Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[5030]

I see HF is offering a 10% off no exclusions coupon for everyone. I'm wondering if they are seeing sales decline and are trying to boost foot traffic.

Could be. With the economy tanking, discretionary purchases like tools and storage cabs is probably slowing down. I do like HF's free shipping on Internet orders however, but they are slow.

 

[Alan46]

Could be. With the economy tanking, discretionary purchases like tools and storage cabs is probably slowing down. I do like HF's free shipping on Internet orders however, but they are slow.

Tanking?

 

[MossRoad]

Tanking?

Maybe he's thinking 4 years ago?

 

[kenmbz]

US news and world report:
While we no longer forecast a recession, we do expect the consumer spending growth to cool and for overall GDP growth to slow to under 1% in Q2 and Q3 2024. Thereafter, inflation and interest rates should normalize and quarterly annualized GDP growth should converge toward its potential of near 2 percent in 2025.
We will see a housing crash and a huge crash in commercial real estate, both of which has started.

2024 Commercial Real Estate Trends | JPMorgan Chase

Multifamily, retail, industrial and office face uncertainty around interest rates in the year ahead.

www.jpmorgan.com

Inflation is still on an upward trend, so the fed has chosen not to reduce the interest rate.
Tech is still doing massive layoffs and advertising spend is down by end of 1Q2024

A comprehensive list of 2023 & 2024 tech layoffs | TechCrunch

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2023 and 2024.

techcrunch.com

Ad Spending Growth for Digital, Traditional, and Total Worldwide, 2022-2027 (% change)

www.insiderintelligence.com

2024 is going to be an interesting year financially once the election is over, no matter who wins, it's going to be a downward spiral.
All this may turnaround in 2025, keep your fingers crossed the commercial real estate and interest only housing loans hitting 5 year balloon payments don't happen as predicted.
FRED chart above does not count inflation, so value of $ won't affect that chart.
better use of FRED data:

How expensive are groceries in 2023? These 5 graphs show prices skyrocket

You’ve probably felt your grocery bill growing over the past year, but seeing the numbers really puts it into perspective.

thehill.com

 

[California]

Maybe he's thinking 4 years ago?

View attachment 852620

No fair using facts - where the curve is steeper now - to counter feelings!

 

[daugen]

Tanking?

from a GDP and unemployment basis, for sure not.
all those pickup trucks aren't being bought by out of work folks...
what we have is a lot more visibility about the bottom 5 percent.
As we should, but overall, employers have been hiring for a long time.
There are always layoffs.

now maybe to the guys furloughed at Ford's electric truck plant, the EV market may have tanked...
and Ken is right, those real estate markets are going down, but I don't see the crash part.
some segments are clearly soft, shopping centers, office space, etc.

I wonder how HF is doing this year/last year?

 

[California]

...all those pickup trucks aren't being bought by out of work folks...
what we have is a lot more visibility about the bottom 5 percent.

We really do have more and more people falling into the 'bottom 5%', while corporate profit margins are setting new records.

Wait till AI replaces more people. It's going to get worse for many.

 

[5030]

now maybe to the guys furloughed at Ford's electric truck plant, the EV market may have tanked...

They didn't get furloughed, they got moved to other non EV jobs.

Mullaly just announced that Fords is going to redistribute vehicle building to more 'diverse' locations, which I fully expected after the UAW strike and wage increase. IOW, offshoring. Fords has the largest UAW employment of the not so big (now) 3 and of course Fain had to get his usual last digs in on that as well.

I take it some folks have not been to the grocery store lately either. What a hundred bucks used to buy has really shrunk and is getting even smaller today...

Far as new pickup trucks and SUV's go, creative financing his made a good impact. A 7 year loan is now the reality. Problem is, will they last 7 years of rust away???

I will say, I've never financed ANY vehicle, I always pay cash. Car and trucks and especially motorcycles and snowmobiles are the worst investment you can make. All you do is make some finance company rich while your check book shrinks and your new vehicle is worth less and less.

We don't play that game here.

 

[California]

... I've never financed ANY vehicle, I always pay cash. Car and trucks and especially motorcycles and snowmobiles are the worst investment you can make. All you do is make some finance company rich while your check book shrinks and your new vehicle is worth less and less.

We don't play that game here.

Ditto, always waited until I could afford to pay cash. This meant many used cars that served 2~5 years when I was young and poor.

Then the first car I bought new was when I got a job that paid mileage. A $6k Chev Citation that turned out to be the worst car I ever owned. Everything about it was all worn out at 45k miles.

 

[Pixguy]

Anyone who thinks the medium and lower income folks aren't struggling due to high gas, food and clothing aren't paying attention.

 

[California]

Anyone who thinks the medium and lower income folks aren't struggling due to high gas, food and clothing aren't paying attention.

There are more and more folks who are left out of the prosperity that economists describe.

 

[daugen]

Anyone who thinks the medium and lower income folks aren't struggling due to high gas, food and clothing aren't paying attention.

I think they always have. I don't see any change in that over the years, despite a lot of political promises.
I struggled in the 70's starting out being low income, and worked my way up to being comfortably retired.
That took 40 years of work and 30 years of IRA's.
I distinctly remember buying hot dogs on Thursday to get me through til payday on Friday.
It sure was a struggle, and that's more than 50 years ago.
Is it worse today?
It may be, our media sure makes you wonder what is true and what isn't.

middle class flight out of California is well known.
I think California is pretty unique for not offering more affordable living alternatives.
everything seems to be "crazy high".

 

[John_Mc]

Actually, middle and lower income people have participated more in recent growth than in previous years. For may years, all the growth has been at the top of the income scale. That seems to have shifted a bit recently. Not enough to make up for decades of losses, but at least it's moving in the right direction for a change.

Not sure what any of this has to do with "Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck". Perhaps a new thread, rather than dragging this one down?

 

[jjeff]

I remember going to my first harbor freight when I lived in California over 20 yrs ago. I think it was located around simi valley? I remember thinking these tools suck, and went to Sears, fortunately as time went on more more of there stuff ended up being developed into pretty decent and durable tools at a fair price point. Anyways I enjoy reading others, and sharing my own experience with some of there good tools on this thread. I will drift some and occasionally express distaste for a few HF contraptions.

 

[Hay Dude]

There are more and more folks who are left out of the prosperity that economists describe.

What prosperity?

 

[California]

What prosperity?

Recession has struck some of the world’s top economies. The US keeps defying expectation​

Recession has struck some of the world's top economies. The US keeps defying expectations

Both Japan and the United Kingdom said Thursday their economies weakened during the final three months of 2023.

apnews.com

 

[John_Mc]

I remember going to my first harbor freight when I lived in California over 20 yrs ago. I think it was located around simi valley? I remember thinking these tools suck, and went to Sears, fortunately as time went on more more of there stuff ended up being developed into pretty decent and durable tools at a fair price point. Anyways I enjoy reading others, and sharing my own experience with some of there good tools on this thread. I will drift some and occasionally express distaste for a few HF contraptions.

still valuable info.

 

[scootr]

I remember listening in disbelief that Sears power tools were being made in Japan and the quality we all loved in the 50s and 60s was gone.

 

[two_bit_score]

There are more and more folks who are left out of the prosperity that economists describe

It's mostly government economists who are singing from the prosperity songbook.
They are the same government economists who revise the numbers up or down as needed after the initial round of news releases.

 

[California]

I remember listening in disbelief that Sears power tools were being made in Japan and the quality we all loved in the 50s and 60s was gone.

Yeah. A while back Harbor Freight got real serious about filling the niche that Sears abandoned.

This seems to be working.