retail sales associate

stocking associate

stock supervisor

senior retail sales associate

retail sales supervisor

Harbor-Freight-Tools

I started off as part-time here in 2021, and at the time I was pretty excited for the new opportunities. Promotions and growth came with time, and by the time I left here I was sitting at a supervisor position with pretty decent pay. The expectations initially were pretty straightforward, but overtime they became more and more unobtainable due to management and changes in operations.

I was initially drawn in by the time of operation, 4am to 12:30pm, but as I continued to work here it changed to 6am-2:30pm to now 7:30am-3:30pm. These changes not only affected how we completed our workload, but it affected our morale as well. Being expected to complete the same amount of work in seemingly less time was miserable, especially when the current management team lacks the compassion to see the effect of these changes and the drive to help meet expectations. Executing major changes such as pricing and planograms felt impossible given the need for customer focus. Scheduling here was both nonexistent and inconsistent as well. I often came into workdays with, at most, four people for my entire shift regardless of whether a major sale was going on. Work life balance was also poor because of the inconsistency.

Workplace culture here was abysmal. Employees were encouraged to throw one another under the bus in exchange for temporary favoritism from the management team. Male staff was often favored by both past management and current management. There was a very clear double standard between the female leaders and male leaders. There were a handful of times that male leaders were allowed to come in late, leave early, and get into scats with customers, with absolutely no repercussions. For example, I had to leave early one day because of a medical emergency and was told that I needed a doctor's note. Meanwhile, one or two supervisors were able to leave early most days due to being hungover. No note needed. Male leaders were also allowed to sell prohibited items on the clock to non-Harbor Freight customers.

Management here often sat in the office chitchatting while the rest of the team was left to fend for ourselves. I was often told to “figure it out” when given situations caused by management. I was also often told that if the sales floor or front end really needed help that an active leader on duty should have called out specific people. The lack of accountability and the lack of drive to help during business hours quickly led to burnout and resentment, ultimately contributing to a toxic work environment. I was told by management that I was not allowed to close the doors during closing because it risked a “safety issue”, meanwhile with the door left open this led to customers continuously coming in and staff having to escort them out. This compromise to staff safety was present often, and this was especially present with an all female crew closing.

Past management and present often exuded ableist behavior toward staff. A former employee was often met with harsh ridicule for seemingly minimal issues, issues mostly being not following directions not communicated by management, and for not performing to standard while experiencing a mental health crisis. When asking for direction this former employee was met with silent treatment and irrational behavior such as yelling. Silent treatment continued to be the norm even after the change in management. Derogatory language such as slurs was often used by all facets of staff including management. Reporting was discouraged in fear of retaliation.

Employees with the worst workplace ethics were praised and rewarded while employees that worked either within expectations or above expectations went unacknowledged. I received no acknowledgement through their “Hardhat of the Month” program either through my work or promotions, meanwhile former employees here who have received multiple complaints regarding hygiene and behavior received this praise multiple times.

The job itself was relatively easy, and the pay was pretty decent. But overall the lack of accountability from management, the unrealistic expectations, the favoritism, and the dogpiling on minority staff made working at this location and with this company unbearable.

I have been working at Harbor Freight Tools full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Paid time off.
Decent health benefits
Hourly pay and a 40 hour work week for assistant managers
Reasonable hours for the average store manager 45 to 50 hours.
Cons
One of the highest levels of turnover I have ever experienced in retail. Typical store staff consists of 15 to 18 employees. The store has turned over 35 employees in a year.
 IT is always a challenge
 The company does not promote from within. So if you were not hired on as a position you want to stay in permanently and by permanently I mean 2 to 3 years which is the average tenure for most Harbor freight tools veteran do not be fooled by the talk of growth; Store managers and DM's are almost exclusively external hires.
 Company struggles to implement programs that can be expertly executed at the store level especially given the extremely tight labor budget. Name collection and merchandise management standard operating procedures are essential examples where more than 70% of the stores across the company cannot comply with the expectations. There is an apparent disconnect between the corporate and store level. The response to the company-wide failure to execute unrealistic expectations is generally firing threats, fear, and intimidation.
 I would have to echo the sentiments about HR written in several other reviews; the HR hotline is far from anonymous.
 It is a Commonplace practice to hire store managers from external companies, and this can lead in some unfortunate cases to a dangerous mix of arrogance and incompetence. Store managers aren't offered a lot of training; they often receive as little as two weeks of training. Often to compensate for the lack of knowledge, there's a lot of grandstanding to show you who's boss that is counterproductive given the small staffs and tight budget everyone has to use their time wisely and work as a cohesive team.
 The store managers job description is extremely vague. They have a lot of rights and very little if any direct responsibilities and often end up functioning exclusively as an in-house critic. Assistant managers, please negotiate your salary very well as you will be expected to do any and every task related to store operations often with little support from your GM.
 The companies labor budget makes it difficult to retain and keep the quality employee. The company gives minimal training and expects top-notch quality and production from associates that are offered as little as five hours a week.
 The company culture rates high on the toxicity level.
• Power struggles and power plays are frequent and ongoing.
• Management egos need to be stroked on a regular basis.
Because of tight labor budget that it seems That Executives are primarily focused on fattening their purses.
• Often people only talk to their store managers/DM if they have to.
• The store has a small management staff, but because of the negativity, everyone is often at war with each other.
• To Say Management pays more attention to what employees do wrong than what they do right is an extreme understatement.
• Employees spend a lot of energy on CYA activities.
• Problems automatically trigger the search for a scapegoat.
• Gossip, put-downs, blaming, and backbiting are common
• Upper management has a “my way or the highway” attitude and seldom help one another.
 Advice
Show Less
Advice to Management
Consider opening up one to two more full-time positions at the store level
Consider giving part-timers more than A maximum of 20 hours a week.
Considering the amount of growth The company is experiencing the internal promotions of head cashiers and warehouse supervisor to ASM and assistant managers to SM is shameful.
If 70 to 90% of the store fails to meet an expectation, there may be something wrong with that expectation.
Invest in a good HR program that is truly anonymous and that holds violators of the HR policy accountable and also treats toxic Store managers and employees as incompetent.

We are always short staffed so the store manager can make his bonus on saved store hours. We have the people willing to pick up and work the hours. It is tough because my store is fairly busy with theives, phone constantly ringing, everyone bombarding you with questions, high expectations from the daily download checklist without the staff scheduled. Often there is just two people me and one other person included for the entire store to run everything. Long lines forming because you need head cashier credentials. Can't take my half hour lunch or leave the store. What about team lift safety? How when you have 1 person in the stockroom or 1 person outside to load it in a vehicle? Someone must be tending the register right? There's always a customer who needs your help and askes is there anyone on the sales floor to help and it hurts to say no most of the time.

Then you have direct managers who comes in a half hour early every day and rushes you off the clock a half hour earlier so you won't ever get paid the hours you are scheduled. Gets a bigger bonus and his full hours though. There's always something left to do still.

You have Atlas that makes no sense. You get all kind of weird time intervals to come in and leave. 1:15, 1:25, 1:30, 1:45, 2:00. It makes it impossible to just remember the schedule or to have consistecy. At least before Atlas, it made much more sense and you didn't have to adjust it every day to accommodate employees and their availability. You can see truck days, Plano, recal all on one page, in color organized. You can't see in Atlas who you are working with so if you are scheduled to work with someone for 6 am and no one shows up you better have had a printout or picture or you won't have a clue. 

Marketing sucks when you are the one trying to explain no that's not save 70% on that item it's save "up to" 70% in the tiny words and you get yelled at for the misleading marketing team. Gigantic 99¢ sign and you have to explain no it's "starting at" 99¢ again tiny letters only 1 item there is 99¢. It makes absolutely no sense when you put decide to only send coupons out for a free blue light and with that send a small amount. The store eventually runs out because it's a way higher demand since masses all have that one single free coupon as normal about 7 other free coupons. We have to explain no it's not our store it's our poor marketing team who only chooses to put the one single free coupon out so we can run out faster. The marketing team is only concerned with grabbing your attention with bold statements, that you have to look into closer to find out that's not the case. People never return, becaue the lack of trust and to good to be true expectations that are set by all of this.

Parking lot sales are no treat neither...It's the same stuff all the time, and it's a slap in the face to loyal people who bring the coupons and you have to say "sorry, but your coupon won't work, because the item is already on sale". We stay a extra hour when no customers come in that late and we have to bring stuff out and rush on rainy days to cover it and bring it back in. Sucks even more when everyone knows the parking lot sale is coming and no truck is scheduled to come at all only until after it's over.

There is so much wrong with Harbor Feight Tools and the people who are higher up are more worried about micromanaging things that are not even on the radar to make a positive change.

HFT seems like it is a great company to work for.  I got a lot of great support and learned a lot from the District Manager who really seemed to care about each employee.  The company goes by a set of pillars that are put in place in order to ensure success.  They give you a good amount of PTO, and they also provide sick time, 401k after 6 months, good health benefits at an affordable rate.  However, I was put in a store that had a Store Manager that seemed to focus more on “the drama” in the store, and pinning employees against each other to get information being they just weren’t very present on the floor for most of the time, and as a result, this caused morale to be the lowest I’ve ever personally seen in a working environment.  If you aren’t their “friend” or “in the group”, then you would be heavily targeted in order to find ANYTHING that you did wrong, or could be interpreted as a “violation of policy”, when they do things that in fact ARE a violation of the policy, but are not held accountable because, as everyone knows, in a retail environment, the GM or Store Manager is the top of the chain of command at the store, and the next person above them would be the district manager, but the district manager stopped in, I would say on average, 2-3 times a month (pretty regular and what is expected in retail), so the GM can go unchecked and gives them the ability to “hide” certain things that they don’t want the DM to see, and would act completely different when the DM was around.  Overall though, through my training experience, and all of the people I met from different stores, this does not seem to be the “norm” for most stores at least, which is why I rated it at a 3 out of 5.  It seems that the company as a whole is a great place to work, and normally employees get promoted based off of “who’s the best fit for the position at the time” based off of work ethic, performance, drive, and embracing the pillars set in place.  I just so happened to unfortunately be placed in a store that had a very toxic work culture.  I don’t blame HFT for this, as I could see first hand how much manipulation was going on, and I don’t think that it will work out for them the way they’re running the store based on “who they like the most” and letting things slide that shouldn’t be, because of who the employee is, and that they’re “in the group”, so they don’t want to damage that relationship.  Basically you weren’t to be a person that “thinks outside the box of different ways to improve or implement processes” at this store, and you were best off if you didn’t know very much and just took direction, without voicing any kind of ideas or improvements for the store.  But, I would definitely recommend HFT to people, and I would say that overall, as long as you don’t end up in my particular situation?  It will be a great place to work.

Upon arriving at work I usually tried to get my extra duties out of the way before getting on my register.  On days when I was one of the opening cashiers there were always a lot of things to get done before opening the doors.  The training lasted a couple of days and was very hands on, via the computer.  There is also a tutorial of sorts accessible from your cash register if you need it.  The management is very approachable and if you're having any difficulties they do all they can to help resolve them.  They also offer access to a computer in the office in the event you want to refresh your training.
I wasn't employed there long enough to get anything other than my initial probationary review, and that went alright.  
The other people I worked with on the floor were fun yet professional and took a great deal of pride in the store and what the customers thought of it.  
There are several times a year that they have parking lot sales.  We all worked hard setting things up and keeping an eye on things during the sale.  The one's that happened while I was there were very successful and everyone worked together really well.  
I was terminated, but it happened because of a misunderstanding.  We had just gotten a new store manager and he didn't know any of us yet so when everything went down the way it did, he did what was  company policy and I was let go.  The company policy allows for 3 shortages or overages on your drawer in a 6 month period.  You receive write-ups for each, and if there is a forth during the 6 months, you get written up and it's reported to corporate in California.  It is then up to them what happens to you.  Usually you're terminated.  On this particular day, a customer came in returning some jacks and jack stands.  First he went to one of the other registers but that cashier didn't have enough money to do the return, so he came to me.  I did the return, but mistakenly returned the lesser expensive merchandise.  My manager noticed my mistake and came to correct it for me.  That, in and of itself wasn't a big deal.  After he finished he told me not to forget to have my supervisor void the first return.  Otherwise my drawer wouldn't balance.  I would be almost $40.00 over.  We got busy and I did forget to have him take care of it and we left together at the end of shift. 
The next day when I came into work my new store manager called me in and gave me my write up.  Unfortunately, he had already sent it in to corporate.  Had he known me, he would have probably waited until he talked to me first and it would have been straightened out without involving corporate.  I understand that he was simply following policy.  The Assistant Manager offered to explain the situation to corporate but I told him it was ok.  I was already looking for a job closer to home that paid more, so I just let it go.

If you work the sales position you are actually working multiple jobs while getting paid for one. While standing at the register with your back to the door you are required to turn and greet customers coming in no matter if your register is farthest from the door, all must join in this ritual that I, as a frequent customer,  find insincere and quite patronizing to start with, then even if you are in the middle of a transaction when the phone rings (and it will ring and ring!) you must answer within 2 rings and read from a script about the upcoming sales event before asking the person on phone what they need, if the customer on phone has a product inquiry you must also handle looking that up (mind that you’re still ringing another customer up), at some point in your transaction you are required to try to sale subscriptions to a coupon magazine (that could be found for free online) as well as sale a warranty for each and every single electronic or mechanical device in the customers order (this is a MUST even if the customer refused the previous 20 solicitations in their cart - if a supervisor sees you skip it you will be talked to).  All of this must be done while the ear piece you are required to wear is filled with interdepartmental chatter which is often really distracting.

You must also process returns while ringing folks up including warranty returns which takes quite a bit of time so this is not a job for those who cant handle the stress because you will be staring down lines that go to the back of the store due to management following corporate starvation labor guidelines (if 1 person calls in you are screwed for the rest of the day).   
You are the Greeter, Sales person, Phone operator, Return Desk, Replenishment clerk, Bookkeeper, Loss Prevention, 
Subscription and Warranty Salesperson and Product location and Information desk all for the bargain price of minimum wage.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, this job has a high turnover rate mainly because the burnout is real and even if you are loyal and come in whenever called they keep track of attendances - mostly if your late - even if you call ahead of your shift and let them know the situation and your ETA, there is no reciprocal or lenient attitude for all the hard work you do - and you WILL work hard - to make minimum wage. HR is on your back about attendance and even if your manager thinks you are a hard worker they will let you go for minimum infractions even if all you want to do is show up and help them make money.
There are many other jobs that pay better with less workload stress.

FT employees work 35-40 hours, OT is almost never allowed. PT employees work 15-25 hours, sometimes more if people call in. (which is all the time). Company is designed on point system for disciplinary action. So the more you miss work, come in late, written warnings, etc., count for points against you. When you reach a certain amount, it is refereed to HR, who has the option to terminate. Problem is most store managers do not follow the system and when its not being followed, it's nearly impossible to get terminated. This is not fair for the employees who do follow the guidelines and it does cause tension between employees. There is no set schedule, so work/life balance is hard to maintain. Most schedules do come out a week prior, so you do have some time to plan accordingly. I've been told that the company is working on a computer based tracking system for points and scheduling, but have yet to be told if/when it will be released. I personally have worked for a company that used computer based scheduling, and trust me it DOES NOT WORK very well! So I do not see the work/life balance improving anytime soon. The store is typically divided into two sections, the sales team and warehouse team. The sales side of the job is easy. If you're customer oriented, you will not have any issues. It's a typical retail job, aside from the occasional rude customers, most customers are thankful for helping them out. On the warehouse side, the hardest part is truck day. Which the warehouse team is responsible for unloading. They are also responsible for stocking the sales floor, and maintaining the warehouse with all overstock. Truck days are once a week for the most part. Sometimes twice a week, sometimes once every two weeks. Sales hours are usually between 8 am to 9 pm, and warehouse hours are 5 am to 3 pm, roughly. I'm sure most stores are set up differently. If you're looking for a job that is consistent with work hours and will help pay your bills, this is it. If you're looking for a career, I would say NO. Although, you will definitely gain some retail knowledge if you're looking to get into retail management in the future. A warehouse job, is a warehouse job, not much to be said about that. I do not see any advancement there, unless you stick with it for a while. Overall, if a few things were restructured (company wide) I think HF would be a really solid company to work for, but I really don't see that happening anytime soon. (and that is another discussion entirely) The training I expected is almost non existent, so rather than a career, this has become more of "just a job". Not was I expecting, so I'm definitely back on the search for a career.

I was hired to work at the new location in Puyallup and in the beginning it was great. We were trained in Tacoma and we got plenty of hours (despite some of them being until 3am).and learned a lot of new things.
Then once the Puyallup store opened our hours in logistics went down from 35 a week to 16 and a couple of times just 8 hours a week. Most people working there were young and still living with parents so that might not have been a problem but others had families and 8 hours a week can't pay the bills.
Those who worked there the longest and hardest were overlooked for a full time promotion in favor for those who were willing to drop everything whenever management wanted them in. 
Myself and others were promised on the day that we were hired that they were going to promote two people in logistics to full time and another was going to be a supervisor. By the time I left almost five months later they had only promoted one person to full time. Those who applied for the position (yes, you had to apply online rather than managment look at who was the most qualified) were never even spoken to or acknowledged.
Sometimes you would have 5 straight days off but were afraid to make plans as the managers would regularly phone you up if you could come in without taking family life in consideration. 
Despite the fact I got along with management quite well, they never had an answer for the simplest things. If you were scheduled in until midnight there were plenty of occasions where you'd have to stay till 2am in order to get the job done - and then get yelled at for staying too late and thus getting your hours cut. Sometimes they'd give you three hours to get a 10 minute job done and sometimes they wanted an 8 hour job done in 2. There was never any consistency. 
Logistics staff got yelled at plenty of times for taking too long to unload the truck despite all of us working out butts off. 
We started with around 14-16 members of logistic associates at the new store and by the time I quit there were only four left. And still with people leaving almost on a weekly basis the hours for those who stayed never went up. Where did those hours go?
The supervisors were absolutely fantastic and I feel bad for them because they constantly got yelled at by management for either taking too long to get things done or not getting the job done in the time they wanted to.
It's a nice little.store and my colleagues were great but lack of communication and terrible time management from my bosses have put me off working in logistics for life.

The hardest part about working for HFT is the complete money-centered attitude that filters down from corporate. Sales are down? Cut the store hours. Don't consider that sales are down because the company doesn't want to pay for insurance benefits for employees so they ruthlessly cut hours to the retail stores, leaving them short-staffed with far too many employees using this as an extra job because they couldn't afford to live on what they take home of their pay if this was their only position.

Of course during the interview process nobody informs you that for the first 90 days they'll work you to death but once you become accustomed to almost being able to pay your bills they'll slash your hours ruthlessly in order to keep you off the "Full Time" list so they don't have to offer you any insurance benefits.

. It is expected that fewer and fewer employees should put out a semi-load of freight each week to a sales floor and warehouse, smile while they sweat, assist customers with questions and concerns, convincingly sell memberships in a "club" that really doesn't benefit the customer all that much over the thousands of other available discount coupons they can get in newspapers, magazines, and even on their free mailing list and web site... all while knowing that they are totally disposable and not valued at all by the company.

Sales continue to go down? Cut hours more. Expect more - but always give the employee less and less as time goes on. They're only peons.

This company can't expect to hold on to loyal, hard-working store staff this way, and they don't. Everyone is replaceable. There is no security. You work and sweat and hold on to a position never knowing if you'll have enough hours allotted to you to pay your bills. It's like they want to hire know-nothings and transient workers in order to increase the dollars pouring in, but still have mid and upper level management jetting around the country spying on stores and the owner spending millions on works of art.

I would get into work around 5, as soon as i clock in i would ask my manager if there is anything specific he would want me to do, if not then i would go and start to organize the floor, since i was one person this would take up allot of my time since i had to do the whole floor, during this time if the one cashier they had needed help, i would go up and shorten the lines by getting on my cash register, after i would go and continue to organize the floor until they needed me again all while helping out customers and answering the phone, after this i would mop all 4 restrooms and the break room, and empty the trash cans, after this it would be around the time to clock out and go home which would be on good days 10 but on most days 11. specific duties i would do is restock, re tag, or move things in the back inventory. I learned how to multitask and how to be efficient while working, since i usually closed it was best for me to do my job as quick as possible while doing it right so i wouldn't have to go back and do it again. the management and co-workers were the best part about the job for the most part, some co-workers weren't helpful at all but for the most part it was the management were helpful and considerate whenever you made a simple mistake, but only to those who make up for it in their work ethic, the co-workers were nice and most of them knew what to do since they worked there for a while. the hardest part about the job was the customers, you would help them out to the best of your abilities and sometimes just get sass as  a result, of course this may happen in allot of places but i feel that because im not as inclined about tools as the customers think i should be, they seemed to get on me just for not knowing every single part of my store. customers would also pile up on you due to the lack of employment, at times i would be dealing with 5 customers at once and every one get mad at me because i am taking too long or i shove them off while they try to ask me something because i am doing something for another customer. the most enjoyable part of the job is that as soon as you display that you are good at your job to the managers, the managers become more lenient with you and give you more freedom.

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