By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Construction has wrapped, the staff is hired and tools are being delivered this week to Harbor Freight, located in Big Creek Crossing, 2918 Vine, and the retailer is set to open as planned on Tuesday.
“We are actually a day ahead on trucks,” said Dan Anstaett, store manager. “We’ve got four more trucks coming this week, so we will be done with all of our merchandise on Friday.”
Over the weekend, he said, the store will go through a deep cleaning and last checks will be done to be ready for a soft opening at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Anstaett said the store will be an asset for the area and is excited to have shoppers have a local Harbor Freight.
“Harbor Freight, to the area, is going to be huge,” he said.
He did about six weeks of training in Salina and said he interacted with a lot of shoppers coming from around Hays.
“They drive (to Salina) just to go to Harbor Freight, so I think that is one thing that is going to help here,” Anstaett said. “It’s going to bring in more people to Hays, because instead of driving to Salina, they just have to make a trip here.”
As a longtime area resident, Anstaett understands the value of Harbor Freight to Hays.
He has been in retail for about 18 years and lives in Russell, first working at Walmart as a store manager for 15 years and as the manager of the Shopko in Russell for four years until the location closed.
“Harbor Freight is great for a contractor, it’s great farmers and it’s great for those do-it-yourself guys,” he said.
One of the draws to Harbor Freight is the pricing of their merchandise.
“We sell great tools at cheap prices,” Anstaett said. “With the way Harbor Freight makes all their products, they don’t have that middle man and so they are able to sell it for cheap, still make the money they need to make and pass those savings off to the customer.”
He also noted Harbor Freight manufactures almost all of the merchandise they sell.
“There are only three items we carry in the store that Harbor Freight doesn’t make,” Anstaett said. “It makes it easier to sell ridiculously priced tools.”
And while people are currently traveling to Salina to go to Harbor Freight, the Hays location will be larger.
“The store is bigger than the Salina store by about 5,000 square feet,” Anstaett said.
With the larger size, the Hays location will be able to have more tools in stock and will have larger tool displays.
“It’s got some great areas. We are going to have a lot more feature space for more areas … plus it’s in a brand-new space,” he said. “We will be able to keep in stock better than some of them, because our back room is bigger, not to mention our sales floor is bigger.”
Another draw for the location, Anstaett said, is the company’s focus on customer service.
“We are all about customer experience,” he said. “You hear that from a lot of retail stores, but it’s in our training of everything. It’s take care of the customer, do what we can and have fun with it.”
The Hays location was announced in April and, outside of a few minor hiccups, has progressed according to the original plan. Harbor Freight announced the location would be in Big Creek Crossing about a month later and, so far, Anstaett said they have been happy working with the shopping center.
“We are definitely excited about actually joining (BCC). It’s going to not only help us, but it’s also going to help here because it will bring more people in,” he said. “Big Creek Crossing has been great to work with.”
The location will add value to BCC as well, Anstaett said.
“It gives a place for the husbands to shop while the wives shop (in BCC),” he said.
While construction has been ongoing in the location BCC has also been working to move their offices and restrooms, which will be completed soon as well.
The location will open at 8 a.m. Tuesday and begin regular hours immediately.
“We’re excited to be a part of the community and join in and definitely serve our customers,” Anstaett said.