Back in college (MANY years ago), I worked at Sears as a mechanic. When things were slow, we got transferred to store utility tasks. Back then, Sears didn't rebuild-for-resell any power tools. One afternoon, we were given the job of disposing of a janitors cart about 3' x 3' x4' full of returned drills, power hand saws, grinders, impacts, etc. We had to hit them with a sledge, cut off the cord, and throw them in the compactor. These tools had chucks, blades, switches, brushes and many other useable parts. We were told that it was considered theft to rescue anything. This was a very sad day. We were paid about a hundred dollars to dispose of thousands of retail dollars worth of tools. Several years later, I saw the factory rebuilds show up in the Sears tool sales. Too late to save Sears, but that's another story.
