2015, Sears won't see it.

[ChunkyMonkey]

The Sears catalog revolutionized the country in much the same way the internet did for the world.

LIES! That's victoria's secret!

[theGinsue]

Well, my friends, I fear that Wal (China) Mart will be the only game in town soon. Then they will finally have the market cornered and will raise their prices. There will be no choice but to pay them since all the other competitors have gone the way of the Dodo bird. I used to drive past 2 Wal-Marts to get to the KMart at 120th & Sheridan because I despise Wal-Mart so much. Then, of course, they built another Wal-Mart right next door. God forbid we dont have a Wal-Mart every 2 miles.

Sad, but seemingly true. Reminds me of this:

I bought a Craftman torque wrench in the 80's, lifetime warranty. It broke in 2009 and when I brought it back to Sears they would not honor the warranty I will never buy from sears again.

What reason did they give you?

I went out looking for a torque wrench 2 years ago and my first stop was Sears. Aside from the cheap traditional one for $30+ dollars, the cheapest of the good modern style ones was $70+ dollars and they had others for well over $100. I felt $70+ dollars was awfully steep, but if it had a lifetime replacement warranty.... So, before making the purchase on the $70 one, I asked the tools section employee about the lifetime warranty since I didn't see anything mentioning it on the packaging. He gave me a look like "are you dumb" as he told me that none of the torque wrenches they carried had lifetime/replacement warranties. I walked out of the store without a torque wrench. I'm still looking for a good one that's still reasonably priced (I really need one too)

[hatidua]

I bought a Craftman torque wrench in the 80's, lifetime warranty. It broke in 2009 and when I brought it back to Sears they would not honor the warranty I will never buy from sears again.

That's odd, -I snapped a Craftsman open-ended wrench a year or two ago, took half of it back and they handed me a new one over the counter....

[theGinsue]

Many, but not all, of the standard hand tools like wrenches, ratchets, pliers, screwdrivers, etc. still have the lifetime warranties. You have to look at the item to see if the one you're getting is covered. I thought all non-motorized hand tools with the Craftsman name were covered. I was wrong!

[ben4372]

FWIW snap on would not warrant mine.

I've been out of the business of car fixing for around 15 years. I had to warranty a hammer and the new one felt less awesome. Other tools like sockets seem to have cheaper chrome. The later sockets don't match the old ones. They seem to slowly going asian too. They sorta remind me of Harley. Nearly as much value in the marketing shwag as the actual product. As a related interest, I would love to get a list of companies that used to bang the "BUY AMERICAN" drum a few years ago and have quietly switched to Chinese or merely assembled in USA. When I was in high school Sam Walton did TV spots on keeping jobs in the US. That was a time when kids out of high school thought they were lucky to land a with Walmart. I have talked to people who refer to those as the good old days .

[Madusa]

What reason did they give you?

They told me no without a reason, took it to the Durango Sears and Farmington Sears, even went online. I've heard since Sears sold the Craftman name to another company the new company does not have to honor the old warranty. Know I see Craftman tools in other stores (true value, ect.)

[Bowtie]

They don't warrant torque wrenches anymore because they are considered precision instruments and to many people were using them as breaker bars.They are going downhill because 95 % of consumers shop on price and not service or selection.

[TFOGGER]

They don't warrant torque wrenches anymore because they are considered precision instruments and to many people were using them as breaker bars.They are going downhill because 95 % of consumers shop on price and not service or selection.

Since they can't offer superior service, better quality, or greater selection, they had best compete on price, and they're failing badly.

[Bowtie]

Since they can't offer superior service, better quality, or greater selection, they had best compete on price, and they're failing badly.

Race to the bottom.

[nynco]

Torque wrenches are a different animal. They can go out of calibration from merely dropping them or using them to loosen stuff. So I could see why they called them a precision instrument. Because I bet a lot of idiots out there treat them like crap and wonder why they don't work right. Good news is I bought one from Sears a few weeks ago for 40 dollars. It was 50% off. Still the click kind, but it will do the job.