In recent posts I discussed Walmart’s new “Pro Tools” store launch, and my excitement about its potential. There’s a longer story that might help explain why I’m so eager to welcome another big player in the pro and enthusiast tool market.
Shown above is a photo some of you have seen a couple of times before. It’s a pile of tools that were purchased from Sears over the span of a few years. I put the pile together for a post from back in the day when Sears was still a great place to buy tools.
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Some of my purchasing decisions are quick and easy. Others, not so much; I can be a little obsessive. (My wife would chime in here: “a little??”)
When I was growing my tool collection, I was very particular. You see, I had very many tool needs, but not all the tools too meet those needs. There were tons of projects I wanted to work on, but I had limited purchasing power. I hated buying twice. I wanted the best bang for the buck I could find, without sacrificing on functionality.
Some of my tool purchases were made to address immediate needs. Others were planned out in advance. For instance, I bought tubing clamp pliers for working on a computer water cooling build. I bought a full-polish wrench set with a birthday gift card, as an upgrade to my shorter raised panel wrenches.
At the time, Sears and Amazon were great places to 1) discover new and unfamiliar brands of tools, and 2) buy brands of tools I had seen recommended elsewhere, such as on enthusiast forums.
When I browsed Amazon, they showed me something new. Sometimes it didn’t fit my needs, other times what I found was just perfect.
When I picked up a Sears catalog, whether their Fall holiday booklet or their annual Craftsman tool catalog, I always saw something new. I bought some of those tools, which seemed to be great problem solvers, such as my duel-purpose European brand ratcheting tap handle with hex bit holder jaws.
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Amazon’s Friday home improvement deals had me checking the site late at night, or first thing in the morning. There were some truly excellent deals, my favorite being a complete Milwaukee hole saw set for $25. Amazon was trying to break into the market and gain market share, and they went to great lengths to do that.
At the same time, Sears was still a very popular place to buy tools, and knew what customers wanted.
I went to Sears during certain Craftsman Club calendar months, coupon in hand. I waited for their 40% and 50% off Gearwrench promos to pick up new tools, such as my flex-head ratcheting wrenches and swivel-head ratchets.
I bought all kinds of brands from Sears and Amazon. Schroeder. Woodpeckers. Park Tools. Bondhus. PB Swiss. Wera. Wiha. Knipex. Channellock. Jorgensen. Vaughan. Hex Pro. Gearwrench. KD Tools. Nupla. Robert Larson. Empire Level. Beta. Thor. Of course there was also Craftsman.
Shopping at physical stores took more time and effort pain. If I wanted to look at a Bosch random orbit sander, I had to go to Lowes. 1/4 sheet Bosch sander? Home Depot. Browsing and buying tools in-store required a lot of legwork. Buying online? It took some researching, but it was easy and could be done at any time of day or night, and from my computer.
I bought from some other online retailers and suppliers, but the costs were higher, especially shipping, and delivery took longer.
I browsed Sears’ in-store tool department a lot. I needed tubing clamps, and Sears had 3 different kinds, some in multiple sizes.
Sears and Amazon both exposed me to more brands, and more tools.
What’s important to mention is that a lot of these experiences were a precursor to ToolGuyd, as well as an early influence. They are a part of ToolGuyd’s foundation. To this day, I have only posted a fraction of the topics, tool discussions, and reviews that all of these purchases and purchase decision experiences have contributed to.
In the years since, Amazon become a one-stop shop for a lot of my needs. I rarely ordered from 3rd party suppliers (and still rarely do). I got what I needed, at low prices, and it showed up quickly. Buying tools at Amazon was extremely convenient.
See Also: Here’s Every Tool I Bought from Amazon in 2017
I still check back often (daily, sometimes multiple times a day), looking for deals, bargains, and price drops. My cart is still full of things I am highly likely to buy if the prices dip down low enough.
But both retailers changed. Browsing became harder. Search results more cluttered. Availability of certain tools isn’t as good, and some brands seem to be particularly poorly stocked.
I ordered something that was not currently in stock, and after 6 months Amazon cancelled my order, citing an inability to fulfill my order.
Similar products are now lumped together in listings, and even their reviews too. But a default photo might be shown, and I’ll miss what I’m looking for.
There’s a Bosch $20 off $100 promo going on right now at Amazon. Here is Amazon’s tool deals and savings page. Where is it mentioned? Can YOU find it anywhere? I couldn’t. I happened across the deal by accident because I was price-checking something that was eligible for the discount.
There used to be a “new tools” tab. Now, it’s populated with 3rd party listings, and existing products that are somehow considered new listings. Why? How? Vendors and 3rd party listings have too much control over things like this, seemingly manipulating the system.
I feel that Sears had things dialed to 10, and then something happened where they dialed things back in several large steps. They dropped to 7, 5, 2, and then 0. Sears weren’t perfect, but it was a great place to buy tools.
Amazon pushed things to 11, and things were great. They were my number one source for new tools (and other stuff too). They were intent to aggressively grow their tool business, and it was good for customers. But it seems that they turned it down at some point. Now, it’s set to whatever the algorithm tells them to. They’re already the go-to retailer for a lot of us, so why try as hard as they used to?
I cannot bring about any of the changes I am eager for, but I can be welcoming of any retailer that shows promise, and of decision-makers that seem to have agreeable and even appealing intentions and plans, both short and long-term.
I wanted to talk about all this to give some added context to why I’m excited about what Walmart is seeking to do with their Pro Tools store. I’ve been let down a lot in recent years. It’s not just Amazon and Sears. Another once-favorite supplier of mine, Enco, is now gone too.
I spend a lot of time researching tools, checking prices, answering emails, and scouring sites for potential tools to review or post about. And so, I notice nearly every little change that my most frequently visited tool retailers make to their sites. Sometimes it’s for the better. A lot of times it’s for the worst.
So when a retailer comes to me and says that they want to push into the pro tools market, and they describe what they’re doing, how, and why, and I see sincerity behind their words, it sounds good to me, and I get excited. I think about all the ways that now-lackadaisical retailers have disappointed me over the years, giving the impression that they don’t care about enthusiast customers, at least as much as they used to.
Many of you know by now that I can get overly excited about tools. When it comes to retailers disappointing me, I can shake some things off. Other thing, I cannot. Similarly, when a retailer gets me eager and hopeful about something, my expectations are raised, and I get excited.
Some of you have suggested that I should avoid letting my enthusiasm get the best of me. I would say that the passion, whether enthusiasm or disappointment, is important.
But also, I don’t know how to do that. There’s no off switch or mute button. Sometimes I can turn the volume down a little, but why? Don’t you want to know exactly how I feel?
A local contractor called me ruthless once, for what I said about Irwin parallel clamps. That’s wasn’t my intent, it’s just what happened when I had high expectations and was let down.
Sears VPs were looking to revamp the tool department and asked for feedback. Nothing came of it, and one year ago, I gave up on them completely. Before that, when private comments fell on deaf ears, I took things public. Open Letter to Craftsman and Sears – Why Ax Professional and USA-Made Tools?!
I’m open-minded and optimistic, because that’s how I’ve grown to be. I can still be critical, and often am, but I must first be fair.
Praise, on the other hand… you won’t see me praise Walmart’s new Pro Tools store just yet. Enthusiasm and eager anticipation are one thing. Praise needs to be earned. Words, promise, and potential must lead to actions. Actions must yield results.
I know that I can sound overly excited at times, and it’s because I am overly excited at times. But even though I don’t temper that part of me, I do try to be careful about what it is I’m saying. And right now, all I’m saying is that I like what I’ve been told, and am excited about the potential the new store holds for me and customers like me. They deserve a fair chance, and I’ll give them that chance, both as a customer and from a ToolGuyd context.
As a reminder to all, I don’t hold back when I’m disappointed either. For instance: 5 Ways Lowe’s and Kobalt Really Disappointed Us This Holiday Season. The passion goes both ways.
satch
Stuart, good and fair comments. Indeed, why would I bother to check in here each day if you were just mailing it in so to speak?
As I said in the last blog thread, I am more than pleased Walmart is doing this. Even if it does not come to be the place we all hope it can be. The very fact a retail GIANT managed to somewhat ‘get it’ they needed some diversification and potential new, more professional level interests is a big thing. Add in they reached out to someone close to the market side of things is a good sign. Like you, I will give them an honest chance.
Dennis
Stuart I’m glad you’re excited about Walmart’s new venture. You’re excitement and love for tools is why us like minded people with a similar excitement and love for tools come here.
And it’s always better when another competitor enters the retail landscape. Theoretically it should drive prices down and service up.
John S
I don’t possibly see how Walmart will bring service up. They have never been, are not and with track-record-confidence never going to be a service oriented company. They are a bottom dollar company, just in the highest volume.
Don’t see how any prices will come down either. You can’t sell things below cost for very long until shareholders notice. They don’t have the diversification of Amazon as a company. All the third party vendors aren’t going to sell lower either, they can’t make money.
I know Sears is now heavily in the news with bankruptcy filing, but they have been terrible for a long time, very long time. My father of 79 years shopped there for decades and he stopped going there in the 90s. Not sure why other customers just didn’t notice how crappy it went. We bought our fridge at Sears scratch and dent 15 years ago. Fridge still works perfectly but the experience was terrible. Never been back. Sears has been bleeding money since 2011, not once have they made a profit since 2011. $5.5 billion in debt over what, a crappy store where select people hang onto for bizarre legacy reasons.
So many other outlets for quality tools at quality prices, excellent customer service, timely shipping that Walmart being the curator just seems unnecessary.
You can find anything on Google search. Why is Walmart as a middleman necessary?
Wish everyone the best in this Walmart utopia. I just don’t see it.
Adam
Walmart may not them-self bring service up directly, but it may influence others to step their game up to compete.
I’ll have to look closer at the site, but I immediately saw a bunch of 3rd party vendors selling through Walmart, which I have seen for a decent # of months. It doesn’t help that if I have a problem or a return, that I would have to deal with the vendor on, which many are very good, but wouldn’t be the point of me going through Walmart. If I want a product from Zoro, I’ll order from them direct, hoping that will keep prices lower, rather than having to give a cut to Walmart. Same goes for eBay (10% for running automated computers wth, I expect a live auctioneer). Unless it is noticeably less, I will try to buy as direct as possible
Loile
Exactly, Walmart is known for bottom of the barrel prices, average or below average service, receiving massive subsidies from the government and being a monopoly.
As for prices, once again John S is correct. Eventually the shareholders will notice and I wouldn’t be surprised if lawsuits didn’t immediately happen if the prices are well below market value. Same applies to third party vendors in they have to make a profit as well. Low prices may benefit the consumer, yet in the long run there could be catastrophic results for both parties if drive prices to the point where the company loses money.
My guess is that Walmart is trying to compete with Amazon and monopolize e-eCommerce well. Of course they’ll never say it that way, yet let’s be frank here, neither Walmart nor Amazon wants a free market, they want complete control. If this were up to them, they’d gladly send one of their thousands of lobbyists to get legislation passed that would use deceptive, feel good terminology as been done time and time again with massive success.
There are multiple search engines and multiple online/brick and mortar shops to purchase tools from. Short term, some consumers potentially will benefit from alleged “lower prices” “competition” from this Walmart “Pro tools” portion of Walmart, yet long term ONLY the shareholders, CEO and the people involved in background deals will truly benefit.
Let me ask anyone this, is there a way for the average person, not someone with industry contacts, to reach a live individual to deal with ordering issues with Walmart? Based on multiple reports I’ve read over the years, that aspect of Walmart online shopping can be an absolute nightmare.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not telling anyone how to spend their money or anything of that sort. At the same time, can we all be at the bare minimum honest with the fact Walmart is not doing this to provide more competition and allow for more consumer choice online?
Wouldn’t be surprised if Walmart attempts and succeeds in buying several online businesses years from now such as Zoro Acme or other outlets to consolidate the market even more from themselves.
firefly
I share the concern that the far future doesn’t look too bright. I won’t blame Walmart for it nor I think we should. They just happen to be in the right position (having very deep pocket) to take advantage of the situation.
Personally I think the consumer are the biggest to blame and the government (our current policy) come a close second.
Now on the bright side, as a large corporation there is some advantage that would benefit everyone such as logistic. There are certain item such as workbench or supply such as a steel that can be very expensive to be ship when purchase online. Having a big guy like walmart certainly help to reduce that cost.
ktash
Stuart, you articulated the experience I’ve had with Amazon. Used to be a great place to find deals, new tools, reviews, “go with” items, but that has fallen by the wayside quite a bit.
They seem to be more interested in selling creepy (to me , anyway) Alexa technology and the “internet of things” items and now are in the Whole Foods business. It seems like they prioritized other areas.
Matthew
I really do appreciate what y’all do with this site and check it every day that I can. Between the posts, comments and forum I’ve been able to get a great deal of information over the years.
I have no issues with your excitement (I know it can be hard to convey what you were told the site will be within the confines of whatever NDA/contract you have). I even appreciate being informed about this new effort on their part. I just wish that they had put some effort into what the site is now at launch rather than promises of what it will be. Not being able to search within the pro tools site is a deal breaker. Not being able to easily navigate within the tool categories is also a major detraction. It’s there and they are beginning to try but until improvements are made I’m having to rely on your conveyance of their promises filtered through an NDA or like item (I assume). Hopefully they make tangible improvements quickly to justify this excitement and give the rest of us reason to give it a reasonable chance. I just don’t think it’s there yet.
Toolfreak
I definitely agree that Sears was a great place to get tools, from the 80’s/90’s until 2009-2011 when things went downhill, their regular sales, promos, coupons, Craftsman Club, Shop Your Way, etc. plus browsing in-store made accumulating useful, quality tools fairly easy and sometimes fun. I think things went downhill because Eddie was operating in bad faith to bankrupt and sell off the brands and real estate though, not just because of problems with how Sears sold tools.
Amazon has been an ok experience. I’ve bought a few things from them, but they actually aren’t always the lowest price or the easiest/best buying experience. Things really went downhill when they stopped price matching. What a letdown to have what you bought be way cheaper a day later and told they won’t credit you the difference – and if you buy it at the lower price and return the higher priced one you bought earlier it’ll be on a permanent customer record and they might not let you buy stuff if you keep doing that. How customer hostile is that?
Walmart certainly has the size and purchasing power to make for a decent online tool buying experience, but we shall see. I’m not really expecting much though, just the same tools I can get elsewhere online, at about the same prices.
Flotsam
My biggest beef with Amazon is unrelated items finding its way into a search. Whoever writes their search algorithm should be shot ! (jk btw)
Not always the lowest price, but I’ve even found they can beat Tirerack on tires.
Brian A
I really don’t see this Walmart pro tools thing being what maybe you expect. It’s prolly gonna be just a 3rd party junk fest listing.
I already laugh when people tell me, did you know Walmart sells XYZ, when they didn’t know there are 3rd party listings on Walmart.com like Amazon or eBay.
Marty
I understand the frustration with Amazon junk listings, but I don’t think it will take Walmart too long to begin loosely defining “pro”.
Jim Felt
The search function at Amazon is likely the best in retail. I love Zoro and KC Tool and a bunch of others but Amazon’s “reach” if you properly follow its logic is probably the widest per category in “retail”.
Zoro ain’t retail. Nor are Hilti or speciality tool dealers in most decent sized markets.
As for Bentonville’s hero Sam Walton I’m totally “wait and see”.
But, Stuart, as always I’m totally interested in reading and sensing your excitement about the field we’re here all so interesting in.
Keep at it!
As for Fast Eddie Lampert at K Mart/Sears… barf.
Jim Felt
Damn iPhone. “…interested” in…
TonyT
I’m not so impressed by Amazon’s search. Maybe it’s better than Walmart, but it’s not at all parametric. If I’m trying to find some specific computer parts (say, a small motherboard with a lot of SATA ports), I’ll find it much quicker on Newegg than Amazon (BTW, why are reviews so different between these two? Often highly rated parts on one are poorly rated on the other)
Now, given the variety of stuff Amazon sells, it’s hard to parameterize it all, but then again, look at Digikey and Mouser, which sell millions of parts in hundreds of categories, and almost everything is categorized (and as far as electronics go, they are retail – the “industrial” vendors are Arrow, Avnet, etc, which don’t have such good searching)
William Adams
Amazon should just penalize folks for making redundant listings and make a concerted effort to get listings merged together as they (mostly) do for books.
Michael
I realize that websites such as this need to make money to stay in business. However, I see that WalMart has a ToolGuyd recommendation list. When I keep seeing articles here about the Walmart program, it makes me skeptical of ToolGuyd’s endorsement.
Considering Wal-Mart’s poor track record of of customer service, I will wait before I try them out.
Stuart
There’s no endorsement – yet. There’s also no money changing hands. The only avenue for revenue is through affiliate links, which you won’t find in this post at all.
There will be an editorial published on Walmart too. I’d do the same for certain other retailers. That list was actually stemmed from the latest draft of that post.
I was a little concerned about the appearance of lines being blurred. Right now, everything is in experimental stages.
Working with Walmart and contributing on their end of things holds the potential for different opportunities for me/ToolGuyd. For one, there’s the potential for exposure to new readers who might not have heard of ToolGuyd before. There’s also the added insights for me to learn about the tool retail industry and customer behaviors.
And, if I could convince them, there could be the potential for paid freelance-type posts or content there.
Always be a little skeptical, and ALWAYS ask questions. Of me, and any other reviewer, blogger, YouTuber, or “influencer.” I’ll always tell it to you straight.
Michael
?
Jack
Coming from years in sales where in my particular industry, anything goes and ethics, morals and decency are after thoughts, I don’t blame either Toolguy’d staff or Stuart for seeking endorsements.
See I am not going to go the moralist crusade here and say Stuart or anyone associated with Toolguy’d could have made some grandiose speech on why this endorsement is important and make up a straw man excuse in defense.
Let me tell you, if you want to make it big in sales, you’ll either have to learn to lie, deny and make half truths to survive. Everything else is subjective and you facts do care about feelings. Credit where credit is due, sincere transparency is rare to see and unheard of with businesses.
Doesn’t matter who this is, there is always a agenda. Sometimes for the benefit for all and (often) with giant corporations, only for their shareholders/CEO. Never truly 100% trust anyone, as that is seen as a weakness to those that will use that as emotional/psychological manipulation. Take it from someone whose done that for a living, this may not be optimal, yet often there is no other way when your back is against the wall.
Yadda
Passion drives us to our best performance. Keep up the good work. I hope you never lose your passion for all things tools.
Redcastle
Stuart
On the topic of PB Swiss hex keys …….
Stuart
What about them?
(If you can wait, Black Friday/Cyber Monday offers the best deal of the year from Count On Tools.)
Redcastle
Stuart
Of the two things you get wildly excited about I would rather discuss PB Swiss tools than the Wal Mart website.
Stuart
I’d say they’re the last ball hex keys one would ever buy, but I love mine so much that I bought more.
They fit perfectly, they never slip, and I’ve put more torque than I should have on the ball end, with no ill effect.
These are absolutely the best hex tools I’ve ever used, and I don’t ever regret the wallet-hurting expenditure.