Saw yesterday where Northern Tool is moving into a former K-Mart . Horror Fright has competition in Memphis now ... in a store four-six times bigger . Unless I've misunderstood , they sell pretty much the same quality as HF don't they ?
Got both here in the Dallas area. Both HF and Northern carry similar stuff at the lower end. Northern has a larger line that spans into many areas and higher end stuff that HF doesn't carry.
Pete C.
Yep, but usually for a higher price. We have 2 Northern stores and 2 Harbor Freight stores in my area. Both sell much of the same Chinese-built stuff except that Northern's prices are nearly always higher. In addition to the cheap stuff Northern does sell some better quality equipment than Harbor Freight but much of it is not available in the stores and they sell very few machine tools or cool things like that in their stores.
In fact, Northern now seems to be drop-ship central and is trying to offer a little bit of everything but I get the impression that they only sell it via drop-ship rather than trying to stock it all. They even have tractors and Milwaukee core drills and mag-drills and other high-dollar tools that Harbor Freight doesn't carry but I've never seen any of that in their store. Just in the catalog and on their site.
On the more expensive brand-name equipment like Hobart welders and plasma cutters Northern may beat Harbor Freight's prices but IIRC Harbor Freight will match anyone's price.
Harbor Freight is more tool oriented and has a much better selection of tools actually in the stores.
Also, Harbor Freight runs a lot of 50% off sales on many popular items such as the compact bender they sell for as little as $65. I don't ever recall Northern doing that.
Unfortunately I'm also probably a bit biased by the attitude of the people working at the Northern store near me. They're more knowledgeable than the workers at the HF store but they have a real attitude problem and don't want to be bothered with customers. Plus, about half of what I've gone in there looking for is either out of stock or not stocked and their standard answer is to try to get me to drive 40 miles to their warehouse in SC and insist it's only about 15 minutes away. :-(
Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com
"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"
I think Northern is higher on the food chain, in prices and quality. HF has many things Northern doesn't and visa versa.
Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA
Cheap stuff is usually very expensive!
Yeah , I learned that lesson a few years ago . I buy the best I can afford . Sometimes the best I can afford isn't good enough to do what I want to do . That's why I still haven't got a mill . Sounds from everybody's comments that Northern is kinda like an expanded HF . I guess I need to just wait until they're open and see what this one's going to stock . Big place they're moving into ...
I know nothing of their store, but their catalogue carries a much higher grade quality merchandise. Many name brands, etc.
I sent for a Northern Tool catalog a while back. Their product line looks pretty similar to that of the Princess Auto line.
Cheers Trevor Jones
I'm starting to get interested in seeing just what they will stock . As I said , the store they are moving into was a "super k-mart" , and it's big .
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.