Competitive Priorities

Priorities	Supplier    Relationship	New Service/ Product Development	Order Fulfillment	Customer Relationship
Cost (Low Cost Operations)	The cost of products must remain low by purchasing directly from the manufacturer.		Operating Cost must remain low in order to be competitive.	The cost remains unbeatable for the customers. We provide different sales and discounts every month.
Quality (Top Quality)				Top quality is accomplished by giving our customers a 100% satisfaction no hassle return policy.
Quality (Consistent Quality)	The quality of Harbor Freight’s products must be the same for every store.		The quality of our products are consistent because each tool is tested to make sure it reaches its full potential.
Time (Delivery Speed)			Harbor Freight will deliver an order within 1-2 business days.	Harbor Freight is open 7 days a week, which allows customers to have easy access to a product.
Time (Development Speed)	In order to compete with larger businesses, the manufacturer must produce the newest products and have them delivered fast to ensure they are available to the customers.
Flexibility (Volume Flexibility)			Harbor Freight is able to manage small or large fluctuations in demand.

Customer Contact Resource Flexibility, & Capital Intensity

Harbor Freight has high customer contact and low customer involvement. Our company goal is to provide customers with great tools that cost less. In making this happen we have stores in many locations open 7 days a week so that these tools are available for our customers. There is no customization of the tools and products that we sell. We only sell finished products at our many locations or online.   A customer in need of a product will come to one of our locations or visit our website to find what they are looking for. If the product is hard to find or the customer is looking for something else our employees are always available to assist the customer. The employees will either help the customer find the product they are looking for or answer any questions the customer might have to the best of their abilities. Once the customer finds what he or she is looking for they will complete their purchase by going to the cashier. This employee will complete the purchasing transition and make sure that the customer has found everything they need while at our store. Majority of our employees have the knowledge of doing different tasks at our store location. The only employees that are hired that are not flexible are the cashiers. This person sole perpose at harbor freight is to work the cashier  nothing else. Since this is a retail store there isn’t much need for equipment. The only machinery that Harbor Frieght Tools uses is the cash register.The employees take care of all the daily funcions of running our store.

We consider Harbor Freight a Hybrid Office. A Hybrid Office means that there are moderate levels of customer contact as well as standard services. Some customers come into our store knowing exactly what they are looking for and where to find it. Since these customers don’t really need our employees help, the only interaction they have with our staff would be at check out. While other customers need a little guidance, our employees are ready and able to assist the customer with whatever they need. Therefore customer contact ranges between the types of customers that come to our store. If no customer needs assistance, our employees continue with their daily duties of operation.