Oneder

I wouldn't poopoo it unless you actually tried it. On specials like this they typically lose money and it's there to draw people in. I would jump on this if I had one near me. Even if it's crap you are likely to use many of these tools once in a moon and if you do it more than that you probably already have a good one to replace the default one in that nice case.

Amt0571

I have lots of tools and things from Lidl (not all of them bike related) and I can it say that they're really good for the price. The bicycle workstand cost me 30€ and is better than some 100€ ones.

I would buy this if I needed it.

Cute Boy Horse

This says nothing about lidl but does reveal you have the attitude these promotions exist to counteract - you've never shopped there, so you wouldn't know what you're talking about, but you think it's disgusting and beneath you.

Maybe you'll get better, maybe you won't, either way you're definitely keeping yourself separate from the social circles I move in so makes no difference to me.

robertorolfo

Ha, what? Did you even read what I wrote? What's with people making accusations based on shoddy reading comprehension. Did I use the word "disgusting" anywhere in my post?

I clearly stated that I would have no qualms about purchasing a $30 bike stand there, or a few other items. And I have shopped at Lidl before, so I absolutely know what I am talking about. I never implied that there is anything wrong with what they sell, just that it cannot be considered "quality," because it is not. Again, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with selling low quality items, but trying to claim they are anything different is disingenuous.

And since you decided to go a step further and criticize my spending philosophy, I'll simply respond by saying that appreciating quality products, and being open to paying for quality, isn't something to be scoffed at. One could just as easily say that those in your social circle (a type which I am also directly familiar with) will hypocritically continue to make decisions that drive quality producers into extinction and leave us with nothing but big box stores and lousy walmart bikes. You see how that works?

Papa Tom

This, in my opinion, is what happened to the music industry, of which I am no longer a part.

robertorolfo

Absolutely. The modern music industries, like many other industries, has seriously devolved. The reasons are manyfold, but suffice to say, in my opinion, the democratization of media outlets isn't always a good thing.

But hey, we were talking about took kits, right?

Papa Tom

Tools, music...they both fall under the category of things we want to hoard but don't want to pay for.

As the thread starter, I was looking for someone to talk me out of buying this kit -- for pretty much the reason you described above. Items like this set the bar lower and lower and make it harder for quality tool makers to convince people that better tools are easier to use, last longer, etc. Ironically, many things we use every day have gotten worse and worse, quality-wise, and just keep going up in price. Take electronics, for example. We keep paying higher prices for smart phones and they keep using cheaper, crappier components so that they only last a year or so. I wonder why we cut Apple and Microsoft so much slack for providing junk at premium prices, but want to crucify the manufacturer of this tool kit for providing junk at a junk price.

robertorolfo

Yep, we are certainly in agreement here. You can also put furniture on the list.

Regarding tools, I have experience with both ends of the spectrum. When I was living abroad I couldn't bring my tools with me, and I couldn't justify the expense of buying high quality stuff that I might only use for a few years, and which I already owned in another location. So I did buy quite a few cheap versions as a temporary measure. Some of them were truly awful (broke on the very first use), others were pretty decent, but most were what you would expect. For routine service on well maintained parts, they were fine. But anything tricky, or anything less than ideal (like older, stuck parts), and the limits of the tools would become immediately apparent.

Point is, having some cheap stuff as a backup isn't a bad idea, but of course it's good to own the quality stuff as a baseline. Not just because it makes things easier, but because it makes sure the quality stuff doesn't go extinct.

CaptainPlanet

HOLY ****! Any place I can buy that kit? The link is dead and that looks like an amazing kit with all the tools I ever need

JoeTBM 

Check ebay

Rage

I’m still trying to get my hands on one but they seem elusive.
Actually found the box the tools come in on my last visit there. Except the tools themselves were missing...

I did buy that thirty dollar stand, though. Have used it twice since and it really ain’t bad for the money.
And I’m liking how I got a stand stowed in the trunk of the car now.

game_player_s

Same also for the computer industry, for which I am no longer a part of.

Market dissolved down to people who will buy only the cheapest thing available so they can shop on Amazon and watch videos on YouTube, and the rare few people who want a gaming PC... for as cheap as possible. I was in both sales and service (repairs & upgrades), and 2014 with the big three (Dell, HP, Lenovo) consistently maintaining stock of sub-$300 MSRP pcs and laptops on the mass-retail market that year, the repair business died and the demand for gaming, and to lesser extent special need computers, wasn't enough to keep the 'mom & pop' computer shops alive. Shop I had been employed at for eight years, which was the largest and most successful in this part of the state, did lay-off's in mid-2015 and I was one of the first round employees they let go. After that, went to Work at Best Buy's dreadfully operated Geek Squad and found they hadn't been hitting store level corporate quotas for over a year, and by the time I quit that job another three years later we'd had only on month out of the thirty-eight months I'd been there that quota's for customer repair check-ins had even been met. Most customer's, quite reasonably, couldn't see the logic in paying $150 to have their old computer worked on when they could buy a whole new, warrantied, computer for just twice the price of the repair labor cost.