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BEAR’S TIRES

FLAT TIRES ARE THE WORST.

New opportunity in alignments

In the last couple of months, Bear’s Tires has installed an alignment rack in one of its four service bays.

Power says he hasn’t even begun advertising the service, but has offered alignment services to its nearby wholesale customers. And so far, Power says business has been brisk.

“It’s been crazy — way busier than I thought,” he says. “I always knew we referred a lot (of alignments to another shop) down the street. But I’ve always wondered how many (customers) showed up” and had the work done.

Adding alignments is just the latest evolution in the Bear’s Tires story.

For years, it was a business built on used tire sales and when Power took over as owner in 1994, he started adding some new tires to the mix. It took less than 10 years for new tires to take over the majority of the company’s sales.

Eventually, Power says the complexity of tire sizes, along with liability questions, made it a relatively easy decision to get out of the used tire business entirely.

And while other tire dealers have turned to automotive service as an additional profit center, Bear’s Tires refers all of that business to another independent repair shop that’s nearby. That same shop buys all of its tires from Power through his wholesale operation.

Power says he doesn’t have the space to add automo- tive service and thinks doing so could create many more headaches. He prefers to “keep it simple.”

Adding alignments seemed like an appropriate new revenue stream, he says. But Power has been a bit stunned by the prices some other automotive shops near him are charging for alignments. He’s even had another business owner, who charges $240 for an alignment, accuse him of undercutting the market.

Power says he’s charging other shops $60 for an alignment. He plans to raise the price eventually, but for now is using the lower price as a marketing tool to help drum up business.

“I think people are trying to get rich. People have their business models and that’s fine, but it’s just not ours. It’s probably an $80 transaction. That’s what it should be, if you calculate your man hours and the time it’s on the rack.

“Let’s say it (takes) a half-hour. If you charge $120 by the hour, it’s $60. (Charging) $240 for something that takes 20 minutes doesn’t make sense to me.

“If you treat people well and give them good prices and you’re not taking advantage of them, they refer your business.

“We’re not a sales shop. We don’t try to sell people anything. We’re here to help people out, meaning if they don’t need it, we need to let them know they don’t need it.”