Sears Kreg Experience

[Fins59]

Visited the local Sears store the other night here in Wausau, Wisconsin to see what they had in Kreg accessories.  It's a fairly large store.

Turned out they had nothing.  Talked to 3 employees in the tool department.  None of them ever heard of the Kreg Jig.  In fact one of them said "I've been here 20 years and I've never heard of a Kreg Jig".   One of them said maybe I'd have to go to a special woodworking store to get one.  ( I told him that I already have the jig but was looking for accessories).

All the local home improvement stores here have the Kreg but not too much in accessories.

Mistakenly, I thought Sears would be the place for these.  Maybe a Kreg Sales Rep should start hitting on these guys.

Anyway, that was my "Sears Experience".   

[William J Grasser]

For those who do not have a local Kreg supplier, or even if you do:

Get a McFeeley's catalog, they have Kreg accessories and screws of every known type.

 

If you don't have one, go to their website and order one.  If you order their grab-bag/sample pac, you will receive several pounds of various screews including several sizes of Kreg Screws or eqivilent.  It's a great investment.

 

McFeely's

Quality Fasteners & Woodworking Supplies. $1 shipping on any order!

www.McFeelys.com

 

I don't work for Kreg or McFeeley's - just like and use thier products

 

[Matthew J Worner]

Out here where I live the nearest Sears is right down the street from Lowes; 130 miles away (Amarillo).  Woodcraft is 260 miles in the other direction (Albuquerque).  Then if you do get there, you know more about how things work than the sales staff 9 times out of 10.  Online sales 10 feet from my bedroom in the living room.  No contest.

 

Santa wears brown and drives a big square truck.

[Britt T.]

Amazon.com has a surprising amount of kreg jigs and accessories - and pretty decent prices - compared my local Lowes.

[Rolf]

I have been quite succesful at my local Lowes.

[John Schaben]

I resemble that remark ROFLMAO

Matthew J Worner said: 

Santa wears brown and drives a big square truck.

[Wilfred Lee Greene]

I purchased Sear Craftsman tools, etc. for over 3 decades as my Dad did before me.  Their people used to know about tools, etc., but for the past 10 years or so, I've purchased almost nothing from them except a few hand tools on sale since they are "lifetime warrantied" and easy to replace.  Their staff now knows very little about tools or woodworking...mostly teenagers with little knowledge or interest in really helping and the quality is not what it was.  Rockler is the place to go now. Their people not only know about tools and woodworking, but many are retired professional woodworkers and or presently avid woodworkers.  Prices are competative or on sale and often "free shipping" is offered through Rockler.com.  I got my Kreg jig there and returned to purchase one for my son and many accessories and built 3 Pocket-Hole Jig Organizer & Bases illustrated in WOOD magazine (March 2011).  I knew little about building cabinets and now have supplied my son & family with a whole kitchen full of cabinets.  Thank you Kreg...we love you! 

[William Steinfeldt]

I went to Sears to get a bandsaw blade for one of their bandsaws I recieved as a gift. They did not have it, THey looked up the length and told me to find one somewhere else. Fortunately for me we have a Menards, Home Depot and a large Ace Hardware store in town. Menards had it, they also cary a lot of the Kreg Jigs, Screws and accessories. I do not bother with Sears anymore.

[l crutcher]

Ditto, same experience.  anderson & muncie, indiana

[Ramon Alicea]

I work at Sears in Loss Prevention.  When I go browse the tool dept and ask the associates about woodworking tools they tell me we don't carry it.  I then correct them and take them to the computer to Sears.com.  Sears sells a lot of woodworking tools on through their web site.  The Kreg jig is usually my example to use with the associate.  They look at me with a surprised look.  The store is small and can't carry everything.  However if you want the item can usually be shipped to you ro to the store for you to pick up.  Sears.com has Jet, Powermatic, Kreg, Woodpecker, Triton and other brnads.  Check it out.

[J Ruppe]

The Lowe's in Plover, WI sells Kreg accessories. No I don't live in Wisconsin, but I looked on line at the closest store to Wausau, Wisconsin.

[Robert]

The state of knowledge in the specialty, brick and mortar,  retail business is abysmal. Products come on the market and change rapidly, so much so that uninspired minimum wage folks have little ability or interest to keep up. Our local hardware store, amply staffed with sleepy-eyed teenagers who never touched a screwdriver,  is supposed to be a Kreg dealer- when I asked to see where the display they had no idea what I was talking about ! I seldom venture beyond the keyboard any longer to purchase most things.

As for Sears, their latest brain storm to introduce the Karshadian sisters clothing line ! I am sure it will be a big seller; and, who knows, maybe they will name a socket set after them.

[Don McKenzie]

I used to have Craftman tools almost exclusively back in the 60's & 70's, and their higher end ones were about as good as you could get if you were not a professional tradesman (I had a top of the line Craftman 7 1/2" saw that is still on the go at my son's house-It's older than he is). Then the manufactures that catered to the pros started to go after the home owner/ hobbyist market. As they took the higher end home owner market away from Sears, Sears started concentrating on the lower and mid ranges and cut quality or just re-branded other low end makes to keep cost down. I dealt with a couple of sales people (since departed Sears and this world) who were knowledgible and always had a friendly greeting for me. Now the sales personal are basically cash register attendents. Also Sears has expanded the clothing/fashion side of business and shrunk the tool/hardware dept. to the point where the tools are in some little corner or in the basement level. The have lots of lawn mowers and snow blowers, but not many power tools.

A company like Kreg would have a VERY hard time getting shelf space at Sears due to Sears de-emphasizing hard goods and the way large retailers sqeeze suppliers. I spent a significant part of my career as an investigater. Because of government confidentiality constraints, I can't disclose details of investigations even in retirement, but one case crossed paths with one involving a Sears department head buyer. A small srart up business had come up with an inovative product that would have retailed for under $10.00 at the time. They reasoned that if they could get it into Sears, the resulting volume would get them off the ground. All was looking good until the buyer asked what did their incentive envelope have in it. They were unaware what that was, so it was explained that it was a little parcel with about 250 M (not C) ones in it, as that was the cost of doing business. Since they were under capitalized and operating on a shoe string with no hope of recouping that kind of money for a very long time on something they had to manufacture for less than $5.00 and still have a profit, they were shown the door. (Not as result of this incident, rather as a complaint to higher ups by some other supplier, that buyer relinquished his employment at a later time.) Some times it just isn't worth it to get your product carried everywhere if you have to go from a profitable business to an unprofitable position. Kreg's products probably are marketed better by smaller specialty stores and wood show or fair demos, than by being put on 30 in. of allotted shelf space with a price sticker and nothing else.