Garrity making a comeback?

There is a local grocery chain in my area that owns several stores. I have been at two of them in the past few days. There is a section in the front of the store near the customer service desk that features flashlights and batteries. Naturally, when I shop there; I always check it out. I saw some new Garrity Value Lites that were different than the ones posted on their website. They looked similar to one of the Energizer budget type of flashlights that were around in the early years of last decade. I was shocked and amazed. Immediately, I closely read the package. On the back it read "Copyright 2012" It also had Gillette in print (the owner of Duracell, whom is in turn the owner of Garrity.) I had contacted Garrity several times, begging them to bring back the Rugged Lite Series, but always got a reply from Duracell. Every time they contacted me; they said all of Garrity's lights have been discontinued. That, IMO, was very dirty business and really made me angry. But, now it looks like there is a glimmer of hope for Garrity products, as they have a new product and the packaging said "Copyright 2012." Does anyone else know about this? I know most of yall on here are not interested in Garrity and similar type of product, but a handful of yall are, right? Anyone have any input?

Garrity lights were decent years ago but when LEDs started taking off they got surpassed by companies such as Dorcy in technology and their lights ended up years behind and lost their place in most stores. Duracell has made some interesting lights but for the most part has not figured out how to market flashlights to compete with energizer and rayovac in stores you rarely see duracell lights anywhere and when you see them the models are limited and not overly competitive compared to Garrity and Dorcy but perhaps average to energizer light prices.

Everytime I go to Rite Aid, I see Duracell Daylites and new-old-stock Garritys. I used to shop there all the time, because my favorite cousin worked there and I would visit him often. He died last December. God rest his soul. I still continue to shop there, as I have made friends with his co-workers. Actually Garrity made some LED's that were pretty damn good for their day (mid '00s.)

Garrity was discontinued at one point, but now there are new models on some store shelves. I guess Duracell put them back in business (not sure.) Garrity was also sold at Wal Mart, and K-Mart and True Value. I know this because I have bought Garrity flashlights at each of these.

The only place I have seen Duracell Daylites was at the aforementioned grocery chain (Rouse's), Radio Shack and of course Rite Aid.

Duracell, at one point, made some good lights. For example, the Durabeams (which were popular in the 90's and were American made) were some decent lights Now, unfortunately, their Daylite models are made in china. For whatever reason, these are not sold at Wal Mart or Target. Duracell also manufactures an incandescent industrial flashlight in Thailand. This is pretty rugged, but leaves something to be desired where brightness is concerned.

As for Energizer and Rayovac, those as well were American made when times were better. Some Energizer incandescent industrials still are, but I doubt that will last much longer. Now, the bulk of Energizer and Rayovac are chinese imports. I have seen Energizer, Rayovac or both of them at virtually every place where flashlights are sold. They are probably the brands with the most market share.

As a final note, I guess I am a perfect hypocrite. You see, my favorite Garrity flashlight (Mini Rugged Lite) was made in Macau. Now granted, Macau was under the Portugese flag at the time of production (~1994), but the later ones were unfortunately chinese made. It didn't bother me much, as this particular light had and still has sentimental value to me.

I really liked Garrity lights a lot. I had three or four of them over time. Excellent budget lights, well made for the price, reliable, a few different styles to choose from. I do miss those great Garrity lights (no idea where they all went to).

I was doing a search for Garrity Multi-tools. (I do that periodcally.) It came up with some new instruments that I have never seen before. Further adds to my home that Garrity may be re-emerging.

http://www.halo.com/garrityandreg-multi-function-auto-emergency-light-66887-1225-85.aspx <--that is an LED modern version of an emergency flasher they made in the early 2000's.

this was the original emergency flasher that ---> http://www.flashlightmuseum.com/Garrity-Flashlight-Flashlight-LED-Flasher-2AA-2003 .

That aside from the new Value Lites that were on my local grocer's shelves seems like good news to me. I would really like to see Garrity back in business, producing their awesome (and affordable) lights and tools.

Garrity was spun off by Duracell about a year ago and licensed their flashlights to a company out of Connecticut. For the life of me I can't find the article. If I find it I will post

kwh said:

Garrity was spun off by Duracell about a year ago and licensed their flashlights to a company out of Connecticut. For the life of me I can't find the article. If I find it I will post

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that's something else. Garrity has its origins in Connecticut and essentially they are right back there. i hope they have all of the classics and some cool new lights.

please find that article...i would really want to read it.

Some Of my favorite lights back in my Incan days were Garrity. I hope they do make a comeback

CarpentryHero said:

Some Of my favorite lights back in my Incan days were Garrity. I hope they do make a comeback

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If this was facebook I would definitely "like" that aforementioned post.

Just looking at ebay...I saw another "new" Garrity LED flashlight. Neither this nor any other of these lights are listed on their website. However, I can tell that these models are indeed new. You see, I've been following Garrity's product line since the age of 11 (1998.) Based on what I have seen in the past 2 weeks, this is beginning to look promising for Garrity!

*UPDATE*

I am continuing to look at ebay and I saw this (http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-IN-PACK...3529105?pt=US_Flashlights&hash=item2ec0d2b191)

This is the same one I saw at my local grocer.

I once used to EDC a Garrity single-AAA model at a job that made having good lights much easier.

Didn't use it as my primary light, but it did come in handy. Was very surprised by how cheaply it was made on the inside. Dorcy definitely made a better AAA key-chain light back in the day. Still, the Garrity looked nice on the outside. Ended up giving that one away to (if I'm honest) an undeserving co-worker who really needed a good AAA key-chain light.

Something is definitely up. These new lights are beginning to show up more and more. What also gets me is that Duracell Daylite is no longer displayed on the company website. Something wrong with Duracell, they make/buy a really good light but then discontinue it not long after. Interesting note: If this was 90 something years ago, Duracell could potentially be sued by Eveready. You see, Eveready at the time was trying to change a flashlight from being called a flashlight. Instead they wanted to call it a Daylo ("Day"=a light like day time, "Lo" as in "low and behold".) Sometime about a decade later, they stopped using that name. What I mean by this is that using the word day to make reference to a flashlight was not recently by Duracell, but rather fabricated by Eveready in bygone times.

If Garrity doesn't come back with its LED spotlight, I am going to check with my grocer (who sells various types of Daylites) to see if they can special order me one of those LED spotlights.

Three cheers for Garrity!

EscapeVelocity said:

Three cheers for Garrity!

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If this was Facebook, I would definitely click Like on that post!

A little over one year since I started this post. Coincidentally; I bought a Garrity iBeam (i600G) lantern from Rite Aid today for $9.99 +tax. There is also a Radio Shack in that same mall and I scored a Xenon Mini Maglite for $3.79 (after tax.)

I haven't seen much more progress from this "new" Garrity during the past year. At the aforementioned Rite Aid; they do have these new Garrity 2 D Value flashlights. They come with PR2 bulbs and adaptors to run them on 2 AAs.

That can't be too bright; pun intended.

Also; their website is still under construction. I am slightly disappointed; but nonetheless still keen on Garrity.