A big help
I just wanted to let you know that as a small business owner, I read all of your Tire Business issues and am still using your Dec. 9, 2002, issue on private brand marketers and tire manufacturers.
Also, I really use the ``Specialty Tire Makers Directory'' in your Aug. 2 issue. This helps me find tires for small stuff and lets me be able to relate to customers and any problems that might occur with their tires.
Lackey S. Sebastian Jr.
Owner
Lackey's Tire & Tow
Seagoville, Texas
Editor's note: We told Mr. Sebastian that the 2002 private brand tire marketers directory he uses is updated annually-most recently in the May 10 issue of Tire Business.
Tire info needed
Sometimes a customer will call me from the highway or from their home and tell me they need tires-but they don't know the size.
However, they tell me the make, year and model of their vehicle. How can I guess about their tires? Is there any book for this? Please let me know.
Abanishe Sam
Owner
Nishe's Tires & Auto Service
Kansas City, Mo.
Editor's note: Tire Guides Inc. offers a book by Bennett Garfield called Tire Guides, which includes tire fitments based on vehicles, tire rotation patterns, an explanation of aspect ratios and much more. The company can be reached at 1101 South Rogers Circle, Suite 6, Boca Raton, Fla. 33487; phone: (561) 997-9229; fax: (561) 997-9233. The publication also can be ordered online at www.tireguides.com. It is available for $14.95 plus shipping and handling, though price breaks are offered for purchases of five or 10 copies. The firm also offers other tire-related items such as posters, charts and other publications.
Glancing at brands
Do you have Tire Business' ``Tire Brands at a Glance'' chart available in an Excel or Word format?
The information is wonderful and I'd like to give it to all my locations, which include six retail/commercial outlets in Nevada and a retread plant in Idaho. The current format in your newspaper isn't the right size to make photocopies.
Barry Schroeder
Operations manager
D&D Tire Inc.
Fernley, Nev.
Editor's note: The ``Tire Brands at a Glance'' chart was originally published in the May 10 issue of Tire Business. That information also is available at www.tirebusiness.com. On the TB home page, click on ``Directories,'' then ``Brand Listings,'' and follow the link to ``Brands, marketers at a glance.''
Poll call
The following comments were posted on www.tirebusiness.com in response to TB's online poll question:
``Have you been able to pass on the full amount of the recent tire price increases?''
Slow economy no help
It is hard when the economy is slow and so many people are losing their jobs and having to settle with making less money, but everything around us is raising in price (not my salary, that's for sure).
What I see we are having to depend on are our, can I say, rich-already customers who already have money. But the other people who are in hard times are having to do without and just drive on those bald tires or settle for a junk used tire to get by.
Shane Maas
Technician
Dale Willey Automotive
Lawrence, Kan.
$9.95 tires? Ouch
Tires are a commodity that large tire dealers have taken the margins out of for the small dealers.
How do you expect small retailers to combat the increases with the supposed $9.95 tires they supposedly sell all day long? I am all for everyone making a reasonable profit, but let us all be honest in the marketplace.
If we band together, all of our customers will accept price increases as a normal way of doing business!
Doug Swanson
Partner
Modern Auto Care Inc.
Eden Prairie, Minn.