Harbor Freight's Dirty Little Secret - How Their Tools are so Cheap and Which Ones You Should Avoid

i love harbor freight every time i go there i feel like a kid in a candy store there's just so many tools and they're all so cheap everything i love but have you ever actually wondered how it is that they can sell all those tools for so cheap well stick around and i'll tell you i'm also going to explain how that knowledge can inform you as to which tools you should buy from harbor freight and which ones you should avoid so stick around [Music] harbor freight is a great store it mixes my love of tools with my love of buying cheap tools i'm also relatively new to the harbor freight game because there wasn't one near me where i grew up but times have definitely changed harbor freight itself was founded in 1977 and opened its first retail store in 1980. over the next 30 years it grew relatively slowly up until 2013 when it opened its 500th store then from 2013 to 2019 it doubled to a thousand stores and since 2019 has grown by over 20 percent to around 1200 stores now that's really remarkable that during the pandemic and with all the supply chain issues that most other companies and retailers have been experiencing that harbor freight has been able to grow that much it's really amazing and i think it's a testament to the strength of their product and the strength of their brand their ability to bring cheap tools to the masses so how can they do that well harbor freight is a private company and they don't publish public financial statements but there is still some information out there forbes estimates that their revenues are somewhere around five billion dollars a year and their founder and current ceo eric schmidt has an estimated worth of around 5.3 billion dollars and with their store growth and employee growth over the past few years it's clear that they're doing very very well now harbor freight tools has been able to grow so quickly because they fill the need tools can be really expensive and sometimes having a place to find cheap tools can be a real game changer for diyers like you and me when you first walk into a harbor freight you'll notice that it's really nothing fancy this is one of the ways that they're able to keep their costs down they have all kinds of tools from their own brands like pittsburgh and bower and often have a good variety of products to choose from even providing good better and best options in some categories here's the dirty truth though about harbor freight tools and tools in general most tools come out of the same factories in asia regardless of the brand in fact if you look at some harbor freight tools and you compare them to other name brand tools there really isn't much difference so why is it that harbor freight can afford to sell their tools for so much cheaper than the other guys when their tools are made often times in the same factories well there are a few different reasons the first reason is economies of scale over time harbor freight has been able to grow into a very large company that means that they can take advantage of their size and buy larger amounts of product at cheaper prices this is the same reason why big companies like walmart and amazon are so successful the only difference is that harbor freight specializes in tools and doesn't try to do everything like those other retailers the second reason is materials there are a lot of different types of materials used in tools from different grades of steel to plastics and everything in between harbor freight tools are generally built out of lower quality materials than name brand tools like milwaukee or makita they may use plastics where other tools use metal and they may use lower grades of metal than other companies the third reason why they're able to make their tools so much cheaper is because of their quality control now most companies have a quality control group that will test their products and make sure that they meet their quality and durability standards when a product or component doesn't meet their standards they'll take it out of the pipeline the simple way to say it in harbor freight's case is that their standards are just lower they allow for a larger percentage of defects than other companies would this again reduces their expenses but it also increases the number of defective tools that they sell in fact i'm sure that many of you will leave comments about some of the terrible tools you've bought at harbor freight and how they didn't last to combat that harbor freight has a strict return policy and will happily upsell you a warranty the warranty is all part of their strategy in essence they're making you pay the extra price for their lack of quality control and many times those people who don't get the warranty when their tool breaks they'll just shrug it off and say well you get what you pay for it but but they're so cheap look you get what you pay for if you haven't learned that you don't know a thing now that said a harbor freight can still surprise you in addition to some duds i've also bought a few tools at harbor freight that have really surprised me and i'll talk about that a little bit more later on the fourth way that they can afford to sell tools for so cheap is by using your own psychology against you they do this in a few different ways first they offer tons of coupons they also offer oftentimes free prizes so to speak or free products this gets you excited about their products it also gets you in the store and spending money with the hope that you will walk out with 10 things that you didn't plan on buying don't worry it happens to all of us it's happened to me too i also mentioned before about how they have those good better and best options harbor freight knows that it's customers are price sensitive they're a discount tool seller and they're not trying to be anything else but they also know that some people will spend more money if given the opportunity so when you go to buy a tool and you see something that's better for just a little bit more money there are many people who would be willing to spend that extra money to get something that is better the stinky thing that a lot of manufacturers and retailers sometimes do is that they will design and even often build the best product first and then they'll look at ways to dumb it down to create their good and better products putting the best product up against the good and better makes it look even more attractive and some people will end up paying even more for one of those products than what they would spend at a traditional big box retailer on that perceived higher end tool now to be clear i'm not trying to bash on harbor freight like i say i love the place i love how cheap it is i love how cheap their tools are and some of their tools are really fantastic but you have to be really careful about what you buy and so here are my rules on what you should and should not buy at harbor freight and again having that understanding of how they're able to sell their tools for so cheap will help inform you on the tools that you should and should not buy so first of all harbor freight is a great place to shop for beginner tools buy something that you need use it learn about what you like and what you don't like about it and then when you have enough money you can upgrade to something that's higher quality any tool that's not complex that doesn't have a lot of moving parts would be great to buy at harbor freight wrenches sockets hammers screwdrivers and things like that these are products that are less prone to failure and can actually last a surprisingly long time other cheap or small consumable items like super glue zip ties work gloves flashlights furniture dollies electrical tape things like that are also really great to buy at harbor freight now if you're professional or if you plan on using a particular tool heavily i think that it's better to spend on a more reliable and heavier duty tool than it would be to buy a cheap tool at harbor freight that could fail in a short amount of time i would also avoid buying most power tools or any complex tool in general the more moving parts the more chances there is for failure there are some exceptions of course i bought a reciprocating saw for 20 bucks once and i've definitely got my money's worth out of it if you need a specific tool for one job and don't really plan on doing much else with it later go ahead harbor freight tools are for you but if you need that power tool to last you should look somewhere else avoid buying power tools that you plan on pushing to their limits i once bought a cheap 40 chainsaw and tried to saw through a log of red oak the plastic flywheel completely busted the first time i used it it would have been great for branches or other smaller logs but it just didn't have the oomph that i needed and that was a mistake that i made i would also avoid buying tools where safety could be real concerned things like welders or floor jacks or hoists things that could potentially kill you if they failed not worth the lower price in my opinion another good rule of thumb is to check online reviews to see what experiences others have had and always use those coupons so harbor freight can really be a great place to buy tools especially for the beginner without a lot of cash just be careful about what you buy so what harbor freight tools would you recommend and which tools would you avoid leave me a comment and let me know also if you have any other great harbor freight stories on tools that lasted forever or the ones that broke down the first time you used them leave a comment so that we can read about it thanks for watching check out these other videos subscribe to my channel and have a great day

Channel: DIY with Dave

Views: 3,463,712

Keywords: Diy with dave, maker, diy projects, diy ideas, diy home improvement, do it yourself, home renovation, Tool, tools, toolbox, harbor freight, harbor freight tools, pro tools, matco tools, woodworking, I did a thing, tips and tricks, ididathing, cheap tools, tool tips, harbor freight tool tips, what to buy, what tools are best, best tools, cheap, best harbor freight tools, best tools for mechanics, snap on tools, best electrician tools, best power tools, DIY, DIYer, power tools

Id: bwBkMpLTrMo

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 31 2022