Tools - and the Cheapening of the World

[BirdMobile]

Do you ever feel like a mutant among men? Like the world is marching to a different music that you can't even hear?

 

Went into a local hardware store yesterday, my girlfriend found a "get $7 off your $20 purchase" coupon... my first thought was "Tools!".

 

Now, most of my tools have been obtained at yard sales, pawn shops, and thrift stores. Probably 75% Craftsman, 15% Mac, Snapon and Proto, and 10% other non-asian name brands. I go out of my way to buy ONLY quality stuff, I see tools as a lifetime investment and I only want rugged, nicely finished tools that are a joy to use.

 

So I browse the new tools section of this hardware store. I found a grsnd total of ONE ratchet with a metal direction selector - ALL the rest had plastic selectors. EVERY tool in the wrenches/ratchets section was made in China. All the Craftsman stuff no longer had "USA" stamped into the handle/base.

 

WTF?????

 

I left without buying anything, and told the store manager on my way out how completely apalled I was about the situation - he just said "not my fault - people want cheap and I sell a lot of it".

 

I'm disgusted. This "civilization" is circling the drain... and tool quality is just one of the symptoms.

 

Bright side though... getting in my BirdMobile in the parking lot, a lady drives up and parks next to me in an early-90's Loyale, gets out, and asks me how long I've had my Subie and what year it is. We talk a minute, then she says she plans on keeping her Loyale the rest of her life. If my girlfriend hadn't have been there, I just might have asked the lady to marry me! (Just kidding...)

 

Rant off.

[jonas]

That manager is a "tool" and so wrong on so many levels.

[MR_Loyale]

F those damn corps that ship the jobs off shore to unstable countries and then when the unstable countries have a coup, they come crying to the US government to send those same folks they sent to the unemployment line in to risk their lives rescuing their property. Start holding your lawmakers accountable people! Forget democrats and republicans - THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. Only out for themselves.  Be the thorn in their side.

 

Ok, rant off.

Edited August 2, 2014 by MR_Loyale

[jono]

Don't scare me ! I love getting little tool package deliveries from the US - (cough* cough *Mark !! ) quality tools at junk prices. Compare a Lisle trim tool here A$35, in the US - under A$10!

 

I find Taiwanese tools are of great quality much the same as US made. We have some very ,imited tool manufacturing here in Australia now - stil see Australian made combination pliers - Crescent branded of all things, just their other plier range are not made here.

 

Don't forget though some plastics are pretty tough - try taking a sledge hammer to some plastic bumper bars. I guess you get the store owner to drop the ratchet on concrete floor, see if the switch stays intact after a 100 throws

 

A guy I have bought a few car bits and one car off , had a few break ins over the years...came in to find someone had gone through all his tools finding  his made in India, made in China on the floor

Edited August 2, 2014 by jono

[JuhaKankkunen]

well......maybe one of the reasons that i love your country is because of the "build with pride in the USA"......

 

Durign my visit in 2009 i bought my first Snap On set of wrenches, impposible to find them in Argentina.

Then in my otrers visits the only stuffs i bought was tools, and i found Craftman Made in USA, wrenches, pliers and screwdriders too!

 

but what you says is a very common problem of the entire globalization of the world.....

[opus]

But you sure feel better when you loose a China tool rather than an SK or Snap On.

[coxy]

CEO's and CFO's all need 50 years in the slammer in my opinion as well as all Politicians as they are all Too Stupid to see that whenever they outsource Jobs Overseas they are actually Outsourcing their Customers.

 

Company A employs 500 people who are all customers of Company's B,C,D and H.

Company A decides to save money and shut shop in the Good Ol USA send 475 Jobs offshore only keeping wharehouse staff in the US so Companies B.C.D an H have just lost 475 potential Customers or their buying power is considerably less, Meanwhile Companies B and D decide to also do the offshore thing and another 950 jobs are gone so now the customer base has lowered or diminished by almost 1500 or at least their spending value has plummeted so times get tougher and Company C and H decide they can no longer survive and cannot even afford to move offshore so 1000 jobs are gone.

 

Question who will be left working and paying Taxes to cover everything, This is just Like Union twits who are so greedy they will rather have 100% of nothing than cave in to common sense and destroy a viable company because of Greed by refusing to negotiate similar to what happened to TWA back then.

 

We see the same here in Australia.with Toyota General Motors and Ford shutting up shop so soon we will make Nothing in Australia, That of course means we also have no means of making Defense equipment to defend ourselves either, How many are aware that during the First Gulf war Harley Davidson shut down Motorcycle production for Six Months to make Missiles and Torpedo's?

 

But when it comes to Tools and suchlike even Governments are stupid, You either make quality at Home or Ban cheap rubbish because imported cheap rubbish destroys your economy, Think about it if you spend $300.00 and buy a top quality angle grinder that lasts 20 years of Home use or 10 years in a shop you have outlayed $300 once in maybe at worst 10 years sending money  overseas for  an import, adding to the Nations Debt and driving up the cost of money at home.

But buy a cheap $39.95 Ching Wing Special that lasts maybe 12 months at best and the shop user ends up spending almost $400 bucks and the home user may be lucky if that's all it costs them, Plus it screws the balance of payments and cost's people their Job, Those very people may be Your Customers at Work keeping You Employed!!

'

Meanwhile the people making the quality products are out of a Job and the poor suckers being treated like slave labor don't make much anyway but hopefully can at least afford to put a roof over their heads and eat, Not so for many in the Western World.

 

But look beyond just your Politicians and Business leaders and think about this Most of this Off-shoring of Jobs comes via United nations BS Politicians sign up for, The UN general assembly where much of this rubbish comes from runs on Democratic Principle of majority Rules when Votes are counted,

So Count how many Islamic nations there are and Third World Dictators and other Failed Nations with their hands out for "Aid" then work out how many First World nations there are and then you will know why anything out of the UN is designed to Screw You over, The Third World Voted for It and You were either Outvoted or Sold Down the River by Corrupt Bureaucrats and Politicians.

 

Are the average Americans aware of just how much Money the US hands over to the UN every year, Not just the State Department But Agriculture and a host of other Departments you may think are only concerned with Internal Stuff all are handing over hundreds of Millions of Your Dollars to nothing more than a Bunch of Crooks and scammers.

Our Government is No different in t selling us out as well regardless of what side of politics they profess to be from.

 

 

That Good people is why Tools are Rubbish in many cases these days and you should never buy Cheap Junk it may cost you your Job and Home or possibly Family relationships all are interconnected

, So never let a Good Quality Tool no mater How old escape your clutches and if you can Buy Quality made in a First World nation if not your Own.

[Dj7291993]

I know none of you want to here this, but the guy in the store is right.  Snap-On still makes they're ratchets in the USA, even has a metal toggle.  Want to take a gander at how much a 3/8" drive ratchet costs from them?  It's not cheap to build tools in the US, even less cheap to build them well.  One of the reasons Snap-On's toolboxes cost so much, they're all made from virgin steel, a lot of it comes out of Pueblo, Co. Honestly, you're the reason they are made so cheap. Judging by where you went, and that you went with a coupon, I'd bet you'd never pay $150 for one new ratchet, would you?  You complain about the companies being cheap and outsourcing, yet you don't support the ones that do still build quality stuff, and haven't outsourced everything.  Why?  If I had to guess, I'd say cause you can't afford to.  Nothing wrong with that, but you're not the only one.  For most guys, that plastic, China junk works good enough.  And more importantly, fits their budget.  If that's what the majority of people want, that's what the majority of companies will cater to.  They have to in order to stay alive.  If a business doesn't make money, it won't be a business for very long.  You don't work your job for free, much less at a loss, why should a company owner?

 

Only ways you can fix it is to change the demand, and change the supply.  In other words, get more people to be willing to fork over a few grand for a good tool set, or make it cheaper to build things here (remove excessive regulations, and change the employee entitlement mentality).

[opus]

There will be no demand for US built products until the US learns how to price competitively.  We've priced ourselves right out of the market, so China took over.  There is only a very limited percent I imagine that would be willing to you $150 for a 3/8" drive.

 

I'm not a mechanic by trade but I use my tools a lot.  Some 40 years ago my Dad bought me my first set of ratchets....so China made crap.  I've had issues with Snap On tools yet the China ones are still fine....go figure.   There is no rhyme or reason to it all. 

[coxy]

Probably the same over there but here in Australia the biggest driver that has pushed up salaries and wages is in fact the Criminals in the real estate industry, If housing and Shop rentals were not so expensive then wage pressures would be much lower and Western nations would be able to compete better price wise and improve sales based on not just quality buit a fair price, Sorry but China Inc and competing with them is a race to the bottom.

 

Germany has it figured out at least until their Marxist PM Angela Merkel sold them out to a third world invasion of Welfare bludgers they put in place the TUV system where nothing can be sold unless it meets a certain quality and fit for purpose standard that at least keeps the absolute rubbish out of the system as it simply is not good enough or in truth safe enough to sell in Germany it ain't available.

 

Chinese electrical products can be very dangerous because of dodgy fake certification labels poor workmanship where dangerous electrical connections are basically unsafe and simply poor metalurgy and substandard componets or major subassemblies.

Here in Australia we now have a disaster with dodgy Chinese sourced household electrical cable where the insulation has a life expectancy of maybe five years if your lucky before the fires start and they do not know who sold all of it and to whom.

There have also been fake wiring harnesses from china being supplied for a recall on faulty airbags part of a massive world wide recall and they are not only substandard they are probably the parts supplied by some dodgy Toyota supplier that started the whole recall in the first place.

 

So if "Pricing Competively" is the whole answer be prepared to accept your next Electrical item may indeed Kill you or the "New" China  supplied  Brake master cylinder that just failed on the eighteen wheeler up your rearend that is about to run you off the road and Kill you or your family just remember it was "Competively Priced".

Edited September 13, 2015 by coxy

[OLsubedrivr]

I love the USA! 

Good quaity, American made affordable tools are hard to come by as are many items meeting those attributes but this topic has the potential to be a "pandora's box"  and I can't get started BUT I am scared where this great nation is headed.