Harbor Freight truth?

Some seem to think HF is owned and controlled directly by Satan ;) I'd be real surprised if "Central" is anything but the generic moniker it appears to be.

The "Central" refers to "Central Purchasing Inc, Camarillo, CA" and has nothing to do with the actual manufacturer of the products, it's just the house brand name used by Harbor Freight.

The manufacturers in China (and elsewhere) put the "Central" whatever stickers and matching paint on the items they ship to Harbor Freight, the "Northern Industrial Tools" and matching paint on the items they ship to Northern Tool, etc.

As an example, the Sieg mini mills and lathes are all produced by Sieg in China, and sold by Harbor Freight, Cummins, Grizzly, Princess Auto and many others, each with their own paint color and house brand name.

I firmly believe the following: (keep it to yourself)

All Chinese goods are implanted with alien space metals so that when the invasion comes, they can locate us all and kill us, AND get all their tools back!

Steve ;-)

PS: One is not ACTUALLY paranoid if they ARE, in fact, out to get you .....................

That wouldn't make a lot of sense. If you can't sell the HF tool for the scrap metal value and come close to breaking even, you probably didn't buy it on sale!

It sounds like the kind of name I'd pick if I wanted it to mean something to the guys manufacturing the stuff. The first character in China (Zhong1 Guo2) means "middle" or "central", after all.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

You must be new here. Using my post and "wouldn't make a lot of sense" in the same screen is an oxymoron.

HTH

Steve

A little bit of truth, mixed with a lot of baloney.

Harbor Freight is owned by an American Citizen by the name of Eric Smidt, of Camarillo Ca. He is not chinese, or a front for the Chinese Army- he is an old fashioned capitalist, and just a couple of years ago, he spent $46 Million on a house in Beverly Hills. If the Chinese really owned Harbor Freight, they wouldnt have wasted all that money on frippery like that. He also gives away money to charities like the Childrens Hospital of Southern California, and what I presume is his alma mater, USC.

As for the ownership of Chinese companies- thats a bit murkier. There are indeed many companies in China that are owned by branches of the Peoples Army. But they are real businesses, and you damn well better make a profit, or they get shut down. The direct day to day control by the government is pretty tenous. In fact, there have been several cases where one arm of the Chinese Government will try to shut down an activity of another arm- its far from being a big, monolithic conspiracy over there.

The big shots in the army can easily have their own little fiefdoms, with factories controlled by one General, who reaps the lions shares of the profits. Corrupt, yes. Supporting the government- well, only slightly- a lot of the "profits" goes into new Mercedes 500's, Country house up by the Great Wall (I kid you not- its a big industry building second homes with a view of the Great Wall) and buying all kinds of luxury goods. China is the fastest growing market for all kinds of luxury goods- Ferrari sold over 150 cars there last year, its Rolls Royce's third largest market, and Gucci and Louis Vuitton are raking in the dough there.

Capitalism has landed hard, with both feet, in China. The government will still throw you in jail for complaining, or trying to change things, but making money, by owning a factory, is AOK with them. Just keep your mouth shut.

Harbor freight buys from hundreds of factories- and some are undoubtedly government owned. And lots are not. I just read an article by the editor of American Machinist magazine, who, while in Bejing for a trade show, shared a cab with an engineer whose company sells Harbor Freight $2 Million dollars a year worth of cheap blue hand power tools. And he was NOT in the army.

I don't know a lot about this but one thing I know for sure is that all their tools come with a Chinese Warranty:

If the tool breaks in two pieces, you get to keep both pieces. :-)

They don't want the broken piece back. There are plenty to go around on the floor where it was manufactured.

Just kidding, I have not tried to take anything back to them that was broke but I had a backorder issue last Christmas and their communication was great. They kept me posted on progress weekly, which I thought was very good. It got here two days before Christmas and they swore it would be another week. I was impressed. It was an internet order. Your mileage may vary. Good Luck Lyndell

Both of my local HFs have NO problem exchanging broken, or defective items. They also have no problems with donating items to charities or fund raisers.

"Steve B" wrote: (clip)One is not ACTUALLY paranoid if they ARE, in fact, out to get you ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You are RONG. Paranoia is a mental illness. A person could be mentally ill and believe that "they" are out to get him. At the same time, this person could be the target of stalkers or conspirators, just like the rest of us.

From the Yahoo company profile at

Central Purchasing certainly could lay claim to the expression "the right tool for the job." The company, better recognized by its trade name, Harbor Freight Tools, is one of the country's largest tool and equipment catalog retailers. Harbor Freight Tools offers more than 7,000 tools and equipment items, including products marketed under such brands as Central Machinery, Chicago Electric, DeWalt, Makita, Pittsburgh, and Stanley. The company also sells via the Internet and through a network of more than 250 retail stores in about 40 states. It was founded in 1968.

Actually, that was a trademark of the Sherman Clark Co. of Michigan, which sold re-labeled AA lathes, and probably other stuff, in the 1930s

I was just thinking the aliens wouldn't go to the trouble of getting their tools back if they weren't worth more than scrap metal prices. Now if the aliens were selling Festool and Starrett, then it would make sense! I'm not disagreeing with you about the aliens, we ALL know they are here...

;^)

Thanks. The Chinese aren't likely to leave $46M on the table, so I guess that puts to rest to owns the company. So, assuming that he is paying "fair market value" (in Chinese terms) for the goods, for HF to charge the prices they do and still make a decent profit, HF must have an incredibly efficient distribution system.

--Try snopes.com They've probably got something on it.

We don't know how to recapture and refine the metals they have hidden in there. Look at it as advance shipping. When they get ready to take over, all the alien metal will already be here.

Steve

Make the pilgrimage to the Dillon, SC warehouse.

For all we know, when a factory makes a batch of tools that fail QA for company X, or they have an excess, they call up HF and give them a great deal....

I've returned stuff by mail without problem. They picked up a broken mortising machine and sent a new one a week or so later, without any trouble at all. No extra cost for shipping, either.

I'll admit, the machine wasn't the best-made thing I've ever seen, but it was great for what I wanted, and $150--$250 less than anything else available.