Harbor Freight Freebies

I hit the minimum purchase thing and the no more than one a day both a few weeks ago. My "local" HF is a 40 minute drive so I will not be going there for a long time.

The 20% off coupon will typically outshine the freebie and make the freebie coupon not usable on that trip. Was good while it lasted.

The scissors are kinda like a Glock pistol: The business part is steel, while the handle is Bakelite (or somesuch - Google "Glock kaboom")

My area HFs are a bit far from me, but in an area I get to once a month or so. There are actually three stores in that area not all that far apart, so in the event they actually started caring that I made one set of purchases, put them in the truck and came back for the next set, I'd simply go to one of the other stores. I suspect they'll start dropping some of the restrictions on the coupons anyway when they realize it actually hurts their profits.

"Pete C." wrote in news:4d739d04$0$8203$ snipped-for-privacy@unlimited.usenetmonster.com:

did you notice the "retail" price listed on the LED flashlight coupon? $7.99 for one(black painted),when you can buy them in two packs for $3.99(red and blue anodized).

I've seen many of their products listed for as many as three different "original prices" in their sales ads over a couple month period. They sometimes have the same sales price, sometimes different.

I think HF is doing too many sales/%off ads. It's hard to take any of their prices seriously when the stuff is always on sale for 30% to 70% off.

I think their bean-counters agree with you, hence the new minimum purchase requirements. Sure, the freebies were bringing a lot of people into the tent, but most were like me, only buying one or two trivial items off their list at a time so as to not seem like they were JUST there for the freebies.

IMHO, HF needs to cut back on the dollar-store stuff, and stock a better quality of tools, and most of us would probably spend a lot more money there. Even for casual DIY use, many or most of their hand tools and power tools (with exceptions like the Twitching tool or same-as-Sears compressors) are sub-par. I'll buy consumables and blunt instruments there, but not anything that could hurt me or fubar a project if it breaks. And for people who make money with their tools, to whom time is money, there simply isn't a whole lot there for them. They need anvil reliability and repeatable results. I like the place, and will keep shopping there even without the freebies, but only buy there when 'good enough' is good enough.

Examples would help.

Were they the wrong color? Were the electrical cords too short? Did they play "Dixie" instead of "Battle Hymn of the Republic?"

Quite a few folks are happy with their HF air dryers, not sure why you had issues with them.