Here are eight things I noticed during my recent visit to the local Sears to check out their holiday tool displays:
1) Many Sears Black Friday tool deals are already in effect. Why wait for Black Friday when you can get many of the advertised deals now?
2) Some displays are mostly sold out already, while others are full.
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The Craftsman C3 multi-speed impact drivers were nearly gone, as were the Craftsman 42pc bit socket sets.
If you are very interested in a particular deal, chances are other customers are after the same deal. Don’t wait until Black Friday – buy what you want now, while the tools you want are still in stock.
3) The Mach Series T-handle driver is a lot larger than I anticipated, but the “try me” display left me optimistic about the tool.
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4) The Mach Series adjustable wrench was absolutely horrible. I spent a couple of minutes trying to get the demo sample to work properly. It worked as advertised maybe 1 out of 10 tries. The wrench was thick, clunky, and more disappointing than I ever could have imagined.
How bad? The Craftsman Mach adjustable wrench was on-par with Kobalt’s Magnum Grip self-adjusting locking pliers from last year.
5) Sears associates were incredibly annoying, more so than ever before.
At Home Depot and Lowes, there are associates at the front of the store inviting shoppers to talk to them about solar panels. At Sears, there are associates roaming the sales floor, iPads in hand, looking to bug shoppers about various things.
One associate wanted me to do something to enter to win a $1000 vacation sweepstakes.
Another associate wanted me to talk to them about a free home estimate of some kind.
Greeters at the front of the store, such as at Home Depot and now Lowes are one thing. They’re easy to escape. Having associates approach me with various unwanted offers is way beyond that.
On the bright side, it only took one polite no to deflect them towards other unsuspecting customers.
6) New Made-in-USA hammers!
There were new, or at least updated claw hammers, and a high velocity hammer that looks a lot like the Vaughan-made Stealth hammers.
Craftsman’s USA-made 16oz ball pein hammer is shown here with its new look.
7) There were fewer non-Craftsman brands out on display.
In past years’ there were huge displays of Gearwrench’s 20pc ratcheting wrench set, and sizable displays with Irwin Groovelock pliers. I was surprised to see so few Gearwrench sets on display. Then again, there were a greater number of Craftsman wrench sets and ratcheting wrenches on display than in previous years.
8) No wall of shop vacuums.
A couple of years ago, and even since then, local Sears stores put a LOT of Craftsman wet/dry vacuums out on display for the holidays. I didn’t see any such sizable display on the sales floor this year. Maybe they’re keeping the vacs in the back somewhere?
Joshua Latham
I love sears, i really do, but every time I leave my local sears store, usually empty handed, i have that feeling of “why did I even come here?”. There are usually a few bright spots, but most of the time it feels like the once great Sears is a dinosaur that is about to go extinct. Maybe if the employees didn’t seem agitated for me just being there, I might have a better experience.
Daniel Lawson
I picked up the c3 impact set the other day with my syw points and 5% for sears card I got it out the door for $99 with tax
Hang Fire
Are you sure those displays were Sold Out? They may have just been another example of Sears’ product distribution prowess. I’ve been to a local Sears several times, and I swear some of the bins have never been populated from the moment they were put out. Perhaps this will be remedied as we approach Christmas, but it looks dreadful in the mean time.
Yadda
+1
Caleb
The 42 piece master bit set is a great deal. It costs less than assembling the various pieces from HF. I bought one last year on Black Friday and I have rarely seen it in stock since. It has definitely paid for itself. The only thing that I don’t like is that the 1/4″ bits are redundant to the 3/8.”
I went last night for “Friends and Family Night” and there were a few in stock.
I went to use some free points but will likely go again. They had popcorn, soda, sandwiches, cookies, raffles, and projects for kids. It was a fun family night.
Ktash
Last time I went to our local sears there was only one guy for the whole department, but another employee had to go get him. I was looking for a hand tool that had showed online as being in stock. He was less than helpful. Next time I’ll buy it online if it’s in stock and pick it up from the pickup area. I’ll still buy some things there, but it’s a sad experience. Once the majority of our tools were Craftsman, well made and reasonably priced.
Ktash
I have to add that I’d previously been frustrated finding Sears things on their website because I got a lot of Wayfair third party hits instead but couldn’t find the sears item I knew was there.
However, I recently had good luck on the Sears site finding a bar faucet that I could not find on Amazon due to the overwhelming number of hits on Az. The Amazon search site doesn’t seem to work as well as it once did. Once I found it on Sears I checked the price on Amazon, and the Sears site hit was significantly cheaper even with shipping added in. So I will use their site again.
To give them their due. . .
Dan
That hammer is definitely a re engineered Vaughan stealth, lighter, and with out the side nail puller which was not very good on them. If I could get on to try I would but here in the UK you basically can’t get Craftsman.
Joey K
I doubt they were out of stock. Sears usually holds a lot of product till the wednesday before black fri before they stock it. My local sears (and my old place of employment) looked empty in their gift bar too and I thought the mach tools sucked also. I did like the switchable linesman and diagnol pliers though
Sean
Those stupid things they were annoying you about were just what the bosses told them to do, and they get paid if they can get you to do it. With our commission rates plummeting, we can sometimes make more getting you to sign up for a free in home estimate than we can make selling $4,000 worth of tools. It’s sad. :/