BEAR’S TIRES

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A Bear of a business

a 20-inch tire — for a little, tiny car. Most of them have 19s on them, which are still mostly ultra-high performance sizes. People like the look — the aesthetics.”

But that doesn’t mean consumers know much about the performance capabilities of those OE tires. Power says he and his team of 10 employees invest the time to interview customers to find out what they need and what the best fitment will be.

“There are people who are forced to go with summer tires” because tiremakers don’t yet offer all-season HP or UHP tires in their particular size.

But even in sunny California, Power says there are customers who want the assurance their tires will perform in rainy conditions and an all-season HP or UHP tire is a better option.

Power says some consumers break it down this way. “‘It very rarely rains here. I’ll just go with the summer tires.’ They like the way they handle — the performance aspect.”

There are times when treadwear and having a longer-lasting product is important to the customer.

“If we mention they have a summer tire and they’re only getting 15,000 miles (on them,) but there’s an all-season option and they might get 30,000 miles,” they could nearly double the lifespan of their tires.

And, says Power, “they’re more cost-effective, typically, because in most cases, the ultra-high performance all-season is a better value.”

As part of his customer interviews, after collecting the year, make and model of the vehicle, Power asks if there’s anything in particular they’re looking for in their next set of tires.

Some customers flatly say they need the least expensive option. Others want more mileage. Some want the ultimate in performance. Those answers “will typically narrow down your options.”

Sometimes a customer has a specific brand of tire in mind. Power says he’s learned not to talk a customer out of that preferred brand.

“We have products we like and sometimes the customer has something they like that we don’t like. I’m not going to tell them it’s horrible.

“People like what they like and there’s got to be a reason. You don’t want to alienate somebody by telling them, ‘This is a better option.’”

But Power says it’s fine to ask the customer questions. And sometimes the answers to those questions can open the door to offering an alternative.

Pricing and tiers

Power typically keeps about 1,800 tires in stock, though his inventory is larger than normal now with about 2,100 units on the racks. Even with that many tires in stock, he says a large percentage of his sales are special orders. He gets twice-daily deliveries from a U.S. Autoforce LLC warehouse that’s 15 minutes away from his store.

Bear’s Tires is mostly a retail operation, but Power also works as a tire wholesaler to other automotive and specialty shops nearby.

And though his tire inventory includes products in tiers one, two and three, he describes Bear’s Tires as a mid-range shop. He says mid-range products generally offer the same technology as top-tier products, but don’t come with top-of-the-line pricing.

However, pricing has become trickier in the years since the pandemic and subsequent supply chain disruptions.

Power says that historically, “these price increases have always been across the board — and low-cost, mid-range and premium (tires) have all gone up.

“In this instance, yeah, everything went up like crazy, but at least the low-cost stuff is dropping down, where the mid-range and premium keep going up or they’re stabilizing.

“There’s a huge gap between low-cost and mid-range, especially in ultra-high performance.”

So has that opened the door to more customers choosing lowest-tier products?

“Most people are saying, ‘I don’t want the bottom of the barrel. I want something good, but I can’t afford the top.’

“A lot of people fall in that mid-range and that’s where our bread and butter is. We do a ton of Falkens because they have tires that fall in that market.”