Back in TMD Post 17 I wrote about the GENERAL Tools #890 File and Tool Handle. It has a unique parallel jaw vise-like gripping mechanism inside the handle and has been made by GENERAL for over 70 years. Well, I’m sad to report that GENERAL Tools has discontinued the #890. And that’s not all. Here's the story...
I recently ordered a newer version of the GENERAL #890 from Amazon to see if it’s still made like it was “back in the day.” Before the handle arrived I went to the GENERAL Tools web site to look the handle up, and it was nowhere to be found. In fact, almost all of the old standby GENERAL tools were not there.
So, I fired off an email using the “Contact Us” button. My question: Hello, I'm not seeing the #890 File and Tool handle on your web site. Are you still making this?
I received a reply the next day (that’s impressive!) from a man at Worthington Enterprises. His reply: Thank you for reaching out. We no longer sell this product, I see some of them available on eBay, I am not sure who else makes this product. I am sorry about that.
This online pdf copy of the 1968 General Tools product catalog is chock full of tools that, judging from the GENERAL web site, have now been discontinued.
Most (but not all) the tools that GENERAL no longer sells are still available from other tool companies. Perhaps the #890 will be picked up by another company. It was no longer being made in the United States. The Chinese manufacturer may see an opportunity there. But it’s a sorry loss for another old American tool company.
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The history of GENERAL Tools goes back to 1922. The New York City based maker’s first product was an egg slicer. The company expanded significantly from that inauspicious beginning
In 2018 GENERAL Tools, a third generation family business, was acquired by the private equity firm, High Road Capital Partners. Three years later Worthington Enterprises (an Ohio-based company) purchased GENERAL for 115 million.
A 2021 news release about Worthington’s acquisition notes that GENERAL was "a provider of over 1,200 feature-rich, specialized tools with well-established brands and a nearly 100-year history."
And now, five years later, GENERAL is a shell of what it once was. It has precious little to offer.
I first read about the hedge fund business scheme when Toys-R-Us went out of business. How can that be? Every time I went into one, the store had 40-100 customers. (Toys-R-Us was a national chain of large stores filled with board games, models, etc.) Paraphrasing the article;!hedge funds visit your company like a vampire bat visits your face. I pledge to but the above named tool to every person who can site an example of a hedge fund buying a company and the workers and customers are well served.
ReplyDeleteHello Wilson. Thanks for this comment. Yikes! Quite the analogy. I hate bats. One of my biggest fears, based on getting bit by one when I was a kid. Most of these hedge funds are run by psychopaths. But, amazingly, I think I may have found the one good exception. It's related to a USA tool company. I've been researching it. Stay tuned...
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