at Sears now. Look at Mikwaukee/TTI.
Their sales are booming and they become stronger every year.
Sears/Craftsman shot themselves in the foot by not continuing to offer premiumish tools at a consumer level price.
I can go to lowes or HD and buy made in china wrenches and sockets and powertools often at a better price for a better tool.
Coach James
Sears began losing market share in the early 1970’s when they did offer Made in USA tools, clothes etc. Eddie Lampert is a favorite target for Sears critics, but Sears was in deep trouble long before he came on board. If it was not for his ability to infuse cash into Sears, the company would have run out of money three years ago.
Sears was a favorite of the WWII generation. As that generation went from raising families to being middle age, empty nesters in the 70’s, they began spending less and less on items that were Sears hallmarks. That, along with the growth of the big box specialty stores took market share away from Sears and put it on the path where it is today.
Brian Auerbach
No way IMO. Even if they tried to go compete with Snap-On/Mac (are they even american anymore? not entirely I dont think). Ignoring their massive brand deficit, their overhead is way too high to sustain on this.
And the simple fact is, saying a tool is American made doesnt mean anything. No evidence that American = quality. Though it does seem to = expensive.
Plenty of extremely precise products made in China meanwhile. They will build you the finest product the world has ever seen if you pay a few extra pennies. The quality of tools are exactly what the designers demand them to be, no more, no less.
Sears should have been what HD is, or hey, they could have atleast responded and held the position of Lowes… But they stuck to the mall channel and ignored building materials, that will be their undoing.
Lynyrd
Not entirely true. Steel/Metal quality is a big difference. Most Made in Taiwan mechanics tools are better than Made in China as an example. Even Harbor Freight’s “Pro” line is made mostly in Taiwan.
Keep in mind that buyers of Mechanics and Industrial Tools are very different than Carpenters and Building Contractors. It has been a long time since Power Tools have been Made in the USA so they are more conditioned to accept.
MEP and Automotive Trades people have a much different level of wanting Made in USA tools. It’s one thing to have a few specialty tools Made in Asia with a SnapOn/Matco/Mac label, but Sockets, Wrenches, Pliers and so on are a different story.
Sure, there are those who talk up Harbor Freight, Kobalt, and so on but industry surveys show this has more to do with economic factors and people wanting justification for their buying decisions.
fred
Maybe like their one-time arch rival competitor (Montgomery Ward) – the only thing left of any value after they sell off the Craftsman Brand – will be the Sears name. It would be kind of ironic if – like Montgomery Ward they sell off the name to a new catalog-sales company. We will have then come full circle from Mr. Sears’ catalog.
Toolfreak
the Pro tool boxes might be tall so they look like the “Pro” boxes of the tool truck brands that are freakin’ huge – like the Milwaukee/DeWalt/Porter-Cable boxes as well. I have the older Craftsman Griplatch box that is also fairly tall, but it’s not as tall as the Pro version is. I’ve tried it out in-store too and it’s just dumb having something that high where you can’t see what’s on the top shelf unless you’re 7 feet tall. I guess tall people need tool boxes, too.
The door thing is a safety issue. Most states have laws that require businesses to keep ALL of the entrance/exit doors open during regular business hours, for emergency evacuation purposes, plus you of course want to make it easy for customers to get into your store, whether they are in a wheelchair/scooter, or have a stroller/carrier and multiple kids in tow. From what I have seen, some Sears stores are keeping certain doors at some entrances locked, as a loss prevention measure. The idea seems to be that when loss prevention runs after a shoplifter, the shoplifter might slam into the locked door, instead of speeding through if all doors were opened. I guess it says something when a store is employing such tactics and thwarting the escape of shoplifters takes priority over ease of customer access.
Stuart
The Milwaukee, Dewalt Porter Cable, and Husky tool boxes are tall, but not unmanageable. I can easily access anything in the top compartments.
There were 2 sets of doors that opened just fine. But I had my daughter in a stroller and son in my arms. The handicap access door would have required a manual pull for assisted opening. But pulling the handle did nothing. Even if the assist was broken, which I’ve encountered before, the door remained perfectly shut, meaning it had to have been locked.
Pete
How tall are you?
Albert
Sears had done the black friday deal of $99 30″ Gladiator cabinets in the past . Any indication of the same deal this year?
Logan
It’s eye level?
How tall are you, dude? That’d help to tell us where eye level is.
Stuart
Whoops, sorry! ~5′ 9″
RC WARD
Sears is going bankrupt for a reason. I think you saw first hand the main reason.
ktash
I acquired an old Craftsman compound miter saw. I was happy about it because those old tools were usually good quality. Unfortunately the motor brushes have been discontinued by sears parts direct. I’ve never refurbished old tools, so not sure what to do next. There’s a pretty good hardware store in town, so I’ll go ask them. I don’t expect to get any help from Sears. Such a shame.
Pete
You can buy brushes on amazon for $3-6 if you know the size needed. Probably doubt you’ll need to replace them unless it was use heavily.
ktash
Thank you, Pete.
Lynyrd
Hey Stuart,
What Sears store was this? City/State?
Thanks
Matt
You will really enjoy those Gladiator cabs in Alpine White. I have 3 lined up in my 2nd garage. I actually like the smooth finish doors as opposed to the treadplate doors on the traditional Granite color. With SYWR points I was able to get them down to $110 a piece. I should have waited another month to get the price down to $99 as advertised. Oh well….
Keith Whitmore
After reading the article, I know what you mean. I use to be Sears Craftsman tool buyer. I spent a lot of money in their stores on tools. Now, I avoid it like the plague! Every time I go to a mall I’m surprised that the Sears store is still open. If I go into the local one it’s like a ghost town, there’s hardly anyone in it. It’s a wonder that the death bell hasn’t rung yet.
Rick Owen
My local Sears is so deserted of customers AND sales associates that is no wonder they lock the doors. One evening I spent a couple of hours in the tool department while my wife was elsewhere in the mall. A sales associate quickly stopped by to offer help then went his way when I said”just looking”. For the majority of the time afterwards it was just me and the tools. For my 2 cents worth on Craftsmanship troubles. They are too expensive (except for specific sales) for those whose cost is priority and not made well enough for those who need the quality. While I wished they were USA made, Brian Auerbach is right. China will make to the specs provided. There seems to be nobody making things that are advanced DIYer entry level pro. I would think that Craftsman should target that but right now they don’t seem to even have a target.
fred
The world continues to change. When I visited my first Sears store with my Dad in the 1950’s – if you were a DIY or even a semi-pro handyman – your tool buying choices were limited. The local hardware store stocked only the best-selling items – but their sales folks seemed knowledgeable and were happy to get out a catalog and special order something for you – probably at list price. The Sears store had a bigger tool department and you could find different and many middle-quality tools. Some bearing the “Craftsman Commercial” label were actually closer to high-end. The small – local or regional home centers arrived in the 1960’s – but they tended to sell lower end tools. This was a period when Stanley and others started selling cheap hand planes, crummy hand saws and their “Handyman” line of hand tools. Black & Decker was still making pro-grade power tools – but the orange-plastic-cased ones that showed up in the home centers were what ruined their brand name. If you wanted a Porter Cable, Skil or Milwaukee professional tool – you had to find an industrial distributor that would sell to individuals. Then came Home Depot and the market started changing – at first slowly but then taking off – pushing most of the small hardware stores out of business – and showing up Sears – who was still only selling house-brand Craftsman tools. Sears struggled to compete, changed suppliers started going offshore like most others for their OEM’s. In an odd twist – Sears threw off Emerson – who had supplied many of their stationary tools – only to have Home Depot pick Emerson (and their Ridgid brand name) up. Maybe the final straw for Sears has been the Internet – with Amazon and so many other retailers competing.
Michael
In the late 70s into the 80s, the Sears store in the mall close by had salesmen in the tool department treated customers like friends. I could tell them what I wanted and they would call me when it went on an unadvertised 1 or 2 day sale. There were two lines of tools. There was a homeowner /diy line. Then there was a tradesmen /pro line.
The yeti
I live north of the border. Out sears r nearly ghost towns . They occupy huge chunks of retail . I wonder what will happen when they collapse . Target was similar but I think sears is a lot bigger here than target was when they folded up
Anton
I would be curious to know how much their lax warranty policy affects their sales. I’ve heard of guys that grab old rusty C-man tools from garage sales and swap meets just to trade them out and resell them. How much inventory flow could that be at this point with 50 years plus worth of tools out in the wild. Anything over %10 percent would have to really be cutting into their bottom line. Especially since the newly exchanged tools can also come back sooner because of quality issues.
goodnightjohnboy
Yeah it really stinks to see the most reputable and well known tool company in America (other than Stanley, before SBD) go down like this. I guess that’s what happens when you farm out production to companies that make sub-par tools. My craftsman table saw was made in 1941 & still rips through anything you throw at it like it was made yesterday. My ⅜ drill ain’t skipped a beat as well. All my wrenches etc are all pre 1980’s. All made in the good ol’ USofA. I bought a shopvac 4, 5years ago, it crapped out 2 summers ago. Goes to show how well the Chinese make tools and how much craftsman really appreciates the American consumers who built & made them who they were.
Matt
Sears, my once favorite store.. Craftsman, my once favorite tool brand.. For years/decades I was at Sears picking up something monthly if not weekly. I loved that warm and fuzzy feeling of going into Sears and seeing USA and buying American tools. 90% of my hand tools, jacks etc are USA Craftsman, the rest SK. I flat out refuse to buy Craftsman hand tools now since they went to China. And the Craftsman Industrial line isn’t carried in their stores so there goes that. They’ve really tarnished their legacy and ruined their most valuable asset. Power tools are different at least right now. It’s nearly impossible to find USA made power tools. Though I respect DeWalt for seemingly trying to reverse that some. They may earn my future battery tool business because of it. Most of my power tools have been Bosch so I really don’t have much reason to visit Sears these days aside from the yearly nostalgia trip I make. I’ll walk through and remember what was. My one Craftsman power tool I still have from years ago is a Sears/Craftsman Industrial corded drill. USA made too!
Well today my old Makita circular saw died. It’s near Christmas so I decided to visit Sears and see if by Chance they still made their Industrial power tool line and carried them in store. I hadn’t realized they had changed their power tool name from Industrial to Craftsman Professional until I saw one of the red drills on display. I was aware of the hand tool name change (and now dropped and changed again) but not the power tools. Anyhow, No Professional circular saws available. The sales clerk (the only one who knew anything) said Professional power tools have been discontinued now too. So they had a new Craftsman Magnesium saw. They had a DeWalt circular saw right next to it. Both were $119. The first thing I noticed was the gimmicky laser but no big deal, I won’t turn it on. The DeWalt had a nice long and soft rubber power cord like my Makita. The Craftsman had a short 6ft. cheap hard plastic cord. I hated it. The Magnesium shoe plate looked a little cheap for some reason but I didn’t care for the aluminum one on the DeWalt either . The DeWalt came with a carrying case, Craftsman had nothing. The DeWalt also had an electric brake, the Craftsman lacked this as well. Nor did the Craftsman have an on board wrench for blade changes. So why was it the same price I wondered?
Long story short, I bought the Craftsman and will put my old Makita power cord on it to make it liveable. I also bought a Craftsman carrying bag. I’ll be honest, the Only reason I bought it was this, I rarely use a corded circular saw and I have a feeling our Sears is closing. Harbor Freight is opening literally across the street. So it was pure nostalgia for me to buy from my beloved Sears one last time. I literally spent 30 bucks more on the Craftsman with bag with far less options and a horrible power cord over the DeWalt. I wonder how many others would have done that though. My reasoning wasn’t rational, just emotional for old time sake. If Sears was gone I honestly would have gone to Menards and bought the Bosch circular saw they have for 100 bucks right now. But like I said, I don’t use it much so. I did look at their jigsaw with the barrel option but the switch on the side was to hard to push when using it in barrel mode without the top handle. Had the switch worked smooth, I honestly would have bought it. I have a Bosch jigsaw but not a barrel saw. For 60 bucks, the Craftsman would have been a deal, plus it had a decent power cord too.
I did purchase another saw on a whim. It was a plain Craftsman 10 inch mitre saw. Not a slider. It was $111 and I was shocked at how well built and sturdy it was. It had a solid base with the angle readings casted right in! The mitre angle tab in the back was a steel plate Riveted on! Who the heck made this for them?? This was old school Craftsman build quality at an old school price! This was the Craftsman I loved. I don’t have a plain chop saw so that’s how I’ll use it. Here’s the kicker, it was the only one left. The new replacements were also there and were Horrible in quality by comparison. Stickers for mitre angles front and back (some were crooked), flimsy feeling and sloppy. You’re better off with a cheap Menards unit.
The rest of the tool department was lackluster. No American tools (which Menards oddly also now offers), not much on display for tools, just a bunch of cheapie Craftsman/DeWalt holiday junk on display. Nothing of high quality from either tool brand. I mentioned the one salesman who knew anything. This was the type of guy I remembered from the old days. A true tool guy… Genuine integrity and knew what he was talking about. Even being straight up honest about the Chinese stuff that even he seemed disappointed in. The other two younger kids in there were clueless and unprofessional. Saggy pants, dreadlocks and clueless as to what they were selling. The rest of the store was empty. They also had no electronics on display. No tv’s anywhere?.. Just bed mattreses front and center. I’m happy I supported what I once held so dear once more but a little part of me died having to experience the negatives of what has become of it.
We still have our old quality built Kenmore’s at home, I still have a garage full of USA Craftsman stuff, tools, mowers, garden stuff, weatherbeater paint etc.. And I still have DieHard batteries from their auto center in our cars. But the new Kenmore stuff is awful, the Craftsman stuff we discuss here has gone down the drain and the Platinum Die Hard line I learned today is also extinct. If Sears is still here next Christmas, I’ll go back in and visit. If things have turned around, I’ll spend money there again. If not, I guess it’s time to let go.
Tony
Although I don’t go to Sears anymore, I do see a lot of Craftsman tools sold in a local Ace Hardware store. (Sears entered into an agreement with Ace Hardware 6 years ago). Wanting to understand what happened to Sears over the years, I started making a few custom stock charts in order to get a picture of what Sears has been up against.
(1) First, I created a stock chart by adding in a few of Sears’ competitors and graphed their stock prices over the past 8 years. I included: Home Depot, Lowe’s, Macy’s, and Kohl’s along with Sears Holdings itself. Notice the spread.
http://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?s=HD&compare=KSS,LOW,M,SHLD&a=487094999&listNum=17&id=p83292562510
(2) As a separate chart, I then added in another competitor to Sears (Amazon.com) within the same 8-year time period. Notice the difference in the spread now.
http://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?s=HD&compare=AMZN,KSS,LOW,M,SHLD&a=487096042&listNum=17&id=p72572578987
(3) Finally, I created a third chart that simply increases the time period by 2 more years in order to get a picture of the last decade:
http://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?s=HD&compare=AMZN,KSS,LOW,M,SHLD&a=487096520&listNum=17&id=p61708294652
I think I see a pattern. With customers making an increasing number of online purchases, it’s been real challenging for brick-and-mortar stores to compete against the likes of Amazon (now formally called: the “Amazon Effect”). However, a few companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s have managed to figure it out and remain successful. Also, I’m going to hazard a guess that the merger of 2 failing companies (Kmart + Sears = “Sears Holdings”) into one new, bigger failing company (“Sears Holdings”) probably didn’t help either.
Note: Stock prices in the charts are adjusted for stock splits, dividends, and distributions.