Discount tool chain to open in former Bed Bath & Beyond building

CEDAR RAPIDS — Harbor Freight Tools, a California-based discount tool company, will be opening its second store in Cedar Rapids this spring.

The store will be in the Lindale Crossing shopping center, 4840 First Ave. NE, in the building that formerly housed Bed Bath & Beyond, according to Craig Hoffman, the company’s director of corporate communications.

It will be the chain’s 16th store in Iowa, Hoffman said. Those locations include Iowa City, Waterloo and 3750 Williams Blvd. SW in Cedar Rapids, a store the company opened in 2007 in a former Target building.

“We’ve been looking to open a second location in Cedar Rapids for a while now, but we always believe in waiting until we find a location that meets our needs and the needs of our customers — good visibility, easy access, ample parking and the right square footage,” Hoffman said.

The new store will be 16,000 square feet, he said, “which is smaller than the big box stores in our category, and which we feel is a competitive advantage.”

“Many of our customers are professional trades workers who want to stop in, find what they need and then head out quickly to their job site or workshop,” Hoffman said. “For other customers, this size makes it easier to browse and find our great deals.”

Hoffman said another factor in opening a second store in Cedar Rapids was “the wide pool of qualified applicants” to fill the 25 to 30 jobs the company expects to fill.

Applications are now being accepted at harborfreightjobs.com/retail, where applicants should search for “Cedar Rapids, IA.”

Hoffman said Forbes magazine has listed Harbor Freight Tools as one of the top 20 best large employers in retail for four consecutive years and one of the top employers for veterans. Fortune magazine also listed the company as one of the nation’s most innovative, and Newsweek listed it among the most trustworthy companies.

Harbor Freight Tools, headquartered in Calabasas, Calif., has around 26,000 employees in more than 1,400 stores in 48 states. The company was founded in 1977 by Eric Smidt, now the private company’s CEO, and his father, Alan Smidt.

Bed Bath & Beyond, when it entered bankruptcy in 2023, closed 150 stores, including ones in Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Davenport and Sioux City. It closed its last store in Iowa in Clive later in the year.