Craftsman replacing Kobalt?

[sgtsandman]

I think Sear's lost it's edge with the purchase of Kmart, which from what I saw was one of the earlier purveyors of the shell game trick(or whatever it would be) where they changed products every 90 days or so in order to (from what I believed) avoid upholding warranties and such.
It always seemed like a short time after buying an item, if you went back there looking for accessories or parts, the item would be (in their store anyway) "obsolete"

Actually, K Mart bought Sears. Word had it that K Mart was going though some hard financial times and Sears floated them cash to get them out of the hole they were in. K Mart turned around and used the money to buy a controlling stake in Sears. Created Sears Holding Company (or something like that) and the rest was history. At least that was what was told to me by some long time employees of Sears. I can verify that K Mart was the owner of Sears and was making the decisions on what the company was doing.

 

[Josh B]

Also had something to do with ?Western Auto?(some parts store I can't recall for sure) I went in one of those one day and they had pallet sized boxes as I entered. One was filled with Craftsman plastic flashlights(heavy duty, branded Craftsman) for like 99cents a piece. I bought like a dozen of them right then, used them for gifts for quite a while, years later my brother even reminded me of his, "that was a good flashlight". I kept a 3 cell one for years, it eventually stopped working and I took it to Sears, they gave me a newer 3 cell(AA cell lol) aluminum, I was at first disappointed but it rides with me to this day

 

[sgtsandman]

They owned NTB, which I believe was spun off when things started going south. I don't remember them owning an auto parts store. Though some stores did have an auto center. Western Auto has been out of business for a long time. As an aside, I happen to have a rifle with their brand name on it. .30-30 lever action from 1963.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I like Kobalt, their stuff is top notch, I bought my air compressor used and it has been a BEAST, not quite big enough but enough to get a LOT done. I think it is a 1.6hp and 20ish gallons with an oiled compressor but I run my regulator maxxed out at 125psi I think and it just keeps going and going. I think I've drained the water 3 times in 6 years...

I just bought a Husky mechanics tool kit for $99, have a friend that's had one for a while and it is a great set, used it at the junkyard and it had everything except for the 1 1/8" sockets I needed to get the coil spring off and radius arm nut off when I was at the junkyard... don't think I looked for the 7/8" for the I beam pivot nut...

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Corporate frickin greed, and the hollowing out of the middle class since the mid-70’s. Union labor (and wages) built this country post-WW2. Once Reagan broke the ATC Union, the die was cast......Sears was the Amazon of the day. You could buy anything from a kit house to a tractor via mail order. Imagine if they had survived into the Internet era. They already had the model, just no vision. Once the corporate raiders descended, all the money went to their minions.

Corporate frickin greed, and the hollowing out of the middle class since the mid-70’s. Union labor (and wages) built this country post-WW2. Once Reagan broke the ATC Union, the die was cast......Sears was the Amazon of the day. You could buy anything from a kit house to a tractor via mail order. Imagine if they had survived into the Internet era. They already had the model, just no vision. Once the corporate raiders descended, all the money went to their minions.

Man. I just teared up.

You get it

Also

Ronald Wilson Reagan
6 6. 6

 

[91stranger]

I worked at Sears for 6 years. Mostly in the receiving/shipping dept. I started off unloading trucks then moved up to RTV (return to vendor). I took all the broken junk, scanned it onto a green screen (for those who know what a green screen is) then boxed it onto pallets and shipped them off. We had our own toolbox full of "broken" tools that were 9 times out 10 just old and rusty looking so they upgraded them. This was before they got strict on replacing tools. Needless to say we had a killer tool collection. We would fill 55 gallon drums with the broken tools. Normally had 2 of the drums on the bottom of the pallet. I wonder what they did with those 55 gallon drums full of tools??? Green screens.... I doubt anyone under 30 knows what it is or has used one. I'm 31 and that was the only time I ever used a green screen.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

They owned NTB, which I believe was spun off when things started going south. I don't remember them owning an auto parts store. Though some stores did have an auto center. Western Auto has been out of business for a long time. As an aside, I happen to have a rifle with their brand name on it. .30-30 lever action from 1963.

Looks like they did buy Western Auto.

Western Auto - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Grumpaw]

I'll bet ya'all don't remember many years ago Sears and JC Penneys had huge auto centers, a separate stand alone building next to their stores.
You could buy just about any performance product available at the time. Both had separate automotive catalogs, and there was a lot of competition between them.
But, generally, Sears had the best service and inventory. This was many years before puters...anything that had to be ordered was phoned in.
They had available all the hot parts and brand names from that time period. I remember buying intake manifolds, carbs, headers, tune up parts, just about anything you wanted.
Ahhh, wish it was still like that now...
Grumpaw

 

[sgtsandman]

Looks like they did buy Western Auto.

Western Auto - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Interesting. I wasn't aware Western Auto was around that late before going out of business.

 

[sgtsandman]

I'll bet ya'all don't remember many years ago Sears and JC Penneys had huge auto centers, a separate stand alone building next to their stores.
You could buy just about any performance product available at the time. Both had separate automotive catalogs, and there was a lot of competition between them.
But, generally, Sears had the best service and inventory. This was many years before puters...anything that had to be ordered was phoned in.
They had available all the hot parts and brand names from that time period. I remember buying intake manifolds, carbs, headers, tune up parts, just about anything you wanted.
Ahhh, wish it was still like that now...
Grumpaw

I went to them with my first couple cars before I learned how to fix my own stuff and had the tools to do it.

 

[Everlearn]

I'll bet ya'all don't remember many years ago Sears and JC Penneys had huge auto centers, a separate stand alone building next to their stores.
You could buy just about any performance product available at the time. Both had separate automotive catalogs, and there was a lot of competition between them.
But, generally, Sears had the best service and inventory. This was many years before puters...anything that had to be ordered was phoned in.
They had available all the hot parts and brand names from that time period. I remember buying intake manifolds, carbs, headers, tune up parts, just about anything you wanted.
Ahhh, wish it was still like that now...
Grumpaw

Yep I remember it well. The third player was Montgomery Ward. Back in the 60’s they all had stores where I grew up. I too am nostalgic for those days. Seemed much safer, saner, a happier time.......

 

[Snoranger]

Yep I remember it well. The third player was Montgomery Ward. Back in the 60’s they all had stores where I grew up. I too am nostalgic for those days. Seemed much safer, saner, a happier time.......

My house was a Montgomery Ward catalog home. I say was because It’s been added on to and changed enough that it no longer resembles what it was in the late 40’s.

 

[97RangerXLT]

I worked at Sears for 6 years. Mostly in the receiving/shipping dept. I started off unloading trucks then moved up to RTV (return to vendor). I took all the broken junk, scanned it onto a green screen (for those who know what a green screen is) then boxed it onto pallets and shipped them off. We had our own toolbox full of "broken" tools that were 9 times out 10 just old and rusty looking so they upgraded them. This was before they got strict on replacing tools. Needless to say we had a killer tool collection. We would fill 55 gallon drums with the broken tools. Normally had 2 of the drums on the bottom of the pallet. I wonder what they did with those 55 gallon drums full of tools??? Green screens.... I doubt anyone under 30 knows what it is or has used one. I'm 31 and that was the only time I ever used a green screen.

I know how to program in COBOL.... IBM mainframe baybee... haven't used that knowledge since 2013, but it did get me my first job out of college in 2008.

AJ

 

[Josh B]

Looks like they did buy Western Auto.

Western Auto - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That's a pretty cool story. It would have been about 98 when I bought those flashlights, and it was likely at an Advance Auto(maybe they were just cleaning out the back room), but somewhere in that transaction Western Auto definitely must have been mentioned

 

[sgtsandman]

My house was a Montgomery Ward catalog home. I say was because It’s been added on to and changed enough that it no longer resembles what it was in the late 40’s.

We never had Mongomery Ward around her that I remember. We did have Hills, Ames, Gee Bee, and Gaylord's I miss Hills. Ames was ok. I was too young to remember much of Gee Bee other that to know it was there.