Leatherman Wave: Dick's sporting goods, Home Depot, Wal-Mart quality

[jetscream]

My wife purchased my Leatherman from Dicks Sporting goods mainly because she thinks the products are different at Wal-Marts and Home Depot.  I know there is differently differences in some products.  The packaging is different in all three stores.  Dicks had a fancy packaging with my leather case next to it and it was all molded to the sheath and Leatherman.  The Home Depot has a plastic generic case with a soft case in the back loosely sliding around.  The Wal-Mart is in a soft sheath in a card board box.  I have noticed on a Wave the stamping symbol for unlock were the blades are looked a little fuzzy or not well defined.  Is there a difference in quality between all the stores or is it just cheaper packaging?  There was a recent post here that a person broke the point off there Wave and I was going to post were he bought it. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

It's just different packaging.  My manufacturing knowledge is limited, but it strikes me as more costly to run several different lines of each than any savings on "economy" grade tools would make up for.  Also, companies that do use the multi grade method usually label the various levels so that the consumer knows what they are paying for.

Def

[Benner]

Like Def has said, the package would have to clearly say if it was from an "economy" line.  I very much doubt leatherman would do such a thing though.

[bobofish]

Walmart is known for making manufacturers lower costs at any and all costs. The chineseification of manufacturing can be in very large part traced back to Walmart. It's well known that they pressured Rubbermaid to send their factories to China, despite Rubbermaid's commitment to keep labor in the US. As I understand it, Rubbermaid reached a compromise by offshoring some production, but finding ways to lower costs in the US. As a result, most Rubbermaid products are still made in the US.

Also as I understand it, Walmart went to Leatherman and pulled the same trick. Leatherman refused to offshore and lower quality, so Walmart went with Gerber as a punitive measure. Gerber was more than happy to offshore their work to get extra market share. After a while however Walmart realized that Leatherman was to valuable a product to completely ignore, and so brought some products back.

Don't quote me on these things, but I occasionally smoke cigars with some former Gerber execs.

[Ging]

Thats interesting what you say about Wal-Mart and the cost.  From what I have read about Spyderco, Wal-Mart asked them to provide a US manufactured knife (the mrk 1 Native it think it was).  This seems opposite from their current idea of cutting costs.

I with their UK stores (Asda) sold Leatherman's, it would make the weekly shop more interesting.....

[WhichDawg]

omg, I've read, seen reports, talked to people involved that wally world has repeatedly crushed companies,
I think it's a main way they do business, "Do it our way, at any standard/lower cost, or the highway!"

How hard would it be for a company to send sub-standard products off an assembly line to a company
that pays/rewards you for anything cheaper?! I'm sure their are many ways and I would never put it past wally world.

[Benner]

I with their UK stores (Asda) sold Leatherman's, it would make the weekly shop more interesting.....

Would have to be a huge range to make Asda bearable though mate. 

[bobofish]

Walmart was the first, and still one of the only companies that has a central buying office where the vendors go to them. Most companies have buyers that scan the conventions, trade shows, and even travel the world to find stuff. With walmart, the vendor goes to them, hat in hand. The first discussion is price point.

Things are slowly changing though; Walmart has gotten SO MUCH bad press that they're trying to clean up their image a bit. They have an enormously long row to ho, but they are slowly changing. I would guess asking Spyderco for a US made knife is an example, as are their forays into organic food and better products.

I don't know if anybody's noticed, but Walmart's added a phrase to their commercials: they added "live better" at the end of their usual "save money" spiel.

It's too bad they've been such a horrible company these last couple decades. Their supply chain system was truly revolutionary, as are some others of their innovations. It's just a pity that instead of working with manufacturers to increase efficiency and waste to cut costs, they made manufacturers offshore to just stay alive. I also remember when Walmart moved into my medium town many years ago that my fellow high schoolers had to go through a very rigorous training and evaluation program; back then it was considered a "good job" for uneducated, low skilled workers. They had profit sharing and everything. No union of any kind, but they were treated decently considering. How things have changed. It's interesting to note also that among all the countries where Walmart has stores, their store labor practices in China are some of the most stringent and fair. Irony.

[I'm Still Bison]

 Things at WalMart sure have changed since old Sam walked the earth.He insisted on US made products as much as possible,and many of their product lines dispayed Made In The USA with a US flag somewhere on the packaging...and yet their prices were always competitive because of the sheer volume of their purchasing.

[bobofish]

To be truly fair, Sam was a horrible person, but he insisted on quality of product, and total satisfaction of the customer. For many years his company showed that US manufacture and retail sale could be hugely profitable and could compete with any country on Earth in quality and price.

Then when he died all of the sudden Walmart changed their tune and started to say that US labor is too expensive. 

Anyway, rant mode off.