Harbor Freight - Slightly Surprised!

[Jtels85]

There was a thread going awhile back regarding the new brands Harbor Freight was carrying. Hercules 20V power tools, Doyle plies, Bremen, etc...

Now, I’m an old Craftsman USA guy. I also appreciate my DeWalt, MAC and Carlyle tools which in my opinion are top quality... but a recent trip to Harbor Freight really has me scratching my head.

The Hercules power tools on display were calling for me to come play with them. I have the new 20V Max DeWalt tools that came in a large set and they’re bad ***, but these Hercules are really damn close. I’m surprised how nice they felt and the quality appeared to be really good.

Then I went over the hand tools... The Doyle pliers and Bremen clamps appear to be just as good as the name brand competition. The Pittsburgh Pro ratchets and sockets are light years above the original Pittsburgh tool set I bought around 15 years ago. I usually don’t step foot in Harbor Freight unless it’s for cheap batteries and zip ties, but man I was impressed.

I would love to see the Pittsburgh Pro ratchets get a little more improvement and maybe a new line of screwdrivers that don’t look like something you’d find in a .25 bin at the flea market. All-in-all, I’m pretty confident I’ll be going back. Something I’d never thought I would say. Hell, Sears could take a page from their book right now.

 

[General Geoff]

HF could certainly be doing a lot worse. They're in a unique position for a brick & mortar store, where people buying tools often need it right now and can't wait for an internet order to arrive in two days. So I think they'll fair a lot better in the coming decade vs most retail stores.

The fact that they're actually selling reasonably good tools is icing on the cake. 95% of their customers probably don't give a **** how good the tool is, as long as it survives the job it was bought to complete.