Things Become Extinct, But Wow ...

[doctorquant]

Sort of a companion piece to our battles re: retirement: Sears, which draws nearer to its final, fatal spiral, is raising cash by selling its Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker.

Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley in deal that could top $1 billion

I own Craftsman tools that my grandfather bought when he was a young man. Once I started driving (and therefore "needed" to occasionally work on cars), Craftsman tools made regular appearances in my Christmas-morning haul. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around Sears without Craftsman. What's next? Kenmore to Anthropologie?

 

[doctorquant]

By the way, some estimates of Sears' pension shortfall peg it at $2 billion.

 

[Ace]

Kind of amazing that a store that was about 100 years ahead of its time with catalogue sales is becoming irrelevant.

 

[dixiehack]

Outside the C-suites, and probably not even there, who has stuck around Sears long enough to be vested in a pension?

BTW, don't forget they're dragging KMart to the grave with them.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I always got tickled when my grandfather - a carpenter in Big Smith overalls - used to go to the mall to Sears to buy tools. Invariably, he'd wind up parking by the women's department and we'd have to walk past the intimates section to get to the hardware.

(I wonder what will happen to Sears Parts Direct? That's a go-to resource for a lot - if not most - handymen and small repair shops around the country.)

 

[Songbird]

Radio Shack without Tandy electronic stuffs?

 

[Twirling Time]

The Sears in my local mall is still open somehow. Ten years ago that mall was on life support.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Always liked the Craftsman guarantee that if your tool broke, you could bring it in and get a new one for free.

Brought in broken several rakes and snowshovels over the years and always got a new one.

 

[TigerVols]

Sears will continue to offer Craftsman merchandise; SB&D promise to boost R&D and quality control, so it might actually turn out better for us loyal fans.

 

[doctorquant]

I wonder what will happen to Sears Parts Direct? That's a go-to resource for a lot - if not most - handymen and small repair shops around the country.

Last spring, as part of my do-it-while-I'm-young-enough kick, I bought an old sailboat with the idea that I'd take it out for weekend overnights on the lake*. To that end, I bought a 1970 Sears outboard motor on Ebay for $100. Of course it came in a mechanical mess -- among other things the connecting rod (which connects the piston to the crankshaft) was in two pieces -- but over a month or so I nursed it back to life. I was astounded to find that Sears Parts Direct: A) still has available those "exploded" diagrams for products so friggin' old; and B) still actually stocks some parts for such things. The parts they stock are, I assume, in use on more contemporary products. Still, that they keep track of those cross-listings was amazing to me.

*Still haven't overnighted yet, but am definitely going to this spring.

 

[HanSenSE]

I always got tickled when my grandfather - a carpenter in Big Smith overalls - used to go to the mall to Sears to buy tools. Invariably, he'd wind up parking by the women's department and we'd have to walk past the intimates section to get to the hardware.

(I wonder what will happen to Sears Parts Direct? That's a go-to resource for a lot - if not most - handymen and small repair shops around the country.)

There's a NSFW joke in that first paragraph waiting to happen ...

 

[doctorquant]

SB&D promise to boost R&D and quality control, so it might actually turn out better for us loyal fans.

When I was in the toolmaking business with my father, our biggest customer manufactured Craftsman power tools (drills, routers, table saws, etc.) for Sears. Apparently Sears had the ultimate contractual responsibility for the production tooling (even though our customer designed, ordered and paid for it), because very often I'd have to stamp on the side of some die or fixture "PROPERTY OF SEARS". I wonder how much of that has changed.