[Shop-talk] HF: Jigsaw blades, etc.

[Arvid Jedlicka]

Note that this is all hearsay - I have not tried to discover proof of anything that follows.

The rumor that I have heard is that the local stores are a separate company entity owned by the two sons of the owner of Harbor 
Freight. This "total separation", and the disparate part numbers, "proves" that the mail order company does not have a local 
presence in your state, and therefore the mail order company does not have to collect sales taxes in your state.

As far as honoring the prices, the local stores had usually done so under the guise of "honoring competitors ad prices". I've only 
had one occasion - a long time ago - where they said they would not honor it because "it was a different product number and 
therefore a different product". Of course only the digits after the hyphen were different, so it really was the same item, but it is 
their game and their rules.

Feel free to set me straight,
Arvid


> I saw something I liked on sale in the twice-weekly HF
> flyer that came in the mail, but I did not see the
> same price on their Web site. Then I noticed that all
> the stock numbers in the flyer were of a different
> style than usual.  And the web site listed on the
> flyer was "harborfreightusa.com" instead of just
> "harborfreight.com".  Apparently the dealer network is
> somewhat separate from the online sales, and could
> have better or worse prices.
>
> Doug