Where did Harbor Freight come from?

[hrhofmann]

I have 9 different Harbor Freight advertisements sitting on my desk at the moment, every one is different although many of the ads on any sheet have about 80% of the advertised specials found on the other sheets. This led me to wonder just where Harbor Freight came from. I don't recall hearing anything about the company until about 3-4 years ago, and then they suddenly seemed to be all over the place, both in advertisements and their retail stores. Anyone know actual facts about their history?

[dpb]

There's been a lot of discussion over the years...seems as though were some serious fallings-out within the family as well. I don't know too much and don't really care to dig it out; it's essentially same as celebrity-following--not worth the bother.

$0.02, etc., of course...

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[Reed]

[Jay Hanig]

Wikipedia says they started in 1968. Read all about them here:

HTH,

Jay

[Jim Elbrecht]

Interesting. Their site says 1977 and I would have sworn I ordered stuff from them in 73-74 -ish. I wonder if there is some legal deal or if that's a typo on their site.

Jim