It's even worse than that. According to the article, the sockets were basically alright, perhaps with some QC issues. They could have paused the automated line

It's even worse than that. According to the article, the sockets were basically alright, perhaps with some QC issues. They could have paused the automated line for the ratchets, ramped up hand production of them using the knowledge from their existing facility in the same region, and been selling sets that were mostly produced by automation. Instead they just threw the whole thing away? I've got to wonder how much the problem is due to consolidation (see: infamous toolguyd picture of power tool brands). If there were a healthy market of competing independent companies, when SBD executives couldn't figure out how to get it up, another company would have bought the complete factory and made it work. I find it amazing that so much VC money is (was?) slushing around trying moonshot ideas like littering sidewalks with e-scooters and hoping loose change falls into them, but there is no motivation to start new companies doing traditional things in stagnant markets. I mean a "$90M factory" is like a tenth of one Instagram [0] ? I guess it's just not exciting enough. [0] an old arcane unit of a currency that has since become obsolete due to its small size