I hate Sundays (or, Harbor Freight wins again!)

I needed a magnetic base for my dial indicator. Checked online late last night and Sears showed one. $45 but in stock at the local mall store.

10:00 AM and I'm at Sears only to find out they don't open until 11:00. Now around here I can get a latte' at any time of day or night. But if I wanted to buy a lawn mower from Sears on a sunny spring Sunday morning, forget it.

So I chill, pay too much for a cheesy looking base, get it home only to find the 'Powerful Magnet Base' is actually a little less magnetic than a piece of gum.

Back to Sears, 2nd unit on the shelf is also FUBAR. Crap. Get money back, head off towards Sears at larger mall about ten miles away.

Decide on the way to stop by Harbor Freight since it's not too far from the other mall.

They have a stack of them on the shelf. I pull one out to test it and it is a far superior unit to what Sears had, and it's only $17 & change. I get to the checkout and find out it's 50% off, cost me a little less than $9.00!

So now I'm 5 hours into my Sunday and have accomplished nothing. But I did save $35 in the process, less time and travel.

Now I'm sitting here eating a sandwhich while I type this before I head back to the garage. But I really wanted to grouse about this before I went back to the shop. It helps me mellow back out.

Thanks

Murff
[addsig]

Doesn't it suck? Anymore you can't trust any 'brand name' not to be cheaper than the 'no name' parts =/.

I usually just get my junk from Harbor Freight to begin with. Then when it finally breaks (often long after I expected it to!), I expected it so I'm not too bent, I'm not out much money...and replacing it won't cost jack.

/sigh
[addsig]

I can tell you one thing not to buy from Harbor Freight, A coil spring compressor. The first time I tried to use it, it cracked. Scary!

I bought one from Eastwood instead. No problems with it.

Got my mag-base and indicators there also and they work splendid. Also got my press, tig/arc welder, air compressor, jack stands, angle grinders, countless hand tools, pneumatic tools, and tons of other stuff I can't remember.
HF has stuff that is just adequate for the home builder and doesn't empty your pockets right away. Well it may empty your pockets, but you get a lot more stuff. God bless em.
[addsig]

I gave up on Sears a long time ago because their prices are outrageous! The last example was a touch up roller with tray. Sears was $5.95 and Lowes was $1.95 for the same exact item by the same exact manufacturer!

Many years ago I bought a 7 1/2" circular saw at Sears and used it a lot for about a week. Put it on the shelf where it sat for over a year. Took it down and the bearing were frozen solid! Took it back to Sears where I was told it was out of warranty. Never again! So if I need a good tool I go to Lowes.

Later!
Mr. Ed
[addsig]

I did go to Home Depot to look for this mag base even tough I knew it was a long shot since I had an hour to kill while waiting for Sears to open.

Besides the price & quality of the piece I was looking for the thing that pi$$ed me off the most was having to wait until 11:00 AM for the store to open.

Maybe I'm spoiled but for the most part we live in a 24 hour society. Granted this ain't Vegas which is true 24/7 but I can do most everything I need at any time of day or night.

The old 'Blue' laws are mostly gone now. Anyone remenber when you could not buy beer, wine, liquor or even meat on Sunday? When the streets of most major cities were deserted on Sunday?

This just ticked me off to have to wait that long. This particular Sears is one of the 'Anchor' stores at this mall. It just seems a bit ridiculous to not open until late in the day on a weekend.

Grump, grump, grump.

Murff

Some pencil pusher high up the Sears corporate ladder somewhere calculated that they will save "X" amount of profits if they don't open until 11am.
Other big chain stores here in Reno , mostly electronics and home furnishing stores, do the same thing and it makes no sense.
[addsig]

On the deserted street line of thought. In the original War of the Worlds, remember when Gene Barry was running through empty streets? That was filmed in downtown LA on a Sunday. There were no streets closed, just your normal early Sunday morning. Couldn't do that now!

Later!
Mr. Ed
[addsig]