Corporate America kills good things

corporate America makes those 7/16" bolts you need

 

Damn! $266 for 7 open end wrenches. Well I ***ume the reason the off shore tools cost less from say China is because the typical worker there gets paid very little with no benefits. Looks like thats why we are losing a lot of jobs to them and other countries.

The town I live in has lost 2 manufacturers to China.

Hey if you're lookin for tools try the pawn shops. Seems some of them have BINS full of sockets and single wrenches.

 

Amen, Scott.

I live in a small town, we only have an Ace Hardawre, decent selection of stuff and good folks who know what they've got and are happy to help you.

On the other hand, our only parts store is and Advance, all the **** you mentioned above plus hotwheels, novelty cigarette lighters, and 50 different kinds of keychains. Plus two mouth breathers and a pimple faced teenager working behind the counter, and a tattooed chick with a chip on her shoulder for a manager. I just skip it anymore and drive 15 miles to the nearest NAPA.

 

I doubt it.

 

You go that right. When I moved to my town I was so pleased to find the local harware store County Line Hardware. This guy has every nut, bolt, fastener, and widget known to man. You wanna buy lightbulbs, a toaster, a lawnmower, pool suppkies, Christmas decorations this guy has it and knows where everything is. Hell he even has a CHROME nut and bold ***ortment how cool is that! I've yet to go in there and not comeout with what I was looking for. Hey mabe he's got a pair of old caddy tail lights in the back........lol

 

I blame unions for that - just like no one can afford a new car for the same reason (no one I know anyway). Hell if you had to start a trainiee at $18 an hour & constanlty raise that, plus benefits, how much would you have to charge for ****? Of course it's not as simple as that (just blaming the unions).
& Slick54 you're right. $90 will get you *maybe* 3 wrenches from snap-on. I like S-K tools. Last I checked they were made in the USA & great tools at a reasonable price. And yeah what the ****** does anyone need with a $5,000 tool box??? The idiots that buy those are just trying to impress somebody - I have no idea who. But with the tool trucks part of what you're paying for is the convenience. Ya' gotta' admit they make it easy to get what you need to make a living, even if it does cost far too much.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Giggle Cream - it makes dessert *funny*!

 

And don't forget that a couple of months ago K-MART BOUGHT SEARS. Shortly after that they were putting all of the great Milwaukee tools on deep discount and moving in the DeWalt stuff.

Hey, I thought that DeWalt was good stuff, but now that K-MART corporate HQ is pushing them I don't know what to think anymore.

I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop when they start to "value-engineer" the CRAFTSMAN tool line "to serve the customer better."

.

 

who then ?

 

i have one of those big ol Snap-On tool boxes everyone is ragging on. It cost a good bit more than 5000 bucks too. The reason I have it is that I love nice tools and tool boxes. I wanted it. I earned the money to buy it with the tools it holds. I bought it for the same reason we buy old car parts and build hot rods out of them. I wanted to.

I was never top producer in the shop, but I was always within the top 3 or 4 out of the whole dealership. The tool box don't make the man, but it can make his job nicer.

 

I have been a "mechanic" for 40+ years, and I have always bought quality tools to use in my profession. I dont have a $5000 tool box, just a matco box that was traded in by someone who wanted a $5000. tool box. I lost an SK 21 mm combo wrench a while back, and when our tool man came in I wanted to replace it , so he said fine, that will be $24.oo. It seemed a little high,so I asked him if he had anything else,He showed me a set of Sunex wrenches,made in china,fully polished,extra long,for $26.oo This was for a set from8 mm up to 24 mm .I did buy the chinese wrenches and they have given me excellent service. It is not easy to make a decent living as a mechanic( at least around here) and I would love to keep my money in the US but not to support corporate greed.

 

S. Korea, Taiwan, Japan. Any "low cost country". I couldn't find the article I read recently (with up to date stats) but here is one:
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/industries/Fabricated-Metal/Bolts-Nuts-Screws-Rivets-Washers.html
According to this article domestic production was down to 44% by 1984.

I wounldn't buy a critical fastener from Home Despot. I'll bet good $ they get the cheapest source, and counterfeit fasteners are a big problem.

 

I wounldn't buy a critical fastener from Home Despot. I'll bet good $ they get the cheapest source, and counterfeit fasteners are a big problem.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't either. Where are ARP fasteners made,Gardner Wescott and Colony?What I'm saying is corporate America is responsible for you being able to buy that bolt.

 

I wouldn't either. Where are ARP fasteners made,Gardner Wescott and Colony?What I'm saying is corporate America is responsible for you being able to buy that bolt.[/QUOTE]
Dont remember which one said it, but one of the Astronauts said it best "there i was on top of this rocket when it p***ed through my mind...everything on this rocketship was supplied by the lowest bidder"
YIKES
There is a local hardware store near me, that actually lies in the city limits of the town i live in...i always try them first. Couple of years ago they got slow & things didn't look to good. Now, with a new manager, the store is cleaned up, the lot is nicely packed most of the time. Sometimes ya pay a little more, sometimes a little less. All i know is when i go in, there is usually someone in the store that has the answer to whatever question i have, the Stainless bins are full, and the little drawers on top of the bolt bins with all of the oddball fastner, washer, retainer thingies are always stocked.
Life is good when you support your local / mom & pop operation. Screw walmart, lowes & home depot.
Don't get me started on the Parts stores around me, i have Pep Boys, Auto Zone & o'reillys within 2 miles of the house.............which is why i drive 10 miles to Napa

 

1st off there needs to be unions, plain enough, yeah they don't always work out the best but look at the damned miners in WV, as long as we have unscrupulous corporate en***ies that don't really care about their employees they are needed. As for the Kmart/Sears merger (Kmart had to give 11 billion to push it through) and they're decision to push Dewalt over other brands besides Craftsman, well you can thank Home Depot and Lowes for that, they're just trying to compete. I try to use more customer service oriented and "mom and pop" places when I can. I absolutely refuse to do business with Wal Mart or Sam's Club as they seem to be the worst offenders. If I have to choose between Home Depot and Lowes I choose Lowes because it's a NC company and keeps more money close to home. I try not to buy from Speedway because of their business practices (they like to carry someones line then when it starts selling they repop it in China and stop carrying the original).

 

THANK`S, I couldn`t have said it better! I worked turning wrenches for 30 years and figured I was in***led to a nice box! Sure it`s a flagrent display of consumerism and I could have probebly bought out the Sears tool section for what I spent on a box, BUT ''To each his own''

 

It's easy to blame unions for stuff being too expensive, but there's a lot more to it than that. Fact is wages have been almost stagnant for the last 30yrs and there's been a decline in buying power once inflation is figured in. I'm not a union man, never have been, but I can recognize that declines in real buying power have paralleled declining union membership. Blame our laissez-faire capitalist, robber baron, trickle-down at***ude toward the economy. The only thing we're gaining from a "global economy" is the right to be just as poor as India. Yeah, I'll pay a little extra to avoid cheap Chinese **** and I'm proud to do it.

 

As the original poster said, you have to go to a good fastener place nowadays. That also could be a large machine shop as well in the town in which I grew up.

JUST NOW, got back from a great fastener place - needed a hardened, thick metric flat wahser to weld on my Jeep to fix a mount. No problem, just by two bucks worth (min) and I was out the door in 4 min. The same company DELIVERED just 6 metric lock nuts when I needed them for my car and charged me NOTHING! A great place!

Also, high union wages may have something to do with stuff being from overseas.

 

I enjoy a good political conversation as much as the next guy,
but this is the HAMB so in an attempt to bring the subject back on topic,

what takes a 7/16 x 4" nc bolt on the top end of a Caddy motor?

anyway?

oh yeah, 'heard Wall Mart is planning to open another 15,000 stores nationally..
hmm.. is that freedom of choice
or freedom from choice?

 

Ya'll think Strap-o & Matco ect. are all made in the U.S.? Think again I've had wholesale tool buyers tell me they go to Chinese foundries also. Also, you don't like unions? Go to work for Walley World & see if you like your benifits-39 years union and PROUD of it.

 

Uhhhh... the Snap-On hand tools are all made in the US, I believe the foundry is in Kenosha WI if I'm correct. Though I also believe that some of them are made in the Craftsman foundry in Simsbury, Connecticut as well.

 

Historic preservationists call Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, etcetera "the homogenizers."

 

No kidding! Maybe a head bolt?

Funny, I had exactly the same problem recently, I tried to get a stainless 7/16" bolt for my project. Still haven't even found a supplier for the 7/16" bolt, much less in SS.

 

Elkins Hardware......not in stainless but available nonetheless

 

It's not the corporate machine folks, it's us. We've unwittingly created the monster we dispise. It's kind of the American way to shop for the lowest price on goods, and that was great..... in the '50s. Back then, it was healthy compe***ion, but remember, it wasn't a global economy then. Now, China can kick our ***es price-wise ($1/hour labor versus $18/hr), and Americans (for the most part) don't realize the value of VALUE any longer. Remember the "Buy American" campaign 10 years ago? Seemed like a great idea, but it COST MORE to support American goods, so everyone said "it's a great idea, blah blah, I'm going to Wallymart 'cuz they're cheaper". Well, folks, Wallymart abandoned the "only American" years ago! So now, we sell it, we buy it, but we don't MAKE it. How long do you think this imbalance can last?
Bottom line (for me) is that I support local hardware stores when ever I can.... those people live in my neighborhood. I refuse to buy at Walmart.... why keep feeding the machine? Yes, it costs more, but it's an investment in America. It's cliche, but nonetheless true...... "Buy American, the job you save may be your own".
Sorry for the rant....

 

. . . this guy gets it.

Our great grandparents fought and spilled blood to get unions established - unions are as "traditional" and "American" as it gets.

Fox news and the phoney "Reagan-revolution" will tell you otherwise but if you look into it further you'll find that this same kind of wealth concentration and disregard for the working man rose up in the 1930's and our democracy was saved . . . . in a large part by the union movement. . . who will save us this time?

 

I will spend a little more to keep the smaller guy going and dont have to cross town for pieces. There is a True Value about a mile away so if I have to walk there it is no big deal.
We are lucky here in Anchorage there is AIH (Alaska Industrial Hardware) Fasteners & Fire Systems and between the two they have about anything I can use.
As Far as the box stores goes I do not shop there unless I cannot find it anywhere else and need it right away. Home Depot & Lowes very little of my business and Walmart Gets none.
We have A schmucks here and as long as you want air Freshners or OCC Bar stools It is a good place to go. I get most of my locally bought parts from High Performance Auto Napa or B&C.
The facts is If you go cheap you are Playing in the hands of these big box stores. I can understand getting a good deal But you get what you are paying for and all it does is run the smaller guy out of business.. What will you have when they are gone??
I will step off of my Soap box now

Dawg

 

without going into the global economy, cheap foreign products, the decline of the union, and the DUMBING of Americans, let's just say, yes, corporate America ****s, if for nothing else than they don't cater to us anymore.

And I don't think that it's because handymen aren't cool anymore, it's because we are being TOLD that working on cars isn't cool. I remember when that used to be RESPECTED. But who needs to work on stuff now? Why fix stuff? Why conserve? Consume consume consume!!!! Relax! Everything will be done FOR you!

Corporations realized long ago that there was no MONEY to be made catering to handymen, why sell them a .20 cent bolt when you can just buy this whole new $45 plastic ***embly to fix your problem? It's easier that way, right? You've got money, you're Americans, live free or die free, you shouldn't have to FIX stuff, that's for peasants in other countries, buy buy buy! Sorry for that, just getting aggravated thinking about it, how cars used to be built to last, now they can engineer a life span into them down to the day they want it to break. How is it my 33 year old 300,000 mile pickup is more reliable than my boss' new Jeep?

The Local Lowe's used to have a HUGE selection of fasteners, three full aisles of grade 8, 5, and bits and doodads as far as the eye could see. Then they shrunk it to one aisle, then two bins, now you have to buy individually wrapped bolts at 4 times the old cost. Makes me sick. Ace is the last of the fastener stores around here, otherwise it's McMaster

 

Our form of government is a representative republic, no matter what the talking heads say

 

I don't think you understand. It was probably an *American* corporation that opened a factory in china, to save money on production & make those wrenches. So you ARE supporting corporate greed even MORE than if you bought US made shtuff.

Yeah people are idiots. Remember 1/2 of the population is below average. ;^P I'll pay two or three times the amount for something made here in the USA. Wallmart went to **** when Sam died, & his greedy daughter ***** took over.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

You just shot an unarmed man!
"Well, he should have armed himself."

 

Youse guys can ***** all you want - as long as you follow these rules when it comes to buying EVERYTHING:

1) Don't buy from a chain - ever.
2) Support your local retailers.
3) Support your local industries.
4) Buy American - and not just built here. American is defined as the location of the boardroom table, not the ***embly plant.

Corporate America follows the dough, period. I've stood in dirt-floor factories on the Pacific Rim where barefoot kids make the stuff that Wal-Mart and Lowe's buy; places where you literally pee in the ditch behind the machines. American industries cannot compete with this, and as long as folks are buyin' the cheap stuff - the jobs go away. Where's the textile industry and the textile unions? Where's the bicycle industry and the bicycle workers? Where'd the machine tool industry go? They're all in the same place - a place of dirt floor factories and folks livin' outta shipping containers. That's not the kinda place I'd like to live in - and as long as we continue to buy the cheap stuff - that's where we're goin'.

Once told off a prospective realtor (was selling my house) on account of he was driving a Lexus in the town where GM has it's proving grounds (See #3). It's all connected, guys. To be fair, you can't pick and choose when its convenient.

If we all followed the rules - we'd pay more. I'm okay with that if it keeps folks employed makin' good stuff at decent wages.