employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Harbor Freight Tools

Engaged Employer

Harbor Freight Tools reviews

3.6

62% would recommend to a friend

(3,450 total reviews)
avatar

Eric Smidt

67% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Harbor Freight Tools has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 3,450 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Harbor Freight Tools employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
4.0
Feb 17, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

HFT pays pretty good for a retail job. The products they sale are interesting and fun. If you like tools, you can get pretty good deals. They give you pretty generous amounts of Paid Time Off and they have decent benefits.

Cons

They send out way too many coupons that makes the customers very confused. They are disorganized in many areas of the management. They are always understaffed and that causes everyone stress. They hire managers with no tool knowledge. The pressure they put on you to sell extended warranties and memberships is over the top.

2.0
Jul 24, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great place to sharpen sales skills. Diverse customer base. Great benefits. Relaxed dress code. New gadgets and tools coming in all the time. Great place for discount tools.

Cons

Too many cheap, poor quality Chinese trinkets. Unsafe work environment. Small, cramped, dirty, overstocked stores. Low pay scale prohibits hiring competent help. Founders/senior management exhibit little knowledge of bricks-and-mortal retailing operations. Too many sales events occurring simultaneously. A computer system from the Stone Age. A warehouse system that believes the stores are storage facilities for the warehouse. Too many rainchecks given out to customers for merchandise that may or may not come in. Too many "outs" in the store, especially during sales where the "outs" have been advertised.

2.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to work around tools. Decent Employee discount. Competitive starting salary. Industry standard Employee benefits.

Cons

I am unsure of other areas, but the district that I worked in (which includes most of North Texas [specifically the Richardson location]) may have become one of the worst places I have ever worked. When I was fist hired on, the store manager was almost never there, and one of the Assistant store managers was always condescending, and combative. The store went through a few store managers for a while, until we got Jeff. Not only was he the best Harbor Freight manager I ever worked with; he was in my top three people I've ever worked under... anywhere. He moved on to a different location and took the good ASM with him. That left our location with the terrible ASM, and a new SM. The new store manager is the second worst manager I have ever worked with. She has no communication skills, and cannot be bothered to coach and train. She is, however, very skilled in handing out write-ups... like it's her job. I received more of them in my last year there (under her) than in the rest of my jobs for all of my adult life... and I'm 50. Of course, she is empowered by the district manager, who always backs her play even if she is wrong. The same district manager who tried to convince me (during one of my write-ups) that Friedrich Nietzsche said, "be the change you want to see in the world". When I said that it was a statement that was misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi, he said, "Yeah, but Nietzsche said it a couple of hundred years before him." Honestly, I hate that I was terminated by these people. I mean, what a blow to your ego.

Viewing 229 - 231 of 3,450 Reviews

Glassdoor has 3,497 Harbor Freight Tools reviews submitted anonymously by Harbor Freight Tools employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Harbor Freight Tools is right for you.