Several people have been letting us know that the tool department has been looking VERY low on inventory at Sears lately. I have also seen this for myself.
Is this due to the financial issues? or the fact Craftsman is not a Sears owned company any longer?
This is one of the few things that keeps people coming back to Sears. Not having tools in stock will hurt business big time.
In addition to vendor issues, SHC has been treating inventory as a source of cash to fund ongoing money losing operations. They sell merchandise, burn the cash keeping the stores barely alive, then don't replace the inventory, as if having stuff in the stores is just an option in the retail business. This has been going on for years. The people running this show are absolutely clueless about what it takes to successfully run retail stores.
@mbw- The OP was not talking about the employees.
Plenty of tools in our store. What are u guys talking about???
Its going to get much, much worse when Lowes rolls out Craftsman in a few months. Though they are going to get a nasty surprise when all the sh-- Sears has been selling the last few years starts showing up at their service desk. It will be interesting to see how that is handled. I assume Stanley and Lowes are formulating a plan.
@trh you obviously haven't been paying attention to Harbor Freight. They've SERIOUSLY stepped up their game. Are they Snap On--hell no. But they are better than the current generation of crap Sears is selling as Craftsman. As an example, their current cushion-handle ratchet is a beautiful piece. They work so smoothly its amazing, feel great, and seem to have a solid mechanism. I'm seeing pro mechanics give them a shot and say its not a bad ratchet. Their latest line of cordless tools seems to be pretty darn good too at a quick glance at the store. They look like they are at least as good as most other store brands (Craftsman, Kobalt, Masterforce, etc.) maybe better. They probably are not Milwaukee/Dewalt.
Harbor Freight has better store coverage and growing, they staff their stores, , the same warranty on hand tools, and they do this thing called "marketing" big time.
Our tool department has been looking understocked since last summer? For awhile now. It's the new normal. We lost the 2 real tools people since then as well. Unrelated to low stock but these were the people who actually knew something about tools. Both are at Lowe's now. Liking their lives better because I see them when I go to buy items that Sears is selling for 1/3 to 1/2 more.
Kmart lost bic several months ago. They finally found a new no name vender. We had no lighters until last month
Hell, Kmart doesn't even sell Bic Lighters anymore...found a few packs of some cheapo China brand. Seams Sears/Kmart is buying all their inventory from aliexpress these days...
Vendor issues, entire plots out of stock with no sign of replinshment. Perception of the brand as it is sold and outsourced is not helping. Quality is in question. Flex is in store in the form of Mastercraft nd Olympia tools a few steps from Harbor Freight. Tools doesn't seem viable for Kmart or Sears.
How did they get past the high security spider wrap?
Why send tools to stock shelves when 50% are stolen anyway. Today in my store 2 men walked in and stole approximately $1000.00 worth of mechanics tool sets nicely spider wrapped by the mpu exit doors. Now we have beautiful empty shelves for Members HA HA to politely walk in glance and say how pathetic what a shame and when are you closing. In my mind I say Fu go to Lowe's as I'm assume the normal business of the day.
Vendor issues. Vendors asking for cash payment up front before sending tools. No money to do that so you get what they can give you. Look at Pebble and see all the OOS inventory problems.