For you Craftsman guys.

[zman]

For those of you who like Craftsman Tools you have another source.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,3760604.story

[DC]

Very interesting, and I would welcome it since the nearest Ace Hardware to me is a 70 mile round trip as compared to the nearest Sears at 300 miles. If this goes through, I do wonder if Ace will honor the Craftsman lifetime free replacement guarantee.

[zman]

I am a Ace dealer and they are not saying much yet. I will know more in late March but the tool selection sounds like it should be pretty deep. BTW, this means Craftsman tools are "available" at Ace. Since each store is independently owned each store can carry what they want so if you drive 70 miles you may want to call first. We are expecting availabily in June so I would add a few more months to that.

[DC]

Those are some good points. And actually, I have found for a number of years that even when I go to Sears, they rarely have the specific Craftsman tools I am looking for as they just don't carry the expansive inventory they once did, which means that I typically order them on-line. So, maybe this new arrangement isn't all that great after all (at least for me).

The only other minor consideration would be whether Craftsman tool purchases at Ace will qualify for those who belong to the "Craftsman Club".