2. Invest in nostalgia brands like Craftsman, that can't be purchased on amazon, and come with a built in consumer base.
3. Use previously considerable resources to position yourself as the best place to shop for X product, and make sure that several brands of X product are only available through you.
4. Still probably fail, but at least it looks like you tried.
Now if I'm looking at craftsman, I'm either going to an estate sale to buy older items, or I'm going to harbor freight for a disposable.
There doesn't seem to be a company to fill that home hobbyist niche anymore.
The business model appears to be to sell reasonable quality tools and nail consumers with low quality consumables.
I avoid HF if I can but their new line of welders is getting rave reviews at a 1/4 the price of the American brands.
At this point, I would buy HF over Crapsman.
I now have a woodshop full of HF clamps that carry a better warranty than bessey and work just as well. I also have the HF wood lathe that is super cheap for the quality.
The chrome and stamping on the sockets is every bit as good as my ~2000 era Craftsman sockets, and far better than the last Craftsman tool I bought around '07.
I'm sure they don't measure up to Craftsman of fifty years ago, but neither does Craftsman.
Plus, Gearwrench is not american made, it is Taiwanese. Good tools, but your statement is factually incorrect.
I think that's just ambiguous wording. Try parsing it like this:
> I'd suggest ((Gearwrench) or (Tekton, Wright or Williams (same manufacturer as Snap On) if you want American made.))
Gearwrench, Tekton and some Williams wrenches: Asia-made, reasonably priced, more than adequate for hobbyist use.
Wright and some Williams wrenches: US-made, more expensive but cheaper and more available than Snap-on, marketed towards industrial applications instead of professional mechanics.
Craftsman 450-Piece Mechanic's Tool Set
https://www.amazon.com/Craftsman-450-Piece-Mechanics-Tool-Se...
The first lot arrived at the store in a brown cardboard box from china and about half the sockets were missing. Returned it, complained, ordered another set, same issue.
Their customer service was shocking throughout.
I'd recommend buying an old set of Craftsman on Craigslist - or if you're lucky and find snap-on or Mac at a good price grab them. Otherwise I hate to write it but Harborfreight tools are mostly pretty much on par with Craftsman these days...
https://www.harborfreight.com/301-Pc-Mechanics-Tool-Set-6346...
They were the lazer cut Craftsman sockets with the bigger type on them which I like as you can see the size while grovelling around in the dark under cars, or at least sockets made with the same format. I still have 20 bucks of sears consolation money to spend online due to this debacle but it's hard to know how to spend it...
If you want to spend money, DeWalt and Milwaukee are still the industry standards, and I think that reputation is deserved. I've had pretty much exclusively positive experiences with their performance and longevity.
One thing to remember is that a cheap drill with a good bit is often going to outperform a good drill with a cheap bit. So it is worth spending a little extra on that sort of things, particularly if you see yourself working with metal at all.
Also, get some type of Dremel or similar. One of the most useful tools when you don't really have the correct tool for the job.
Reason I bought them is because I asked exact same question you are asking to a bunch of hardcore blue collar guys at the factory I worked at, and they recommended Makita.
For power tools - Ryobi is fine for home use; the new Harbor Freight power tools have ok reviews. Dewalt and Milwaukee are better IMHO. Dewalt is assembling some of their power tools in the U.S. now. I have Ryobi, Dewalt, Ingersol Rand and Milwaukee cordless tools and battery systems. I personally prefer the Dewalt.
For hand tools, I have Snap-on, SK, Klein, Sunnex, Engineer, Craftsman, ChannelLock and some miscellaneous hand tools from other manufacturers. It really depends on what you want to do. I personally prefer tools made in U.S.A., Japan, and Taiwan in that order. But that is simply a personal preference.
Finally, keep in mind that no one company manufacturers all of their tools. A lot of tools are just rebranded and might be the same exact tool at considerably different prices.
The only one I don't love is the circular saw, but that's mainly because battery powered ones are just not as good as corded.
Harbor Freight has some good stuff, their hand tools aren't bad and their air tools(esp. the earthquake impact guns) are good, but NEVER buy anything from that store that 1) has a battery 2) is a consumable (sandpaper, saw blades, etc.) 3) you will absolutely depend on professionally (so like craftsman, if you absolutely need then buy 2 and rotate through them.
Bosch, Hilti and Makita. I have a Hilti power drill that is literally older than me, the thing belonged to my grandpa and is still drilling on.
Ryobi is what I used for the lighter stuff.
"Right, I'm smart enough to realize that Amazon will crush us, and I can't outsmart Bezos, so why not enrich myself, say fuck the world, and go retire with a cool billion?"
It's pretty hard to ride all the business trends correctly for over 100 years so I forgive Sears for missing out on the internet.
The Sears homes are pretty neat though. I live in a region where they were very popular.
My uninformed guess is that it won't be widely adopted until the various pre-fab companies with competing strategies and designs work toward some sort of standardization such that knowledge and skills can readily transfer. I bet it's also a patent minefield, precluding standardization and commoditization.
Perhaps some large homebuilder will acquire one of the pre-fab companies and then we'll start to see some volume. Maybe San Francisco should acquire one and just begin building a ton of cheap apartment buildings....
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/demolishing-the-ca...
In particular, the article mentions Richmond Specials, which are "generic boxy buildings" that are designed to "maximize the size limits on each lot." Sounds kind of like what pre-fabbed apartments might turn out like, right? Unfortunately, they appear to be widely loathed.
I think the so-called Richmond Specials (there are at least 2 on my block--I didn't know the name until reading that article but recognize them everywhere) have aged enough that they've become part of the accepted architectural landscape.
Anything new will be hated by people. But why spend a fortune to be hated when you could spend much less and be hated all the same. San Francisco requires almost every building to prominently incorporate bay windows as part of the facade. (Richmond Specials lack this, which is why they stand out.) Every era of housing does this differently. As long as the pre-fab does it at least as well (very low bar), they'd fit right in. Plus, stucco is an extremely common street-facing exterior finish, and all the pre-fab stuff seems to have similarly textured exteriors.
I'm no architect, but I think if you can mimic the Edwardian or Spanish Revival styles (which are already quite simplified and boxy) which dominate much of the city you can grease the wheels. I don't understand why architects expend so much effort trying to do anything else; all it does is invite more attention.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main market seems to be immigrants, poor credit history makes a traditional mortgage unattainable.
They had the better part of 20 years to adjust to the new reality but just kept plugging along with dirty, inefficient retail stores poorly stocked and staffed.
How could the same company that sold mail order houses a 100 years ago look at selling over the internet in the late 1990's and say "nah, it will never work - it's just too crazy"?
Few outside leaders have the credibility to risk seismic changes to a business model for an established company.
It happens, but it’s a lot less common.
Being able to get the DVD extras, and director's cut editions of movies, as a huge advantage of physical discs. And of course the huge, one stop, selection. I currently have 2 VOD subscriptions and often still have to pay extra for quality movie rentals.
Toys r us it's another company that was well positioned to dominate but never took advantage of their competitive advantage
The private equity bought it out, gutted it, then left the husk to die.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/a rchive/2018/07/toys-r-us-bankruptcy-private-equity/561758/
If you are looking for an example of maliciously planned LBO, look up Dick Smith Electronics.
Walmart being the exception having bought jet.com (?). After all Amazon is making the majority of its profits from AWS.
The liquidation strategy was a reaction to his plan failing as far as I'm aware. In the early years all the talk was on building a bigger conglomerate, possibly using Sears "super valuable" real estate to fuel it.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2004-11-21/the-next-...