Kind of weird, Im a couple hours to the closest store, and no where near Burnsville, MN, but there is an auction house about 10 miles from me that liquidates their returns. Not just "non-working" or broken, but any kind of return. Ive got to have at least a hundred items around here that are from Northern tool.
In my truck, Ive got the last 5 years of Northern master catalogs, because these returns can be a couple years old, anyhow, I have the catalogs with me, so when I go to the auction, I know exactly what everything was new. Sometimes the clowns at the sale will pay full retail and more for some of it. Other times I get super deals.
Off the top of my head, I cant think of anything Ive bought that didnt work, or at least of all the stuff Ive "checked out". I still have totes full of stuff Ive not tried using. I did buy a hand truck that I broke, from overloading it, but that was a combination of it being a taiwan POS, and me over loading it.
from them a few months ago. They had to order it from their dist. center and it took a week to arrive at the store.