Short Video of Stanley History
Innovation. Quality.
Posted on 01/05/2017 8:00:47 AM PST by Leaning Right
Sears Holdings will sell its Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker for about $900 million, the companies announced Thursday.
The deal will provide another cash infusion for Sears, but it comes at a cost — broadening distribution of the well-known brand gives consumers one less reason to choose to shop at the struggling Hoffman Estates-based retailer.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
“I mentioned how we used to get everything at sears except for food.”
Sears used to sell houses. They would be shipped in railcars. They came with detailed plans (over a hundred pages, I believe) and tools. The houses are still standing in some neighborhoods, and are referred to as Craftsman houses.
I mean that company came out with so many marketing wins: Diehard batteries, Weatherbeater paint, the Discover Card, Dean Witter brokerage, Allstate Insurance and there are surely others.
It is truly stunning how disastrously they have failed and fallen.
Sears lost their focus a long time ago. They were the pioneers in mail-order merchandising, yet in the electronic age, when legions of consumers are moving from brick-and-mortar to mail-order (via technology), they’re stuck in crumbling dusty stores that are largely deserted. For pete’s sake, they wrote the BOOK on catalog sales! And Amazon ate their lunch.
The saying is anachronism. Hybrid seed can’t be harvested from the field anyway; it’s sterile.
But in the old days, it was fertile and wasn’t “treated.” It was as edible as anything you grew in your garden.
And so it goes.
http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/TAA0731131.html
TAA info: http://www.doleta.gov/tradeact/taa/taa_search_form.cfm.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/680898/posts
Who owns what: http://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/
John F. Lundgren was elected as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 2004, replacing John Trani, a former protégé of Jack Welch at General Electric.
Stanley acquisitions are legion:
http://www.wow.com/wiki/Stanley_Tools
“Black and Decker has become the classic low-end tool brand, lowest quality and cheapest price.”
Black & Decker also manufactures and markets the DeWalt and Porter Cable tool brands.
There are many more that occurred prior to Stanley Works (mostly hardware manufacture) buying Stanley Rule and Level (toolmakers) in 1920.
Stanley Rule and Level were ruthless when buying other companies either to manufacture their better tools or put them out of business.
In fact, Stanley Rule and Level arose from the merger of two businesses (Hall&Knapp and A.Stanley&Co.) in 1857. It was 1869 that marked the beginning of their rise to become America's largest toolmaker after buying Leonard Bailey's Boston plane making business.
Way back when, just before they got gobbled up by Goldstar (now LG), there was a headline: "Zenith Reaches It's Nadir"
‘Open pollenated’ is the word you are looking for.
The decline and fall of Sears will become a Harvard Business Review (HBR) case study for future MBA students to ponder.
Absolutely right they should have owned the internet. Their stupid management closed the catalogue business just a year before Amazon was founded. If they had kept it open and jumped into the internet sales business we could have been talking about the second life of Sears in the internet age instead of Amazon’s growth and Sears death.
At least I can say I got my money’s worth out of Craftsman’s unconditional guarantee. Bought one 100’ steel tape measure and replaced it 15 times over as many years.
Had some friends who ran an auto repair biz. Whenever a craftsman tool broke they tossed it into a 5 gallon bucket. Whenever the bucket got to be 1/2 full they’d make a run over to sears for replacements.
Shows how with it I am. :)
Stanley Black & Decker to open U.S. plant after Trump's 'border tax' threat
Loree said the location of the new manufacturing plant to produce Craftsman products has not yet been determined. The company currently operates 29 total U.S. plants.About a half century ago, the Craftsman brand was primarily made in America. Today it's largely made overseas, Loree said.
"We believe this is an excellent opportunity to re-Americanize and revitalize this legendary brand," he told investors.
Do not forget the iron on patches for the worn-out knees and your toughskins pants. They may hve been toughskins but we could still wear the knees on those things playing as little kids
Wow, now there's a memory throwback!
Had no idea there were still available, although, they look different now.
Short Video of Stanley History
Innovation. Quality.
Oh, my gosh! I forgot all about those!
As for B&D's sister, I bought a Stanley Fatmax (combo jumper cables [for jumpstarting a car without needing a second car] and air compressor). The jumper cables didn't work. The air compressor worked on my tires for several applications over the better part of a year, but then the meter froze on one number and I couldn't tell if air was going in the tires or not. I returned the Fatmax to QVC and got a partial refund.
You betcha.
Location, not yet determined.
Gotta love it: *MADE IN USA*
Sears has already done that on their own - they sent almost all tool production out to China and quality dropped massively. Craftsman tools have often been repackaged and relabeled Harbor Freight tools with a big markup for the past decade. There’s now no reason to go to Sears except for picking stuff up on closeout or in the inevitable bankruptcy liquidations.
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