I now know why the local speed shops are all going away.

Having worked for various retail stores including Supershops, Autoshack(zone), and now a privately owned full line shop Sunday business is dead at best. Sunday was the day everyone came in to kick tires and shoot the s#it. Sure sometimes somebody would need that last minute part to finish up, but more often than not the business wasn't there. Even at Supershos where we mounted and alnce tires Sunday was a pig, even though 95% of the free world isn't working that doesn't mean they want to spend money. My current job is opened Saturday's from 9-1 and usually operates with 2-3 employees(compared to 15 during the WORK week), and saturday sales may acount for 3-5 percent of our weekly business. Figure it up .3-5 percent extra. Saturday is usualy the day to field tech calls and answer questions for the new guys in the hobby. I cant see being open on Sunday as a plus to anyone in this business. Talk about Summit and Jegs all you like, but even if you order parts on sunday guess what UPS don't deliver them on sunday. So what diffirence does it make if you are going to have to wait anyway. We don't need to lose local business's. Yes staying open past 5 helps the local guys out, but saying that if you don't you will die(like the dinosaur) is stretching it.
And for the fellow who talks about his million and a half dollar in yearly sales : I have worked for companies that make that , and much more, on single daily sales. I have also worked for companies that don't do that in two years. Dollar amounts sold in no way reflect what kind of person,saleman,or anything else when taken out of context.
The parts business is constantly changing, and yes you must make concessions to stay alivee in a dog eat dog world, but working extra hours for fear of the almighty customer is always affected byt he law of dimenishing returns. If I stay open 5 more hours I can make x amount of extra money, but 10 more hours will only retrun 1/2 of x dollars extra. At some point you have to step back and ask is it worth it. I have bought from big mail order houses and I have bought from the local shop. i like walking in and laying my hands on a part, if the local guy doesn't have it sometimes it has to be ordered. You can only stock so much( I am sitting on close to 40,000 square feet, but even that isn't enuf sometimes). In the end the local shop is more than a business. It is a hub. It is a meeting place. It is kind of like The HAMB. Not the best around, not the most polsihed, not the most sucessful, but in the end the local shop, and The HAMB, just feel right and provide more than parts or savings or anything tangible. If yours doesn'y I am sorry, and no amount of discussion will change your mind. Thanks for reading. Sorry for the long winded post , but I have dealt withh the Summit and Jegs thing since 1990 when I was working part time at Supershops. They are good for somethings, but I hope they never become the only source. I for one like to hang out and drink cofee and shoot the sh#t. Later
Shane T

 

Nice response Shane T.

This is a traditional forum for traditional cars. There is nothing more traditional than a mom and pop speed shop.

Andy Granatelli:Speed shop owner
Alex Xydias:speed shop owner
Romeo Palimedes:yup, he owned a speed shop too
Don Garlits, Don Tognotti, I could go on and on.

Does anyone even known the name of the gent who owns Summit?

 

ive worked in the auto service/repair business,and on work at a 4x4 shop (15years)when i first started at the repair shop we worked 6 days a week.it ****ed!!! when i went to work at the 4x4 shop we worked tuesday to saturday.sunday&monday off was good but it ****ed having to work on saturday.just after 911 our saturdays went to the dogs we couldnt keep busy.we where slamed during the week so we closed saturday and opened monday.we have had record numbers.....it would make sense to be open on saturday...something changed.

 

Gratiot Auto.......wow.......I believe I still have one of their old catalogs around somewhere.........

 

Yes, his name is Paul Sergi. He started selling speed parts part time to support his drag racing addiction. He's still in charge after 40 years. Doesn't get more traditional than that, eh.

 

LOL, I'm a Ford guy. It doesn't matter, any day of the week the speed shop only has chebby stuff in stock anyway. THAT is why they are going down...

Let's sing a sad song for the end of the 'Parts Mafia'!

Another point is...

Most of the 'character' built into traditional Hot Rods can be traced to the low budget that had to make do without expensive store bought parts and the fact that you couldn't get one anyway because the shop was closed when your machine broke.

Let nature take its course...

 

I try to buy some stuff from the local speed shop but hes way over on the other side of town and its a ***** to get too, he stocks very little and orders everything.
I can do the same thing from my computer and have it delivered right to my house.

Another thing I have been doing a lot latley is just getting the part numbers and calling the Advance Auto parts down the street. You are suppose to pre pay for orders but I just tell them to look up my phone # in their PC and when they see all the stuff I have bought over the years they always place my orders over the phone.
Best part is, if I call before 7pm the part is there by noon the very next day. I dont have to worry about sending anything back, just return it to the store. It really came in handy the other day when I took my Optima battery back to them, they called a hour later and said it was bad (still under warrenty) and they had already ordered me another one, there by noon the next day (which was a Sunday)

Duke

 

this has been an interseting read for me as an owner of an Auto parts shop that sells a moderate amount of rod/custom and speed equip.
I am in Australia where we dont have Summit and Jegs for free delivery.I'd love to carry more on the shelves in the areas I mentioned above but the profit margins in rod and speed parts are very small.
We are open 7 days(mon-sat 8-5.30,sun 8-2) and as a few have pointed out sundays are very hit and miss.We nromally get folks calling in for brake pads for a 77 volvo or a piece of hose for their washing machine.
Sure,some real car guys drop in and grab some stuff or bench race,but what we try to encourage our regular car guys to do is call us during the week so we can make sure we have what they need so they can pick it up on sat or sun.
The net has made it easier to order parts for everyone including me,so thats why I am working on a website.
I guess the market in Australia is much smaller so people dont expect parts shops to have a lot of speed equip on the shelf,but if it can be ordered and arrive fairly quickly they are happy enough.
We try to get as close to the online/door delivered prices as we can but I think being real car guys helps too.I love talking to guys about their ride and I learn more every day and pick up ideas that I wouldnt normally hear.I p*** them onto my customers so we can all benefit.
One thing I am doing shortly is having some local rod clubs come down to the shop for a product demo/breakfast day on a sunday morning.I'll put on breakfast and a product demo and they get to see what stuff I have.
Hopefully this will make the slow sunday more fun

 

This is gonna offend some folks, so I'll say I'm sorry up front but read the thread again and you'll see the point.

The shop owners/employees here seem to have overlooked the issue. You, the shop owner and shop employee are in a CUSTOMER SERVICE business. It's is you, the owner who serves the customer not vice versa. If you want the customer's money, you must provide service to that customer for their money. That's how you make your living, but all i'm reading here is "I" this and "I" that, or "we need time off too" or "we want to work on our stuff too". Didn't read a thing where you took a customer poll and found out what the customer wanted and what hours worked best for them.

All I read here is "this is our hours, like it or lump it" "spend a few more dollars for our expertise". Hmm..you don't care about customer service and expect more money for it. Well, there's your reason for fewer and fewer Mom and Pops and more mail order.

If you shop owners want weekends off to work on your stuff and want more time with your families (both great things) then find another day job rather than one which should require you to be open more than an hour after most people get off work.

 

True those of us in this business chose to be here, but to say that we have to be selfless in order to survive is NOT true. When you are open 50-55 hours a week everyone can come in whether it is on your lunch brake or on the way to the house after you get off of work. Nobody said like it or lump it, but you can't stay open 24-7 hoping for that extra sale. Our business has an internet sales site that works 24-7 and does bring in extra sales, but those are orders that have to be shipped, not local walk ins. As far as the customer poll look around you other than the big chains what time do most local shops close. Short of special sales and such most shops close between 5 and 6:30 M-F.
As far as the customer being the main force in the economy to a certain extent that is true, but without the guys willing to put up the money and the time to open businesses the customer would be at the mercy of a few large chains. Free market is just that. Customer and busineeses are free to operate however they want. There is always give and take on both sides, but to get to the point where you feel like you are a hostage to the game is not good. Family first and foremost, and most people I know and hang with are the same way. Sometimes my "FAMILY" extends to the people who started out as customers years ago, and in that case I will, and have, gone out of the way to stay late or come in early to help out. When some guy starts shouting I am the customer and you will do it my way my ears tend to shut off. There is a tactful way to do things and a rude way, and the way your post is written I would say you like the rude way. Not being personal at all, but you are looking at things from a very narrow perspective. Try being the guy that is busting it day in and day out competing against the house mail order houses and then maybe you will see things diffirent ; if not that's your perogitive. That's what makes the whole thing work. Diffirent views and opinions. Yours and others here have made me think more about customer service and what it means to a company, and I hope my views have helped to show why some shops and businesses operate the way they do. Peace
Shane T.

 

In the mid-sixties, I wrote a story in HOT ROD INDUSTRY NEWS that major WD's taking phone orders would kill local speed shops. Here it is 40 years later. Instead of 800 numbers we have .com speed shops and we still have local speed shops.
Go figure!

Every year in CO, somebody takes a run at getting the state legislature to change the laws regarding no Sunday sales at liquor stores, motorcycle dealers and car dealerships. The motorcycle and car dealers, along with liquor store owners fight it and win!

 

Wv got rid of their blue laws years ago but car dealerships, motorcycle shops and liquor stores are still closed on Sunday.

Liquor still being illegal to sell on Sunday. You can buy beer and wine.

 

Ha Ha...you sure kicked a hornets nest into the Girls' Room with THIS one, eh?!

Back in the mid-late 80s there was Action Auto run out of a gas station on the corner of 12 Mile and Groesbeck, and the beauty of it was that they were open 24 hours! They carried your basic auto parts, plus general speed shop stuff like carbs, carb parts, intakes, headers, shifters, gauges, etc. I remember making MANY cross-town jaunts at 2am to grab something for a car I needed to have running by the next day!

Ah, but that was THEN...I was way younger, much richer and thought nothing of staying up two days straight to finish an engine swap or something! That was also back when the roads weren't NEARLY as bad and you didn't have endless hoardes of yuppies jamming traffic up with cell phones crammed in their ears while plodding along at 30mph in their SUVs or cutting across three lanes at random! You could cover that 32 miles in about 25 minutes easily (especially at 2am!)!!

Now...we got Mayfair durring the day and there's the 24 hour Murrays for Sundays and any night-time needs ya may have! They sell Edelbrock intakes, carbs, cams and headers too...and are ALWAYS open! If they DO need to order something, it can usually be there within HOURS!

So...it ain't like it once was...but in some ways...it's just as good if not BETTER!

 

JDholmes NAILED it on the HEAD!!!!

Similar store here.
There is a Schucks WAREHOUSE in town that has a part of the main store separated for just speed equipment.....lots of Edelbrock, MSD, Accel, Comp Cams, etc....and they will MATCH Summit/Jegs prices for in stock stuff. Not bad.....also open on Sundays....and BUSY

 

Boy I sure do miss our local speedshops. Used to have 3 within a 1/4 mile!!!!!

Man those really were the days!

 

Yeah, nothing like zipping to the speed shop and getting there in 11.4 secs. Or 29.8 if we're taking my car...

 

I made an earlier post about the reasons I buy online. In thinking about it I need to add:

There are local shops that I am very loyal to, one being where I get my steel braided lines, brake lines etc. Customer service is excellent. They are open on Saturdays, their compe***or is also open on Sat but much shorter hours, I started out using the guy with short hours becuase he is closer, too many times I showed up and just missed the hours too early or too late. So now the other guy gets my business had the hours been better at shop #1 I would have never known that shop #2 is more knowledgable and has better/quicker customer service.

 

Don't care about customer service?

These guys are working 50-60 hours a week (or more) getting parts for customers that most of the time they make no money on. They sort out fuel systems, trouble shoot problems... pick out cams and torque converters... sell your used parts... and on and on.

And because you they close on their slowest day of the week all of the sudden they dont care about customer service...

I called 3 of my biggest customers this morning and asked them about this. Between the three I guestimate well over $10,000,000 in yearly sales. All of them have websites... all of them are very well known in the area. (2 Chicago 1 Milwaukee) None of them are open on Sunday. All three say the foot traffic doesn't warrant it.

"Most of the sales on Sunday was piddly **** that wasn't even worth turning on the lights. 'Sure you bought a $10,000 engine from me, and I appreciate that... but if you can't get what you need when I'm open... I'm sorry.'"

"Even in the summer I couldn't get enough business to make it worth wasting a Sunday. Being open 4 hours on Sunday costs like 8 hours."

"Sundays people are AT THE RACETRACK or at home working on stuff. They aren't shopping."

"My wife won't let me. Monday through Saturday is work/car time. Sunday is family."

"I'll do everything I can to help my customers... you have 6 days to figure out what you want. If you can't do it in that time frame, maybe you should find another hobby. I have a life too."

All of them have my mentality on this... its kind of a "what more do you want from me" kinda thing.

The shop owners want to help, but they can't be open 24 hours a day... 7 days a week. They care about the customer. One of the guys says he gets calls at all hours of the night on his cell phone from customers with questions.

Trust me... they aren't in the business to make money selling speed parts. 100% of the guys on here who run shops or sell wholesale like me will tell you... there isn't money in this line of work.

and if there isn't any money in performance parts, there must be something else motivating them.

I get the point you are trying to make about hours... but saying they don't care about customers because they aren't open when you want them to be is dead wrong.

 

Amen!!!!

 

This is a great thread -- I've been on both sides of the counter, so I'll toss in my two cents worth:

The first thing that strikes me is that several posters talk about having a place to "hang out and shoot ****." I hate to break it to you, but this doesn't pay the store owner's light bill. It can even become a problem when a group of guys turn the store into a freebie "club house," which I saw happen at one store. The owner was in a definite tough spot, since he didn't want to piss off these people who really were customers, but were wearing out their welcome.

As for bargain prices, everyone wants a good deal. Take it to the extreme, and you get a business model such as at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or Pep Boys: low, low, prices, with hairless apes for employees. These stores are a very last resort for me. I can't stand going in a place like that, and yet their founders are all stinking rich. If all you care about is money, then go for it!

As for hating to hear "I can order that," get used to it. Think of how many more lines of car parts are out there, compared with even 20 years ago. I'm currently developing training materials for store owners, regarding how they determine which parts to stock and which parts get the "I can order that for you" response. No store can stock everything, so owners have to make hard business decisions about what to keep on the shelves. An FL1A filter is a safe bet for any store, but what about a trans filter for a TH350? Depends on your market. Simply put, stores that stay in business will not stock parts UNLESS THEY SELL to that market. It was no coincidence that the "Atlanta" Summit store opened near Hampton (Atlanta Motor Speedway) as opposed to Virgina Highlands (yuppie-ville).

A**** the mom-n-pop stores I knew, many also sold non-speed parts. When the "stack 'em deep and sell 'em cheap" chains came along and took a bite out of that business, they held on until they retired. End of store.

A speed shop is a highly specialized auto parts store. A typical auto parts store that wants to build speed parts business cannot simply toss some parts on the shelf and expect that "they will come." I have seen stores with an unexpected high sales volume of certain parts, and there's always an explanation. Maybe one of the countermen is heavy into flat heads. Word gets out: Hey, Mom-n-Pop's Parts has a guy there who really knows flatheads. After a time, they're stocking flat head stuff because they sell it. Same goes for 4X4s, tuners, whatever. Somewhere, someone must has some personal interest and p***ion for a specialized line, or it dies on the vine.

As for store owners, well, they CAN be their own worst enemy, and it has nothing to do with Sunday hours. My guess is that if you went to a store and was surprised to find it closed, well... you certainly weren't a regular customer, so why should the owner staff up his store for the one time in six months you come by? But I watched an owner kill his own store, slowly, by getting his business philosophy upside down. If a regular customer asked him for a special order, he saw it as his opportunity to score some gravy cash. I started buying from him because he carried some speed parts, but I brought him a TON of business because I was the service mechanic for a construction company. But they guy would charge me full-up retail on any special stuff I got him, and was a jerk about returns. He eventually went out of business, several years after he lost my business and got a reputation for being hard to deal with. Of course, he blamed Pep Boys and Auto Zone and Wal-Mart.

Any store owner who wants to build a speed business should employ someone who has the p***ion, knowledge, and experience for it. Begin taking orders at cost to get a feel for the local market, and take it from there. Otherwise, let it go and stick with Honda Civic air filters.

I've also seen store owners become so focused on their shop customers that they ignore the retail walk-ins. When you own a business, you get to run the business as you see fit, but don't invite people into your store and then treat them like they're a huge annoyance from your REAL business. If 90% of your sales are to shops and garages, then cut your retail overhead, move to a cheap-rent warehouse, and deliver your parts from there. You'll make just as much money and avoid going through life, ******* people off (some kind of karma lesson in there, I'm sure).

Good grief, didn't mean to ramble on so much about this. Sheesh! Sore topic for everyone, I guess.

 

Customer service is just what's it's name implies. Servicing the customer. If they don't want to work 60 hours a week, get help. Why do they open 8:00 am - 5:00 pm? or even 6:00? WHO are they trying to service? With those hours, it's certainly not Joe Blow with a job. Could it be they're trying to sell to builders, big shops? I'm in the customer service business too, just not automotive but when one of my top ten customers calls, he gets service. Period. Doesn't matter is it's the weekend, holiday, midnight whatever. Emergencies get taken care of and they go to the top of our service list.

Now Jonna blow who never buys anything, calls, she gets served when her call comes up on the list. BUT, she still gets serviced as quickly and as completely as possible because next week she might need $5,000 is equipment.

When one takes a job or opens a business that depends upon the public to remain open, the customer dictates hours and service quality, not the owner if he wants to stay open.

And for those shops you mentioned which did little business on Sundays so they closed up, I'd ask, how much business did they LOSE because of it...not business that day but business after the guy needed something and found it down the road.

Personally, there's no small shops near me. Impossible to imagine near Houston but anyway. There are five parts boxes near me. I always frequent the furthers O'Reilly's because they have guys there that will actually use the phone and the computer to meet my need. And basically, that's what business is all about...meeting the needs of the customer for repeat business.

 

Part of the problem right here.....It's not PIDDLY **** for the customer BUYING it.

 

Here's another observation concerning hours from one who spent many years on the "customer service" side of the counter. Several of our customers worked in a nearby factory that let out at 3:30. That gave them a full hour and a half to make it the big five miles to the store before our 5:00 closing time. When someone was beating on the locked door at 5:05 or 5:10, guess who it always seemed to be? Right....one of the guys that hauled *** out his job 90 minutes before, but had to hang out and get ****ed before making the trip to the store for something he "just had to have". My response to those who whined to me about getting there "just a little after closing time" to find the door locked was, "Yeah. How long do you hang out at your job after the whistle blows?". We even tried extending our hours, with a predictable result: the ****s that used to be beating on the door at 5:05 were now the same ones beating on the door at 6:05! As far as doing someone the favor of meeting them at the store after hours and opening up--on my own (unpaid) time, of course--so they could get that "emergency" part, out of the couple hundred times I did it, a grand total of ONE guy tipped me for my trouble.

 

One other thing I've learned from working in several industries over the years, and from other business owners, is this:

The customers that insist on the "above and beyond" service right up front, or complain bitterly about prices and discounts on EVERYTHING -- those are the ones who cause the most headaches and earn the least profit for the business. A few times, I went as far as to tack on a "special" 10% charge to cheap ***es that spent half an hour looking at 12 different items, trying to find a compatible part that was 12 cents cheaper than the recommended part, and accusing me of being part of a giant rip off, anyway.

Some customers get this idea that because you're working in a retail store, that they have the right to treat you like ****. It's the whole "en***lement mentality" that's crept into our society. I know of several stores who have GLADLY given over that business to Wal-Mart and Auto Zone, and are making more money with less headaches!

 

I just got my 54 Chevy. In WV they have to be safety inspected if you are going to drive them daily. I knew it needed a muffler. Off today to the parts store I mentioned earlier not knowing how much of a h***le a muffler for this car will be. (yes, I can put any old darn thing on and might but I needed to get it inspected now, not later)

I was just curious as some extra pipe and any old muffler would work, but I asked for a muffler for a 54 Chevy 210.

The guy actually looked it up, said they had it and that was that. $70 seemed a bit steep, but eh, I can get the car inspected tomorrow and that's that.

 

we had an honest charleys, a dougl*** engine/headers, and at one point years ago we had two supershops in our area. none was worth a damn. the supershops was a glorified tire store and the original honest charleys had dwindled down to being a super chevy store. and the dougl*** store had basically stopped doing any header development before i was even born and had focused on selling factory re-maned engines. no place carried much stock outside of sbc stuff. if you wanted anything they could get it to you but you had to order it. hell, i can order it and still not mark it up once it gets here, but the stores couldnt. now a days we have a new and improved honest charleys... pretty much the same thing as the last one. you can buy all the late 80's monte carlo and elcamino plastic add-ons that you care to buy or one of the ****tail, flathead v-8, harley-a-likes for far too much money. i have no idea how any of these places survive. id venture that most of these shops just keep the doors open with trust fund money while junior places with his toys, using his dads name of a great company he founded a long time ago.

 

So what do you do for a living that you cant get any time off at all to go buy some **** local ??? My job is ****ed up but i can get to the local speed shop once and a while?
Dave

 

I miss the speed shops too. Ours, and most in Tulsa and OKC are shut down.

But, obivisouly, you cannot beat progress on this. With the advent of Computers and internet, world-wide shipping as it is today, and celluar phone in every pocket, they just cannot compete.

Our last closest thing to a speedshop, even the guys working there would order out of Summit and JEGS. Even after their employee discount, the shop just couldn't compete. I remember going into Napa about 10 years ago to order a intake and carb for my 390 FE engine. They guy looked it up told me the price for me to have him get it. Then he handed me a JEGS and showed me their price. Nice guy, helped me out. I still shop at Napa whenver possible, but for big items, well, I have the catalogs, the same one you have.

Mostly, I miss the red candy coated peanuts in the little machine for a dime.

 

What most people seem to forget is that these shops are first and foremost a business designed to make money. If it costs more to open the doors than they make in return then why open? So that you can get your part? Would you go into work if it cost you more to go than you made? I highly doubt it but because it is a retail environment you expect people to do the same in the name of customer service. Seems ridiculous to me.

 

I had a shop throughout the 70's. Started out part time in an old garage in an alley. Opened at 5pm (after my day job) and closed at 9pm Mon. to Fri. Opened on Sat. from 8am to 5pm. Did 90% of the weeks business on Fri. and a little on Sat morning. Then I found a larger place with bays for installation so I quit my job and went full time. Started opening 9am to 9pm five days and 9am to 5 on Sat. Eventually cut to 9 to 1 on Sat. due to racing and lack of customers after noon on Sat. I was at the shop a lot of Sundays and customers knew it, maybe 2 or 3 times a year somebody bought something on Sunday. Still did 90% of sales on Friday from 4 to 8. Really kept the doors open with shop work, not parts sales. Profit on parts was minimal to compete with mail order. It may be different now but being open on Sat. afternoon or Sunday then was just not profitable - most of my customers went racing and if ya can't make expenses what's the point?

Now when I grew up the only thing you could buy on Sunday was groceries - hell, if anything was open on Saturday it closed at noon and we managed to build hot rods and race cars, of course we didn't buy much - scrounged or made most of it.

Maybe you need to think about getting a job where you work Sat. and Sun. and have time off when your local shop is open.