Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/328077
MTD June 2014 Part inventories on the shelf. Whatever comes in the door we work on it, and you can't keep all the parts on the shelf for all those cars. Cochran, Conrad's: One thing that has changed is the infux of imported product. A lot of it comes from China. Tere's been a large infux of parts retailers that use a lot of that product. It's forced the emergence of value lines, so instead of carrying one line of chassis parts that is a premium line of ball joints and tie rods that you know are real good quality, you also have to carry a value line. You've got to be there at the price point because the consumer expects that. Tey're sometimes trying to work within a budget on a needed repair, and it's hard to get there without using a lower-cost part. MTD: What trends do you see in parts buying? Stuhldreher, Tire Source: I have seen national retailers coming to town, that's new for us and we don't really do business with them as of yet. It's a possibility that we'll work with them, but it would be the third or fourth choice before we'd source a part from them. Spitale, Parrish-McIntyre: Tere are more and more companies that are buying up the litle guys. Te litle guys we used to support are prety much gone. Tere's only one of those lef that we deal with. Everybody else is a national chain. MTD: Where do you see your parts buying headed? Stuhldreher, Tire Source: I see it mostly going to online. At our stores we are directly connected to our main vendor's inventory, so I can see what they have here locally in Akron, and I can also see what they have in their massive warehouse up in the Cleveland area for quantities on just about anything. Newer cars are lasting longer, so we're not sourcing some of the older parts that we used to. Spitale, Parrish-McIntyre: It's going to progress to the point where the bigger guys are going to keep buying up the smaller guys, so at some point there will just be three diferent names involved and that's who you'll have to deal with. Cochran, Conrad's: As long as the economics are favorable to us having our own internal dis- tribution and our own internal parts source that can fund our distribution system, we'll continue to do that. At such point in time that becomes impossible, then we'll look at other options. ■ Tire Manager Mark Butcher checks a parts delivery, one of three daily, at Conrad's North Olmsted location. Quik-Link: 800-687-1557 ext. 17113 26