Craftsman 309 pc. Mechanics Tool Set $185 at Sears

Chinese-made crap. With the exception of the sockets and extensions, all other Craftsman tools are now made in China. Might as well go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy better quality tools for less, that have the same warranty, and the stores are more plentiful and closer if you have to return a broken one.

I agree. Sears made a big mistake when they decided to outsource their bread-and-butter,

Yes, don't support Sears because of the Chinese made hand tools, instead buy Chinese made Husky or Kobalt. They aren't better quality though, about the same so the main considerations are the ergonomics of the design and which set has the particular combination of pieces you need, as having to buy multiple sets or individual pieces can end up more expensive in the long run, and you end up with 10 lifetimes worth of h3x keys.

It wouldn't be so bad except Sears hasn't dropped the prices in conjunction with the drop in quality.

OTOH, I read somewhere from a Sears clerk who claimed that the Chinese-made stuff sold as well as, or better than, the USA made tools. If that's the case, Sears is just following the market.

But it still doesn't make any sense to pay Craftsman prices for tools when the same (or better) tools can be had cheaper at Home Depot or Lowes. Sooner or later (probably the former), most people will figure that out and Craftsman tool sales will drop off a cliff.

^ except that some of us will pay a few cents more to help keep an american company in business instead of selling out for a pseudo-fat wallet. Also, that same "or better" reference is an obviously misleading bias . HD equivalent tools are made by Stanley's parent company, who thinks that is higher quality? Otherwise, same company makes the Craftsman and Rigid line. What remains is shadows, myths, and perception.

Home Depot and Lowes are the equivalent of <a>walmart, low pay and low esteem jobs for young dork (employees) that pretend to know things instead of the high value experience and unique stock that local hardware stores have.

Your call, I'm not trying to convince anyone about anything but my first stop will always be the local mom'pop hardware store, then Sears, then Lowes or Home Depot as the last resort, except at that point I'd already be looking on the internet instead.

Sorry, I'm not going to keep an American company in business that sells sh!t at high prices just because it's an American company.

Also, sears isn't that much different than HD or Lowes except that they don't sell any of the product that you use the tools on (construction materials, etc).. I have my own issues with Sears and how they treat their employees, and how they run their business. One example: they tried a hostile takeover of my previous employer, with the full lintention of closing the entire company and relegate it to a specially-branded section of the store, eliminating nearly 10K jobs.

Uhh, a 309 piece tool set for $185 is not a high price. HD has a Husky 200 piece set for $100 but a far larger % of the pieces are the h3x keys and screwdriver bits, the cheap parts.

Now Lowes. They have a mechanics set with 227 pieces for $200 also having a higher % of h3x keys & bits, fewer sockets, wrenches, and ratchets, and a 154 piece set for $150.

The quality at Sears is as good or better and for tool sets with the combination of pieces you want, the prices often are too. We could say the prices didn't go down but by the same token, they would have risen quite a bit if everything was still made in America. If you want high quality made in America tools they are still available elsewhere and 300+ pieces of them will run well over $500 in most cases.

The mid-grade tool market is fairly competitive, you're not going to find great savings at the big chain hardware stores unless you're buying their lower grade stuff like Lowes' Task Force brand.

I quit going to sears when the local store manager(owner?) treated me badly after spending $2000 on a washer/dryer that was missing the lint screen. The lady chewed me up one side and down the other after I said I wasn't going to pay for the replacement they ordered and which I'd already paid for.

Since then Craftsman tools have slowly filtered out of my tool chest as they break. The exception being those tools made 20+ years ago which don't break.

Ironically that store just went out of business.

^ How is it you guys end up with such terrible CSRs? I've never had any problems similar to this from ANY merchant. Some of them are just stupid though, like the lady at JCPenny I had to tell 3 times that I just wanted to exchange clothing for a different size instead of a cash or credit back refund.

I live in a community which has a, normally subtle, racial divide.

Unfortunately, those in the non-minority group that hang onto their prejudices are hurt by the fact that the minority group they disdain are also the major economic force here.