It used to be there was one hardware store in town and you bought what they carried, and they would carry tools of a sufficient quality to avoid returns and complaints.
Now you can buy tools from several thousand different manufacturers and people trend towards the less expensive options.
You can also, with just a little research, buy the best in the world from anywhere in the world. (edit: for now)
I built sets for a small regional theater company back in the 90s and we had, at the time, state-of-the-art cordless Makita power tools. Today's Makitas are so much better it is ludicrous. The old skinny-handled Makitas were barely powerful enough to do the job, the batteries didn't last long and had memory issues, the chucks were clunky, brushes would wear out extremely quickly, and the plastic was so brittle if you dropped them the housing would often crack or split.
I remember having to pre-drill thousands of pilot holes for screws and bolts, not because I was worried about the wood splitting but because the drills weren't powerful enough for longer and/or thicker screws.
Modern Makitas are more robust, more powerful, smaller and lighter, and more reliable.
They can drive 3/4" hex head lag bolts into soaking wet wood all day, something that was impossible for (or destructive to) 80s and 90s tools.
In the 80s and 90s I had the same Craftsman screwdriver set that everyone else in America had-- the ones with the clear handles that turned into a cylinder of greased ice the second a single drop of oil got on them.
Now I have a nice set of Weras and even when wearing oil-soaked gloves they are easy to grip.
I have distinct memories of my dad (a contractor/carpenter) buying his first cordless circular saw and returning it because it struggled with a 2x6, and a few days ago my friend was using a fairly inexpensive 20v cordless chainsaw to take down some trees. It’s wild.
Now you can buy tools from several thousand different manufacturers and people trend towards the less expensive options.
You can also, with just a little research, buy the best in the world from anywhere in the world. (edit: for now)
I built sets for a small regional theater company back in the 90s and we had, at the time, state-of-the-art cordless Makita power tools. Today's Makitas are so much better it is ludicrous. The old skinny-handled Makitas were barely powerful enough to do the job, the batteries didn't last long and had memory issues, the chucks were clunky, brushes would wear out extremely quickly, and the plastic was so brittle if you dropped them the housing would often crack or split.
I remember having to pre-drill thousands of pilot holes for screws and bolts, not because I was worried about the wood splitting but because the drills weren't powerful enough for longer and/or thicker screws.
Modern Makitas are more robust, more powerful, smaller and lighter, and more reliable.
They can drive 3/4" hex head lag bolts into soaking wet wood all day, something that was impossible for (or destructive to) 80s and 90s tools.
In the 80s and 90s I had the same Craftsman screwdriver set that everyone else in America had-- the ones with the clear handles that turned into a cylinder of greased ice the second a single drop of oil got on them.
Now I have a nice set of Weras and even when wearing oil-soaked gloves they are easy to grip.