Well said @x3ByMe2-xva. Lowes does not own Craftsman Stanley Black and Decker does and is selling product to Lowes. Staley pays a royalty for 15 years. The royalty does not reverse after 15 years but simply ends. Stanley Craftsman will ultimately be all US made hand tools. Customers over the next few years will know the difference. Sears Craftsman will be the Cadillac of tools again in 3 years!
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Stanley, Black and Decker is currently making Craftsman products at six facilities in the United States (Lowes-Craftsman toolboxes are made in Sedalia, MO for example, Lowes-Craftsman tape measures are made in New Britain, CT for example) . Battery power tools and air compressors are some other Lowes-Craftsman products that are also now being made in the US. There are future plans for about eight or ten other locations in the US for even more Craftsman products to be made in the US.
It is doubtful that much of anything that is Sears-Craftsman is made in the US any longer. I am sorry, but these people who keep saying that the stuff at Lowes is the cheap overseas junk just need to be quiet and let it go. The proof is out there.... Sears-Craftsman is on life support. Lowes-Craftsman is on the rise. I don't know if you're just trouble makers or some kind of "Sears Apologist", but you are incorrect when you make these BS claims about how much better Sears Craftsman is than the Craftsman at Lowes. It is also BS that Craftsman shoppers are being driven to Sears because of the quality of Craftsman at Lowes........ Bottom line is that most of the US no longer has a Sears or Kmart to go to, but most people have 10 or 15 Lowes stores within an hour or so drive.
SEARS Craftsman is dead....Sad, but true.
And BTW it was SEARS who tarnished the Craftsman name themselves in the past. Back in the 80's and 90's if one of my dad's Craftsman tools broke we would simply go to the nearest store exchange the broken tool for a new one and most likely dad would buy several other things while we were there.
Since that time many of the Sears stores have closed. So it would then need to be a special trip of several hours to travel to a Sears store to make the exchange. Then the US made Craftsman products began to disappear and were replaced by cheaper overseas equivalents so the replacements were already junk when you got one on exchange. Then it became necessary to always have a receipt even if the "lifetime" tool was purchased 15 or 20 years ago (Even if you kept the receipt all the ink would be faded away).
Then the final straw was that "Sears Craftsman" was no longer an innovator.....they just put a tool spec out for bid and went with whomever was the cheapest option. So over the last decade or so all the former Craftsman customers found it much easier to drive 15 minutes to a Lowes, Home Depot, ACE, or even a Harbor Freight (instead of two hours to a Sears) and they would spend their money on Stanley, Husky, Rigid, Black and Decker, Irwin, Dewalt, Makita, Bauer, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Porter-Cable, etc. Those tools were more easily accessible than Craftsman from Sears and most likely better priced than the what the Craftsman products had become.
Now today thankfully SBD is developing new products with the Craftsman name for Lowes. Perhaps under the guidance of SBD tools with the Craftsman name sold at Lowes will once again be ahead of the curve (instead of dumped by the curb like the Sears products).
Here's an example.....About a week ago I bought a US made Craftsman product at Lowes for $20. A local ACE hardware had the Chinese made equivalent on clearance for $15. Hands down the SBD Craftsman version at Lowes was the better option....unless ACE gets the Sears-Chinese Craftsman version down to under $10 they probably won't sell.
More and more of the Craftsman product at Lowe's will be US made by SBD (which owns Craftsman). The new plant in South Carolina was built by and is owned by by SBD so that will be supplying Lowes and NOT Sears.
More and more of the Craftsman product at Sears, Kmart, or ACE will be made overseas by "manufacturers of lowest cost". Could be China, Taiwan, India, etc, etc. They are junk products stamped with Craftsman.
I have 10 or 15 Lowes stores closer to me than the nearest Sears or Kmart. I have a very reputable ACE hardware near me and they are choosing not to sell the cheap Sears Craftsman products. SO if I choose to purchase Craftsman products they will surely be coming from Lowes.
The Cheraw SC plant is Stanley's. Why would they supply sears?
The current crop of “craftsman” labeled junk at Lowe’s is mostly cheap Chinese junk.
It is literally driving business into sears everyday.
The factory sbd is building will be supplying Sears not Lowes, google is your friend.
Lowe’s is offering this overpriced cheap line to try to hurt sears bottom line.
Wasting everyone's time by creating a new post to rehash something already covered in another post.
In three years Sears won't be around.
Craftsman will never have the reputation it had from the 1980's and before. It's dead, Jim!
Yeah...sure it will...still won't save this company.