Sears is dead to Craftsman. Customers visiting Craftsman.com will be directed to a Lowes, Ace, Farm and Fleet, etc. NOT Sears or KMart.
12 replies (most recent on top)
Stanley's Craftsman tools made in U.S.A. Sears/Kmart Craftsmand tools made in China. Stanley doesnt want to have to deal with the returns or bad reputation they would get from Sears
Why would Stanley put that on their website? Their making their money from the other retailers now.
I worked back in pmt, most crapsman tools get returned cause their junk. hardly ever saw dewalt tools get brought back.....
Apparently SBD is paying Sears "royalty fees of 2.5 to 3.5 percent for the next 15 years", and Sears doesn't have to pay SBD anything, but that will flip in 15 years (in the, yes, increasingly unlikely event that Sears still exists by then).
15 years -- that should be more than enough time for the liquidation to come all the way through, with more than enough time left over before the royalty dues kick in. Eddie knew this when he and his minions wrote the contract. If anything, the "15 years" wording in the contract is a publicity stunt, to try to drum up some faith in its investors and the public that Sears Holdings will exist at least that long. SBD accepted those terms out of mercy.
I'm not buying it and neither should anyone else. Forget all the cuts and layoffs and crazy things this comapny does, take a look at the rate of store closures to get an idea of the fact that this company is on borrowed time. Someone should make a line graph to predict the amount of months that will go by until the very last stores are closed, based on how many are left and how many they have closed, on average, per month. I don't forsee Sears Holdings stopping the store closures all of the sudden and when have they ever opened a full line store?
@1dke News at the time of the deal (Jan 2017) reported the sale allows Sears to continue selling their own Craftsman products from their own sources, with no royalties paid to SBD for 15 years.
Sears don't need no stinkin' Craftsman!!!
Wanna buy Kenmore? Sorry....you'll have to but it on Amazon!!!!
SO. MUCH. WINNING!!!!
What percent royalty was included in the Craftsman deal?
Wow, OP is right. https://www.craftsman.com/where-to-buy shows Lowe's, Ace, and an electrical supply place, for me. I still have 2 corporate Sears nearby, and one or two Hometowns within 50 miles, but none of those come up. Sears must've left a heck of a loophole in the co-branding agreement they had Stanley sign!
"but to be fair, all of today's appliances are just worthless disposable pieces of low-grade sheet metal and biodegradable plastic."
With a few rare exception, such as Speed Queen... unfortunately they only make washers/dryers.
Wow-e-wow!
Even Scotty Kilmer (the car guru) says to stay away from Craftsman for the sole reason that if the tools break, chances are there won't a Sears nearby to get a new one under warranty, and if you do have a Sears nearby, how much longer will it stick around until it closes or how much longer will it be until the entire company goes under. He says that house-brand tools from AutoZone, Lowes/Home Depot and Harbor Freight are comparable to Craftsman these days, but at a lower cost. I'm inclined to agree.
I wonder what will happen to the Kenmore brand. I think that's the only thing keeping us afloat, since you can only get Kenmore at Sears (not counting a limited selection on Amazon, we are actually cheaper to go through in a lot of cases once you factor in rewards, coupons and Sears card promotions, so we do have an advantage there) and lot of people still believe Kenmore is #1 in quality. Boy are they in for a huge disappointment, but to be fair, all of today's appliances are just worthless disposable pieces of low-grade sheet metal and biodegradable plastic.
Makes sense since Stanley owns Craftman now they wouldnt want to associate Sears with Craftsman.