fjkratky

Let me give you a retailers side of things. I have shopped at Woodcraft at several locations. This is a general retail establishment. Not a specialized store. It would be very difficult, and expensive for a store manager to have a bunch of experts on staff. I assume they pay a little above minimum wage, 9 - 10 dollars or so. You will not get an expert to work for that wage. Most of the people I dealt with were retired folks. If Woodcraft had to go out and hire experts in every woodworking field we could not afford the tools, and they would be out of business with overhead costs.

Someone said woodworkers do not steal. I am sorry to inform you shop lifting is a HUGE issue. Multi Billions of dollars in shoplifting both from internal and external sources. This expense cuts down on margins and drives the prices of goods sky high...THis is passed on to the retail customer. This happens in every store from Woodcraft to WalMart. Anyone who does not belive this is sadly mistaken! I would keep these expensive items under lock and key as well, because I would assure you they will walk off! I manage a retail store that does 8 million + a year in sales and you would not belive what gets stolen and who steals daily.

I feel a high quality specialized tool like LN sells should be sold eithr by the manufacture or through a specialized retailer.

Finally being a woodworker, and knowing others....We tend to be cheap skates. Always looking for the best deal, and I do not think we would be willing to pay the price that Woodcraft would have to charge to have a entire staff of experts on hand to answer every question that would come up with tools. I DO EXPECT, and DO DEMAND good customer service however. If you do not enjoy working someplace and if you do not want to give friendly service go find another job. In my store I tell my people that customers are guests in our home and that they should be treated accordingly. It is part of our job to research the tools we want, and work with the salesperson as a team member to get the product we want. This is especially true of specialized items like a LN tool. Yeah the guy behind the counter can tellyou about a chisel, or table saw, but face it, how many woodworkers really use a high price LN tool where the sales guy can get daily hands on experience selling them.

Just my side of things. I amn sure I will be disagreed with, butthat is what makes the US still a good place to live, well it still is for now anyway.