Big news for Craftsman!

Discussion in 'General foundry chat' started by Jason, Nov 10, 2019.

  1. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Not making my living by turning wrenches means I have no desire to own Fap-on tools so I'm in the craftsman camp. I have watched their tools turn into absolute shit in the last 20years so I have been looking for a better way to go. When sears went TU, I found it odd to see the dismal Ace hardware stores picked up the brand. Now AvE says Blowes is carrying craftsman? Seeing this, I think I'll wait and hope they get their act together.

    I picked this up in the comment section on todays AvE video. I found the actual piece from Stanley.
    https://www.stanleyblackanddecker.c...-opening-new-craftsman-plant-fort-worth-texas

    You can call this whatever you want, but I call it the TRUMP effect. Stanley back in the day was outta New Britain Connecticut. We just happen to own Stanley's corporate aircraft from back in the day. Glad to see they are building this plant where it makes sense.

    Here's the AvE piece if ya missed it.


    Now my dog thinks he's the BOSS!
    20190716_094507.jpg
     
  2. rocco

    rocco Silver

    I have very little faith that the new U.S. tools will be significantly better quality than their Chinese made stuff. Stanley and Sears Craftman have always had a full replacement guarantee, that once meant their tools were really good quality but they've long ago discovered that most people aren't really all that hard on their tools so, they could still honour their guarantee with lesser quality (i.e cheaper) tools at the same price point and thus make more money.
     
  3. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Come on Rocco... I'll let ya borrow a couple ounces of my optimism.;) If it puts 500 Texans into decent paying jobs here and puts wong out to pasture, who am I to complain? I remember those days when you turned in a 12" flat tip and the free replacement was 11". I never let them give me that shaft treatment. I paid for 12" and that's what I went home with.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2019
  4. rocco

    rocco Silver

    Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see some jobs return from overseas however, business is business and building really high quality tools hasn't been part of their business plan in recent years and whether the tools are to be made in Texas or China, I doubt that has changed.
     
    Jason likes this.
  5. Looks like your co-pilot has no balls! Is that safe?:p
     
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  6. OMM

    OMM Silver

    It is definitely good to see that companies can turn a profit and keep jobs at home. I’m pretty sure there’s some big subsidies being handed out.

    There was a lot of attitude with manufacturing, unions and shareholders in the last 20 years. Greed gets the better of most people.

    About 10 years ago I was building some transmission parts for a unmanned prototype US tank. The project being very temperamental, any company bidding had to have a huge insurance policy on delivery. It was to be all built on US soil and anything that wasn’t, had to have special permission. 10 years ago there was so much upset in the manufacturing in the US market, large stable companies in Canada got sub-contracts. Some of the higher end small companies got sub-subcontracts.

    The jobs that will be handed out, will be probably higher-end jobs. Almost lights out manufacturing facility.

    I just toured a facility that once had 150per shift. Now 10! 1 forklift operator 2 press operators (for 12 presses), 2 polishers and prepers, and 2 die makers, 1 floater, 1 custodian( which was a Die-Maker) , 1 floor supervisor. Then there was 2 office staff, and 1 security guard. The supervisors did the PLC programming.

    Value of labour has changed.
     
  7. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I will personally attest she has no balls! :D She makes the drinks, I don't let her steer. She will grab a radio call from time to time. Oliver keeps the pax in check.

    Anyone watch the series Madmen? Funny to see times change during that show. In the beginning the elevators had operators and everyone had a hot secretary. I was born 60years too late! This latest healthcare debacle has companies running for the hills to dump employees. Even Mcd's has less lackies working behind the counter. Now they have that stupid overgrown tablet thing you are suppose to do your own ordering. Ever try feeding cash into that STUPID POS?? Here's a new one I just saw. Dominoes is starting to run unmanned cars to deliver pizza. The car drives up, you swipe your card on it, the window rolls down and you take your pie. Hell even little ceasars has a thing in the stores called a pizza portal. The homelesshithole has ONE cashier running the front of the store. Now think about this. There are tens of thousands of college grads that paid for their schooling delivering pies. I was a cashier at HD when I went to college. Back in 1993, HomeDepot would have 40 cash registers and 37 of them were running just a RAKING in cash! Back THEN I would take in 14k in sales with over 8k of it in hard cash in one 8hr shift! That was just ONE REGISTER. I could run 10key like a MOFO zipping in thousands of 6digit SKUs. Again, a job that helped put me through school. All of that is GONE! I guess it doesn't matter, college should be free right? All of us working stiffs will now get to pay for worthless sociology degrees. In return, we get to listen to them tell us how toxic our masculinity is.:rolleyes:
     
  8. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Jason, you and I are not so different. In 1996 I was working in the Home Depot, Part time. Lumber department. I was doing deck quotes for delivery. It would take me almost an hour with a sketchpad and I was closing sales $10,000. I averaged about $20,000 of sales in four hours. I was only 18-22 years old. Today, I would have trouble find a 18-22-year-old that would know the difference between A coated fastener and a hot galvanized fastener or even a hurricane bracket.

    I did very well with Homedepot. I put 78% of my income into the profit-sharing account for two years. I made 280% on my investment.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2019
    Jason likes this.
  9. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I bilked them for thousands towards college. Back then they would pay 1/2 of 2 classes. I told them I was a business major. WTF, core is core! Back then we had guys mixing paint that were worth half a million dollars! There was an electric buzz about the place. Even the customers would ask how the stock was doing. Quick story, one sunday working at the west palm beach store, a customer comes to me while I was working the return desk and asked if a black helicopter meant anything at the far end of the parking lot. I dialed 401 (store managers office) and told him about the chopper. He said OH FK and hung up on me.:rolleyes: Within 5minutes, Bernie and Arthur came in. Bernie took a left and came up to me at the return desk. Arthur took a right into the garden dept. While I was bs'ing with Bernie, Arthur walked by with every inside/outside garden employee in tow he could find. :eek: They all got fired on the spot. Meanwhile, bernie had me help him give back some of "his" money. This is Bernie Marcus to those of you that don't know. Nieman marcus' brother I believe. He was a super nice, down to earth guy. Arthur was the dick of the operation. They did compliment each other very well. Later came A-hole Bob Nardelli. HD gave that fk stick MILLIONS to GO AWAY! He did the most damage to poor home depot. Why they took him after he screwed GE up is beyond me. Remember back then if you walked by a customer and didn't say Hi or can I help you find something, they would fire you? Today the employees play hide and go F yourself and are completely USELESS. They also promised to never have aisle numbers or signs. Then KNEW employees would say go to 8 and walk away. This is exactly what has happened. Back then, when a guy came in with a project, you sent him home with half a cart full of crap to help him do the job right. The money wasn't in the paint or expensive power tools, it was the brush, rollers, tape, coveralls, shoe covers..... blah blah blah. Back in 1993, I can tell you the average sale was 38bucks! That is a HUGE number when talking averages. IF you would have cut me back then, (or you) we both would have bled orange. It was a good place, but those days are long gone. I returned in 2004 for a short stint after getting spotted in an orlando store by a store manager I worked for 10years earlier. I took the job, he moved on and I got into it one night with a dept head acting as a manager. I was short cashiers, running the front on my own, customers were leaving full carts of crap and walking out. I told that clown to get me some Fkn help NOW! His feelings got hurt and I got called in the office. We had some puss of a new store manager and I saw the termination paperwork on the desk. I asked him where I can sign so I could get the F outta there and on with my life. I signed the paper upside down and wrote FU across it, took my apron off and tossed it at his face and walked out the door. It's the only job I ever got fired from and it felt WONDERFUL! After my time in the military, I was heart broken to see what these asshats did to my beloved home depot. If there was ever a guy that would have shot to the top of that corporate ladder, it would have been me. I treated my customers like gold, they knew it and sent tons of those recognition things to home office. I had more stupid awards, pins and decorations I needed 2 aprons to carry them all. I caught Bernie on TV this past year and he did not have nice things to say about the direction of that company. He shows up on Fox news from time to time.
     

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