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Harbor Freight Tools

Engaged Employer

If you want a job for fun work here. If you need to make a living keep looking. - Sales Associate Harbor Freight Tools Employee Review

3.0
Feb 17, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You earn PTO as a part time employee from day one. Flexible schedule for most (you are required to work big sales-6 weekends a year & major holidays -it is retail). Easy to get time off for doctor appointments (unpaid). Cashiers earn commission by selling add on items. Management makes sure you get the days off you request, aside from what I listed above. Customers are mostly (90%) nice but you do get verbally sexually harassed on a daily basis so know that going in. If you are sensitive you don't want to work here or you will end up crying. Most employees are nice, some are lazy & on their phone (against policy) like every other place. Assistant managers at my store are very nice. Manager is different. District manager is completely out in left field.

Cons

Low Pay & no additional pay for working major holidays like Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, Memorial day, Labor day or July 4th. Not many hours (could be only 10 hours per week). Other employees are late every single day which means you never get off on time (managers never write them up or do anything about it even when you complain & ask them to follow company policy). Cashiers are required to answer the phone while checking customers out. This is very annoying. Customers think you are being rude. After my first 2 years with the company corporate changed the commission structure for cashiers (which I am) and I lost over 60% of my commission each year following. You must work over 30 hours to be full time & get insurance, they make sure you stay @ 27 or less. 3% raise each year does not keep up with inflation and it isn't worth the waste of paper it is printed on. They open a new store every 3 days so we now have less inventory in stock than previously. This is frustrating to the customers & the employees. This also makes me feel like they are going to saturate the market. This year they are also unrolling 2 new services at the store that will require the cashier to do more work but not increase the pay. That will likely be my breaking point.

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Harbor Freight Tools Response
7y
First, we want to thank you for trusting Harbor Freight Tools with your career for over 5 years and for taking the time to share your detailed feedback. We would not be able to accomplish all that we do without hardworking Associates like yourself. Please know that we have passed your feedback on to the appropriate Associates. We encourage you to reach out to the anonymous hotline at (800) 693-8377 to share your concerns or to reach out to our Director of People and Culture, Dan Stainback, directly at culture@harborfreight.com. We greatly value your feedback in our efforts to continuously improve our stores and make Harbor Freight a great place to work. Thank you again for all that you do and we look forward to watch you grow with our team!

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5.0
Jul 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The coworkers and managers were very nice

Cons

I personally did not have con while working there

4.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits, fast paced environment, good teamwork. I liked the hours, you get an education about tools, whether from your coworkers or the customers. And speaking of the customers, they were on the better side for retail. Most are down to earth and easy to converse with.

Cons

Supply chain issues, many parts would never be replenished, despite being featured, advertised, and on display. That would often lead to tensions with customers. Aggressive time constraints on tasks. Sidewalk sales, holidays, and also coincidentally inclement weather days, can be quite busy and therefore stressful. Especially if there's call outs, but if you have a good management team, you'll have good staff that will want to work for them.

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