Pros
Harbor Freight is a rapidly growing retailer where new stores are added every 4 days approximately. The stores offer a wide array of tools for do-it-youselfers, weekend warriors, and now through the launch of their better quality tools, even contractors. Base pay was lower than I expected, but the promise of large quarterly bonuses was accurate and made up for the lower pay. My salary was "whole" when I came to HFT. Upper management is incredibly talented and seeing the presentations at annual meeting in Las Vegas will confirm that. So in a nutshell, lots of growth, solid pay potential, lots of talent in the organization from upper management all the way down to the store manager level.
Cons
The cons at HFT are the same cons at all retailers. Work/life balance is practically non-existent. A 45-hour "typical" workweek regularly approaches 50-52 hours and stores have tasks that might go from as early as 4 AM in a week to midnight in that same week. All tasks (pricing, POGs, recalibrations, truck processing, etc.) are to be done in dark hours, but the labor doesn't allow that so it there is a constant jockeying tasks and available hours. Stores run on limited labor and even though I managed a mid-level store, I would often have myself plus 2 associates in the building. With all of the growth, there appears to be limited internal promotion opportunities. As in other retailers, metrics rule the day and certain ones take precedent like ESP and other sales metrics- even though they don't align with the company's priorities. At the end of the day, it is a good job for the money, but it wears on you. I have worked for other retailers, and this one seemed to take away more and more family time as it went on.
