What It Means When You Spot An Orange Tag On Harbor Freight Tools

If you're a loyal shopper looking to score the best deals in Harbor Freight stores, you probably know the importance of paying attention to the tags, where different colors indicate special deals and prices. White, yellow, blue, and orange tags are all on display at various locations inside the store. Questions about the different colors of tags commonly appear on Reddit and social media sites, although most people understand that blue tags are related to prices exclusive for Harbor Freight's Inside Track Club members. White tags display regular prices, while yellow ones indicate temporary sale prices available to anyone.

What about the orange tags, though? There is some confusion because this color has changed purposes over the past several years. To put an end to the confusion and find the answers, I visited my local Harbor Freight store and asked the manager to help. According to the manager, the orange tags are now for "as-is" products at Harbor Freight. He says the retailer is focusing on making orange tags consistent for this purpose at all of its more than 1,600 stores in the United States.

An as-is product, also called an "open box" product, is sold in stores only. It typically involves products someone opened and returned or that might be missing parts. Although Harbor Freight offers extended warranties on most of its products, the as-is product is not eligible for the extended warranty and has no manufacturer warranties associated with it. Customers only have up to five days after purchase to return the orange tag products, compared to the store's typical 90-day return policy.

At my local Harbor Freight store, the orange-tag products were all displayed on shelving toward the back of the store. According to the manager, each store can decide how to manage and display its orange tag products. However, you typically won't find these products mixed in with new, unopened products on the shelves. In other words, if a power drill has an orange tag, it likely won't be in the area of the store with the other power drills.

My local store manager says the orange tag products rarely sell very fast. However, Harbor Freight still does parking lot sales, and the manager says these orange tag products are always displayed as part of the local parking lot sales. When presented this way, customers tend to purchase most of them, according to the manager, helping clear out this as-is inventory. 

Parking lot sales occur every couple of months, according to the manager. At one time, Harbor Freight had its parking lot sales outdoors, but that's no longer the case. The sale products are displayed inside the stores. Harbor Freight creates printed advertising circulars and online promotions of upcoming parking lot sales, but these ads do not include the orange tag products. Each store has its own unique collection of these as-is products with varying prices, so it's not possible to list them in the national ads. The manager says shoppers have to visit the store during the sale's dates to see what's available under an orange tag.

Considering Harbor Freight's as-is and open box items that carry an orange tag might have missing parts or could have been broken by the people who originally bought them, you might wonder whether you can trust the product quality. My local Harbor Freight manager says when customers return products, they're sent to the local distribution warehouse for testing and repairs. If they're still usable products, the distribution warehouse returns them to the original local store to be sold as orange tag items.

The manager says when a parking lot sale is upcoming, the store receives extra as-is products from the distribution warehouse that they can sell. These extra as-is products didn't necessarily originate at the local store, but they provide extra inventory. Because local stores tend to sell a large number of orange tag products during these parking lot sales, having extra items is helpful, he says.

My local manager did not reveal how Harbor Freight sets the prices for the orange tag products, other than to say they're offered at a discount to a new item. Some as-is products will appear to be new, while others may have some wear or damage on them. He says customers should closely inspect the as-is products before purchasing and understand that some of them may not perform like a new tool.