I saw the same thing at one of the Chicago area stores a couple of days
before Christmas - it was very obvious in several areas, although I wouldn't
by any means say the store was low on inventory overall. A decent amount of
stuff still in the back, too, and workers promising customers that this or
that would be in in a few days. While I wondered about store closings, in
fact they only recently opened another one here. Like Wayne, I then assumed
it was a drawdown before the end of their fiscal year, presumably January
1st.
FWIW, their stores here (4 in the Chicago suburbs now) are always very busy
whenever I go into one. Lots of people buying decent carts full of that
Chinese crap. Ahem... me too.....
ANyway, I bet HF's sales levels year-to-year are better percentage-wise than
most of the major retailers here. I'm not a big shopper, but I know that in
every recent year, you couldn't park at ANY general shopping center here for
the whole week before Christmas, and a few days afterwards. This year the
lots didn't look anywhere near crowded.
For years Jill and I have watched shopping center after shopping center and
warehouse after warehouse being built, and asked each other who's going to
buy all that stuff. Maybe this is the answer - nobody.
Karl
> Jim Stone wrote:
>> The shelves at my local Harbor Freight (one of two in the St. Louis area)
>> are
>> looking a little bare. They have been that way for weeks. In today's
>> economic climate that makes me wonder about the health of the company.
>> Has
>> anyone else noticed this at their local store?
>
> Hmm, combo of crap, I'd guess. They try to load up on hot items for xmas.
> But then they usually owe property / inventory tax on it Jan 1. So they
> have to balance meeting holiday demand with not carrying excess inventory.
> Plus they normally need to do a physical inventory and count all the
> garbage. And, many people's budgets are exhausted from the xmas spending,
> so Jan / Feb may be slow.
> -Wayne
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