An article in the recent Forbes magazine explains the Sears will gradually disappear. The real estate occupied by the company is worth more than the stock value. Thus it makes sense to sell of pieces to recover the value of the real estate. It cannot be done all at once due to taxes. Much of the gain can be used ot offset loses from K-mart. I realize that much of this newsgroup considers Sears products to be greatly inferior. Many of us initially purchased Craftsman tools when that was all we could afford.
The head of K-mart is not a man who has made his name in the retail markets. He has made his reputation by being a trader.
Sears makes emough money through the Sears Bank, their real estate company, Lens Crafters and other interests, they probably don't give a shit if they sell another tool. Here's a hint. When I was in China a couple years ago, there was a big building with the name Craftsman on it. Supposedly, where Craftsman products are made. You'd have a better chance of getting into a nuclear plant, because the Craftsman plant is where they have their child and slave labor making clothes, not tools.
My 20+ year old Craftsman items were purchased because I thought they were better than department store tools at the time of purchase. The Craftsman stuff was usually MORE EXPENSIVE than a typical department store brand, not, "the only thing I could afford". I truly THOUGHT that I was buying a high quality tool.
I also had a Sears credit card, as they gave them to everyone, including 18 year olds who barely had a job. Back then, Visa denied those folks. Sears sold only Craftsman, no DeWalt, Makita, etc... Also, "pro" brands, like DeWalt, Bosch, Porter Cable, and Makita were only sold by "tool dealers", often at list price.
Competition from home centers, Al Gore's Internet, and among the brands themselves, changed all of that. 9.6v Makita drills are the same price now as they were 15 years ago, but are paychecks sure aren't!
Over the years, I've realized that I often was buying overpriced department store quality tools. Craftsman of the late 70's and 80's was Black and Decker department store crap, but came with a blow molded case.
Nowadays I see two levels of Craftsman tools:
The "Pro" version, such as the rebadged Bosch router. With today's BORGs and online tool sources, the Craftsman version is often more expensive than the native brand version. This tool is marketed at the guy who remembers when Craftsman was a good tool, but has explored the other brands.
The "yuppie" version, usually aimed at some non-existent price point. These tools are Kmart quality, with bells, whistles, and Bob Vila to sell it for slightly more than the Kmart version. With experience, the bells and whistles usually prove to be gimmicks. If it's more expensive, it must be better, right? They fall in between the cheapie and the lower-end home center version. Companies like Ryobi seem to pretty adept at meeting these challenges, with a better quality homeowner quality tool.
Many of us "tool snobs" have a pile of Craftsman tools that suck, and in some cases are totally unfit for the job. These tools have been replaced with usable examples, so we spent much more in the long run. I try really hard to help others avoid doing the same Someone with limited funds is better off with pawn shop name brand tools.
Screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice, shame on me!
I fellow would die of old age looking for a manufacturing plant with a Sears or Craftsman logo on it, seeing that Sears does not manufacture a thing they sell! Greg
Union jobs, at least here in the Northeastern USA.
On big commercial construction projects, all new tools are usually bid into the job. At the end of the job, the trades people pick by seniority what they want. Much of it goes to pawn shops, as these folks already have what they want from other jobs.
The rest of them are stolen from jobsites, vehicles, or home shops, or pawned by legitimate owners with financial problems.
Probably was such a building--if you read the fine print it was probably the "happy joyful lucky craftsman company" or some such (love those Oriental names) and had nothing whatsoever to do with Sears.
"The real estate occupied by the company is worth more than the stock value. Thus it makes sense to sell of pieces to recover the value of the real estate"
This is typical of the cursory insight provided by the likes of Forbes. The analysis assumes a static equity valuation, clearly a weak assumption, particularly given that the catalyst for the article is probably the merger. If we assume the first sentence is true, the question should be "why?". It must be that the real estate is more valuable in some other use, than it is to Sears, as currently configured. The new strategy, the merger, etc. were undertaken, presumably, to add value to the company. At some stock valuation, the stores will exceed that value of the real estate in some other use. I have no opinion on whether the strategy will pay off in the long run, but is is silly to assume that liquidation is the optimal path, as Forbes has apparently concluded.
==================== I have to agree basically agree.....
I "outfitted" my "new"...lol since my old shop was the trunk of my car...shop just after I got of of College and the military in the Mid
60's...
20 mile drive into town to Sears, Wards, & JC Penny or a 150 mile hike to the big city that had a store that sold expensive machines... Sears offered better tools then the two other stores...PLUS like you said that little plastic card was my savior at the time...
I still use my belt/disc sander and am still in LOVE woith my floor model Drill press... any yes I still have my RAS ...the other Sears tools have long since been replaced...
But it was more the assumed quality, that darn Plastic card, and the fact that SEARS was just down the road rather then 150 miles down the Highway in the big city...
Bob Griffiths of course today I honestly fell like I now live in the Big City...More people locally then cows, No more covered bridges for sure... .
You WERE. Twenty years ago. Hand tools, anyway. I'm still using Craftsman wrenches and the like, that I bought 25-30 years ago, and they're still good tools.
Farther back than that, the power tools were good, too.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
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In the fifties, I bought sockets from Crescent and from Craftsman. The Craftsman sockets would take more abuse and Sears would exchange a damaged one, no questions asked. Don't know about today but then, the "perceived" quality didn't have anything to do with "made in America" or advertising.
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