Lowes?

[Justin Horne]

Have you guys ever heard of AMAZON?

You get outta here what with your newfangled interwebs, snapbook and tweeter.

[Doug Dawson]

Most big box customers wouldn't know anything about Festool, Wera etc. beyond that they are overpriced. Some customers would, but not enough.

Plus, it looks too much like Ryobi to attract any attention. ;^b

[lowell holmes]

I will give the Lowes Craftsman tools a try. They might be quality and I will not know without buying a tool and using it.

[Jerome Stanek]

I remember getting Craftsman batteries for my Pro Black and Decker drills the 1940 series that was the top of the line back in the 90's. went to a B&D service center and seeing a weird color 1940 drill and asked about it they told me it was a Craftsman that B&D made for Sears. Batteries were half the price so I picked up about 6 as I had 7 drills.

[Dave Sabo]

As mentioned , Stanley owns Craftsman. They didn’t pay Sears close to a billion dollars for the name because they were feeling nostalgic or charitable. They also know a thing or two about marketing tools to “we the people” at lots of different price points. It’s also quite possible that Lowe’s is just along for the ride on this (though I have no info to substantiate this )

Hartville has one retail store while the Depot and Lowe’s have over 2000 each. It’s an entirely different merchandising exercise.

[Frederick Skelly]

As mentioned , Stanley owns Craftsman. They didn’t pay Sears close to a billion dollars for the name because they were feeling nostalgic or charitable. They also know a thing or two about marketing tools to “we the people” at lots of different price points. It’s also quite possible that Lowe’s is just along for the ride on this (though I have no info to substantiate this )

Hartville has one retail store while the Depot and Lowe’s have over 2000 each. It’s an entirely different merchandising exercise.

So it's true then Dave? Hartville Tool is backed by a local store?

[Dave Sabo]

So it's true then Dave? Hartville Tool is backed by a local store?

You can can click the “about us” tab on the website and read all about it.

They are are not unusual in this regard. ToolNut, Highland Woodworking, ACME, and a few others with big web presence have a retail store behind them. Maintaining a single location and a website is much easier than the logistics of keeping thousands of 100k sq. ft locations stocked and staffed and profitable.

[Rich Engelhardt]

So it's true then Dave? Hartville Tool is backed by a local store?

yep great place to spend a few hours walking around with a gaping jaw! https://www.hartvillehardware.com/

[Frederick Skelly]

Dave, Rich,
Thanks. All I can say is "Holy Cow!"
That's one heck of a hardware store!
Fred

[Jim Andrew]

Menards has both the Minwax and Varathane products. Lately they have been selling quarts of Minwax finish with a 3$ rebate. Limit 4 per rebate. I quit buying gallons as do not use it up fast enough, and the cans leak air and the finish skins over. Quarts work for me. If you want wipe on, just thin down the regular stuff.