Well I jumped on my high horse, and went to all three stores and looked at all three tool sets in real life. After less than awesome encounters at Lowes and Home Depot, I pulled the trigger at Sears.
The whole story,
HOME DEPOT: Went to the tools and found the set pictured above. Made in China, straight up. Like Jamesdart, I will pay chinese prices for chinese products. I recently got on my high horse at "Intermountain Safety Shoes" here in Golden for the same thing. They had two pairs of boots not made in China and tried to tell me that there are NO US made steel toe boots anymore. I told them I'd buy Chinese boots at Chinese boot prices at WalMart, but for $400 it better be made by an American at a decent wage and benefits for his/her family! Then I went to Arvada Army Surplus and bought some US made Carolinas.
Back to HD and being on my high freekin horse, I did not buy Chinese tools, but they had a small plastic shelf deal (US made) I wanted so I decided to get that. Went to check out and they had ONE register open with a line at least 100ft long. I stood there long enough for the manager to come out and try to get people to go to the self check out lines. Nobody moved so when he tried a second time I said "If you wanna pay me to do that guys job I'll check myself out!" . The rest of the people in line were very encouraging, but I had my non-confrontational 6-foot redhead GF with me, so things got pretty sketchy pretty quick. I IMMEDIATELY wished I'd have just walked out, but now just had to finish the fight and be right to save face. So when he looked at me and said "Folks you can stand in line or you can use the self check out", I said "No, YOU can open another register or I can call that 'customer satisfaction' number on the wall right above you and go to Lowes". I had rehersed this in my head the few second before and had already pulled my phone out, holding it at arms length. I watched as a bunch of people infront and behind me had there phones out and did the same. My first thought was that we were ALL going to call the "customer satisfaction" number at the same time, but then I realized,
They're shooting video and THAT'S why my GF was mortified! But I won, and within seconds 5 registers were open and one manned by a very special person that I'll explain more at the end of this post.
Long story short, if you were at the Denver HD under I-25 that's a PITA to get to on Saturday, and there was more than one register open, you're welcome!
LOWES: I'm amazed my GF stuck with me for this, but she told me after Home Depot that shopping with me is exciting, haha! We went to the Lowes on South Santa Fe and I found the tool set pictured in post #1. I flipped it every which way looking for "made in -xxx-", making a huge ruckus as the stuff inside rattled about. Maybe "high horse" isn't the right phrase, I mean I came all the way into the big city for tools so maybe it was more of a "WAR-PATH", haha! Unsuccessful I set it on a blue Kobalt tool cart and start ripping the carboard sleeve off it. Finally an employee said "If you open the packaging you have to buy it". I said "If the packaging said where it was made I wouldn't have to remove it."
If you're one of the members that's met me, you can picture me saying it with the way I smile. I like to smile. He told me he was sure it was made in China and I pointed out that it was made in the Republic of China (Taiwan), not the Peoples Republic if China (Communist China) through the plastic bag holding some of the wrenches, but that it didn't matter because I was looking for US made tools. He expressed his disdain for all tools being made in China now and I told him that if that was gospel I'd start my own foundry. He wished me well and we left empty handed.
SEARS: I haven't lived in Denver since 2005 and had completely forgot about the Sears on west Colfax across from Harbor Freight. My GF was being my guide so I went to the swanky Sears at the Cherry Creek Mall. I found the tool kit pictured in post #1 and was elated.
Also, the snot nosed Abercrombie reject young-Ben Afleck clone salesman was POLITE, halfway knowledgeable, and while he failed to upsell me into a $6000 yard tractor, convinced me that he wasn't a total douche bag. He DID get me to update my "Craftsman Club" info though, so I'm sure my yahoo account will be bombasted with junkmail sales fliers again.
Also, it included loose allen wrenches which aren't in the pics or description. Every single item is marked "U.S.A." and are the familiar craftsman tool markings if you've bought traditional craftsman tools in the last 20 years. A lot of their newer stuff, and not just the "EVOLV" crap, but "Professional" and regular "Craftsman" too, with the "Laser etched" or "Black finish" or "Random Gimmick", isn't the same as it was, but this tool kit is real Craftsman.
This set was right next to it on the shelf and the packaging said "Made in China", even though in the pics on the internet the sockets say "Made in USA", the cardboard sleeve over the mess said China.
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-189-piec ... ckType=G17
WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE CONTENDERS:
HUSKY: The case was the most solid. The box didn't rely on any blown plastic detents to hold together. If you had this thing loose in the back of your rig while wheeling, you would take the whole mess to the back of your head, not just a couple of random sockets. The latches lock the whole thing shut. The Kobalt trays slide in past a detent to hold them in, the Craftsman has two little flaps that push into detents to hold the trays in.
KOBALT: The color coding thing is pretty neat. Everything they make SAE is red, everything metric is blue, and this isn't just the tool kit pictured, it's across the board. If you're a neat freak, it makes it very pretty.
WHY I CHOSE CRAFTSMAN: This tool set is regularly $300 vs the $200 on the others. What you can't see on the internet is that the craftsman kit is at least 50% bigger and 50% heavier.
(The screwdrivers were bought separately and I will commment on those shortly)
I had the box empty and it felt like an empty blow formed plastic box. This tells me there's 50% more useful stuff in it. None of the tool kits say on the outside exactly what's inside but they look comparable. It's clear after looking at all three in real life, and even though I didn't take an itemized inventory of each, that the other two are trying to swindle those looking at the craftsman. The sockets and drivers in the Craftsman kit are the same ones sold individually on the rack. I know for sure that the 3/4" six sided socket has the exact same part number as the one on the shelf, I pulled it out and checked before I went to check out. I know the MAC truck gave me a little crap trying to exchange a screwdriver for a new one because the part number was for one out of a kit. I used to love the MAC truck as much as Jaber, but when you pay $30 a screwdriver for a 10 screwdriver kit (yes, $300 for 10 screwdrivers), I don't want no crap when the tip chips off of one. And I'm still a little pissed off that the replacement's handle doesn't match.
JUST A QUICK WORD ON SCREWDRIVERS:
This isn't about my work screwdrivers, but the Butylite handled Husky and Kobalt screwdrivers were identical except for the the last two letters in the P/N and USA made, but they're different from the Craftsmans. I dug a stray husky out of the tupperware bin to demonstrate:
They're similar enough they probably came from the same factory, but even the serations on the blades are different. The top is a Craftsman and the bottom is a Husky.
Now as a pro I don't recommend any of these for pros. When you wrench for a living your hands hurt after lunch, and that clear plastic handle feels like it'll rip the bumps off your callouses. Think about it, your knuckles are as big as golfballs and thobbing like boiled hotdogs, what's easier to wrap those sausages around?
Lets just say that you can reach a point where a $30 screwdriver seems worth it.
Now for a weekend warrior, that clear plastic butylite or whatever it's called WILL rip the bumps off your callouses they grip so good, so it's a good thing for Sunday afternoon projects.
THE SPECIAL PERSON AT HOME DEPOT:
I promised I'd get back to this and it's pretty funny. The "patron botherer" at the dowtown Home Depot was a transvestite. Not the Rue Paul type neither. It was a 60 year old white dude with shoulder length hair, purple eyeshadow, red lipstick and a 5 o'clock shadow. The rhinestone bedazzled jeans was icing on the cake. Now, I consider myself to be pretty progressive and I like to think I support the LGBT community within reason. Everyone deserves to be happy, at least in that respect. Now even if you DON'T feel that way, it's freekin funny. Home Depot didn't just give that dude a job, they stuck him out in front and I think that's pretty cool, one way or the other. Even though the chinese tools and i had to publicly embarrass the manager to open up more lines, I will probably shop at that home depot again.