Ignoramus5827 wrote:
I visited SK Hand Tool factory in Chicago. It is a surprisingly big
complex of large, old, slightly mysterious, industrial buildings. I
was there to pick up a card cabinet.

What I saw there was forklifts that moved metal crates full of tools
(sockets, socket extensions, wrenches, cabinets etc) and dumped them
in a big metal dumpster. Turns out that the new owner (Ideal
Industries) that bought assets of bankrupt SK tools, does not want
those goods and decided to scrap them. They are declining all
offers to buy that stuff.

Well, there probably is a reason for this, having a lot to do with the
company logo
stamped into every part. They may be wanting to be sure no new sales
under the old
and maybe discontinued logo will get sold anywhere. That's assuming
Ideal is not going
to sell sockets, etc. under the SK brand name anymore.

Another possibility is that they are continuing the brand, and this
stuff is of a lower quality that SK bought from China or India, observed
it was crap, and are now destroying it to avoid damaging their brand.
It is even possible it is counterfeit stuff they seized.

Anyway, kind of sad to see probably good stuff going to be melted, but
there probably is a
business reason for it. Don't forget liability, if they sold this stuff
at 5 cents on the Dollar,
and somebody busted his knuckles when he abused them, they'd have to
defend themselves in court and end up losing millions just to pay the
lawyers!

Jon