"Craftsman Tool" is/has been owned by Sears since the name was bought out in 1927... They "Protected" the division from bankruptcy liquidation, like all of its Company Brand Names like "Kenmore" and "Diehard", by putting it under its own LLC that is owned by Sears Holding Corp... They are not a private company... Craftsman contracts with tool makers to make their products. One of their biggest was Danaher Tool Corp and Stanley Tool Works... both of which had large plants here in Southern New England... Danaher became massive and the Brass merged their tool division with Cooper Tool to form Apex Tool, which they spun off. (see Home Depo and Lowe's "Big Brand Name" tool makers).. They then slowly phased out/shut down many of the plants here and moved a lot of the jobs, dies, and equipment overseas...
Corporate and Union Greed can be blamed... Like everything today... when they closed up shop, lots of the supporting industies dried up and many of those cities are now dead hell holes... Bridgeport, New Britain, Hartford, CT.... Springfield, Millers Falls, Pittsfield, Worcester, Haverhill, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Mass.... just two states worth of former major industial strength... the Largest example of American collapse would be Detroit.
Stanley Tool began outsourcing on a vast scale to "stay competitive"... they then tried to relocate their HQ in New Britain, CT to the Carribean after securing huge tax breaks from the city and state... much of their remaining Stanley Tool Works plant is empty... (Stanley is huge... owns Black & Decker/DeWalt/MAC Tool etc...) The State of CT hammered them and they stayed, but they are still cutting jobs in the US. Another huge maker is Lenoxx Blade in East Longmeadow, Mass.... (formerly American Saw)...3M bought them and has slowly been phasing product overseas... but their major stuff is still US made.
The reason they are pushing Craftsman into other places is to expand the marketshare and help their Co-op partners remain competitive against the Big Box stores... Ace and Sears share the same problems with the Big Box places... Ace has made big steps to tie into Corporate Partnerships with brands that are known to be well respected... Black & Decker (Stanley) and Craftsman are two examples... Being a hardware store that sold crappy chinese tools doesn't make for good business when HFT and the Big Boxers sell similar junk for less.
Anyway... Kmart/Sears is in deep... Sears was in rough shape and being bought out by Kmart only added gas to the fire IMHO... but I will say they are seemingly trying to improve. I've noticed that my 4 local Sears always have a full staff now and they actually have the most common sockets and hand tools "In Stock" for a change. Hell, they even have the correct 80" band saw blades for their older machines... the big gray ones they made from the 60's until the 90's... very nice.
What I don't like... "Craftsman"... "Made In China"....
What I HATE... "Craftsman" (no location declared)
When they released their "Evolv" line... I was interested because some tools seemed creatively redesigned... every one of them "Made in China"... I was trying to buy a new set of metric box wrenches...musta spent a bit too long and seemed suspicious to loss prevention... I guess seeing someone going through a bunch of tools, looking at them carefully spurred their attention...a guy stood in the aisle with me for awhile... when I remarked that every Evolv tool was Made in China... the guy explained the product line and its purpose in the Craftsman lineup... in waaaay too much detail to be the avg joe gearhead... bought a set of classic box wrenches.... "Made in USA"... I will not buy Chinese made stuff unless I have no choice left.