Lowes?

[Eric C Stoltzfus]

So I went to Lowes today. I wanted to get some jigsaw blades and a few other things. They were completely reorganizing the tool section to make room for all the new craftsman tools. My jigsaw uses the U type blade. They didn't have any of that style blades. I also couldn't find any Stanley tools. What is wrong with you guys?

[Dan Baginski]

I went to Home Depot last week to buy a can of minwax wipe on poly. Apparently they don’t carry the minwax brand anymore. It’s all varathane now. And they stopped carrying bessy clamps too and replaced it with dewalt.

[Art Mann]

If Lowes marketing people think that "Craftsman" will be perceived as a premium brand in the same league as Dewalt, Bosch, Milwaukee, Makita or even Hitachi, they may be disappointed. I certainly don't see it that way. I consider them to be similar to Ryobi at Home Depot, but higher priced.

[marlin adams]

I went to Home Depot last week to buy a can of minwax wipe on poly. Apparently they don’t carry the minwax brand anymore. It’s all varathane now. And they stopped carrying bessy clamps too and replaced it with dewalt.

Minwax being phased out but there was plenty of the bessy clamps.

[Gary Ragatz]

I live here in rockwall and went to home depot today and they had plenty of both.

Not sure about Minwax, but my local HD has plenty of Bessey clamps in stock.

[Doug Garson]

Looks like Art beat me to it. It will be interesting to see how Craftsman sells at Lowes. It's been years since Craftsman was seen as a quality brand. I'm surprised Sears was able to sell the brand and that it just didn't die with them with so many better options out there. Still have lots of Craftsman tools in my shop, none of them less than 20 years old, most even older.

[marlin adams]

But from what I understand is the Home depot is phasing out minwax so get it while you can. This is from the paint dept supervisor.

Minwax is owned by Sherwin Williams. We arent carrying them, Purdy brushes or Cabot stains iirc because they are a competitor. Also SW signed an exclusivity deal with Lowe's

[John Sincerbeaux]

Have you guys ever heard of AMAZON?

[Frank Pratt]

Can't say I'll miss Minwax. Their stains are particularly bad.

[Greg Parrish]

Local HD here has phased out minwax under same reason Marlin indicated.
They also phased out most of the German made Bessey clamps and carry mostly the Chinese versions now

and Craftsman started dying as a brand as soon as they off shored all the hand tools from USA made to Chinese made. I bought a bunch of items when they were Dumping the USA stock at clearance prices so they could replace with the made in China packaged version. Dumb. Quality went down. The replacement warranty became useless. Etc.

[John TenEyck]

No Sealcoat Shellac at my local HD either the last two times I've been there. It's still listed on their website, but not in store.

John

[Bill Orbine]

Oh I don't know.... I thought Lowe's is making a pretty good push with the Craftsman lineup. I thought the looks was very appealing though it was strange to see a Red/Black lineup inside a Blue/White store. I think they will do well with that even though they're no match for Snap-On.

[Donn Ward]

Regarding Minwax, I won't fall on my sword for their stains, but their wipe on poly is, IMHO, far superior to the WATCO brand. I couldn't find Minwax poly at HD or Lowes so I purchased WATCO. It took 24 hours to dry and it didn't flow out as smoothly as Minwax. I was able to find Minwax at ACE Hardware so I purchased a couple of cans...It went on smoothly and dried within a couple of hours, so I could apply multiple coats in a single day.

[Gary Ragatz]

Local HD here has phased out minwax under same reason Marlin indicated.
They also phased out most of the German made Bessey clamps and carry mostly the Chinese versions now

and Craftsman started dying as a brand as soon as they off shored all the hand tools from USA made to Chinese made. I bought a bunch of items when they were Dumping the USA stock at clearance prices so they could replace with the made in China packaged version. Dumb. Quality went down. The replacement warranty became useless. Etc.

The Bessey bar clamps I bought at HD a few weeks ago were made in Germany. The pipe clamps were made in China. Both seem to perform well, so far. No reason I can think of to assume up-front that a Chinese-made product would be inferior to a German-made or American-made product. Making a pipe clamp, or a c-clamp, or a hammer isn't exactly rocket science. I don't need to go to a gourmet restaurant to get a good hamburger.

[Bill Dufour]

HD has no bare root trees this season. Lowes one small load and that is it for the season. Hard to believe they have abandoned the market here in the central valley. Commercial growers here only sell semi loads of trees. But they sell world wide.
This county is something like 75% of the North American almond production. Over 95% within 30 miles. Billions of dollars and many other fruit trees grow well here. Not like they were trying to sell trees that would be hard to grow here.
Bil lD