What Is Harbor Freight’s Parking Lot Sale And Are The Deals Any Good?

Harbor Freight is widely known as a discount tool retailer. The company owns several house brands that manufacture tools and other hardware designed to be comparable to products made by big-name brands, and then sells them at a fraction of the price. Any time you walk through their aisles, you’re bound to find some of the most affordable hardware goods on the market. This makes Harbor Freight a great place to find budget-friendly tools any time of the year, but there are some occasions when these prices go even lower.

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You may have driven past one of the Harbor Freight stores and noticed a large banner announcing a “Parking Lot Sale” strung over the entrance from time to time. If you’ve never stepped inside during one of these events, then you might wonder what it is they’re all about. Harbor Freight’s Parking Lot Sales are a fairly regular occurrence, and contrary to the name, which refers to when employees used to drag sales items out to a big tent in the parking lot, the products are now typically held inside the building. These aren’t restricted to automotive tools, but feature a wide range of different goods from across the store.

Those who are interested in getting their tools and supplies at the lowest prices possible may wish to learn a bit more about these sale events. You might want to know how often they occur, how long they last, what kinds of items typically go on sale, and how good these discounts actually are.

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The Harbor Freight Parking Lot sale is a week-long event in which a large selection of items is heavily discounted. The company doesn’t have a specific schedule for its Parking Lot Sales, but it seems to host one at a rate of about once every 1-2 months. These sales typically last a full week, though only Harbor Freight’s Inside Track Club members get access to the discounts Monday through Thursday, while those who are not members will only be able to purchase the items at discounted prices on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

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The items that are discounted (and the amount they’re marked down) are different each time. Parking Lot Sales feature a range of different kinds of products from across the store, and each event is unique. There are a few items, such as wrench sets, tarps, and microfiber cleaning cloths, that seem to make regular appearances, and getting them during the sale is a great way to save money when shopping at Harbor Freight. That said, it’s hard to predict the majority of the hand and power tools that are going to end up on the discount table.

You don’t necessarily need to wait until the day of the sale to see what’s on offer, though. Harbor Freight keeps flyers on hand in the days leading up to a Parking Lot Sale that showcase all of the upcoming discounts. You can also check out sales page on the company website, or you can subscribe to their newsletter to get all of their discounts mailed straight to your inbox as soon as they’re publicly available. Fair warning though, they send a lot of emails.

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Now that you know a bit more about how the Parking Lot Sales work, you’ll probably also want to know how good the bargains actually are. Harbor Freight itself markets them pretty strongly. “Our biggest event in-store and online, our parking lot sales have some incredible savings on some of our top brands and best-selling tools,” The company states. “When you see one of these sales, you’re going to save big.” This means that they are some of the best times for deals and discounts at Harbor Freight. Unfortunately, like the inventory, the discount rates also fluctuate quite a bit.

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There are usually at least a handful of items that are marked down anywhere from 30 to 50% off. These are usually some of the biggest discounts that you’ll find in the store. They’re also the items that Harbor Freight is most likely to run out of stock on before the sale reaches its end. There are several smaller discounts as well that, while perhaps not exciting enough to merit a special trip on their own, are still nice additions that can give you a good excuse to build up your tool collection and stock up on essentials.