Supporting local speed shops

As I was driving over to my machine shop to check on my twin Weber head and drop off my LS 300 head pieces for some deep cleaning, I passed an honest to god speed shop.  I thought they were all gone, the one I used to visit over by MacDill certainly was, and I heard from a friend that Speed Unlimited just outside the Andrews AFB main gate closed down.

So I stop and make a u-turn in order to have a look around.  They've got a garage around back where they're working on some interesting looking vehicles.  Wander through the show-room and they've got the usual stuff on display, massive completely chromed engines with huge blowers on them, carbs, safety gear, speed shop stuff.

Finally one of the counter guys notices me so I sit down and BS with him for a bit.  I'm not really prepared to ask for a bunch of parts, but I ask for prices for a few that I know I'll need or want.  He doesn't really ask what I'm working on, what I'm planning, or what I'm trying to do, he just asks once or twice for confirmation on the information I give him as he's looking stuff up.  He gives me some prices and its the same or more to go to the speed shop than it is to order it myself online.  When you factor in how far away this place is from my house, its definitely more in the cost of gas to get there and back.  I thank the guy for his time, write down a few of the prices on the back of his card and mosey on out.

And I'm left vaguely dissatisfied by it for some reason that I can't put my finger on.  Maybe I got the wrong guy or something, but it just felt like going into an auto parts store.

I may go back for some of the parts on the way to pick up my cylinder heads; but again, its generally out of the way and I'm not saving any money by shopping with them.  The only thing left is to have a good personal experience while you're there and... meh.  There wasn't much chance for that with how short our interaction actually was, but still you say "I'm looking for Torq Thrusts for a '67 Mustang" and they don't at least ask what color it is, or how long you've had it, or if you have pictures, or something?

I dunno where I'm going with this.  I guess its reality clashing with what history and hollywood tells me a shop like that should be.

Huh. I didn't know there was one was close to the base. What was the name of it? 

It sucks that most of the small speed shops have closed. Even if you don't end up buying anything from them, it was still nice to BS with people building cars and form a connection. That's kinda hard to do when ordering from a website.

It's funny, I've had some fairly negative experiences with two prominent local speed shops, both catering to the import scene. One in mn, one right here in sunny Orlando. Both times I had some fairly articulate questions and was looking for a quote on fab work for my car- both shops should have been able to handle it. In one case I got a "we'll call you with numbers" after they measured the car, the other was so unbelievably unprofessional, I wouldn't give them money if I was on fire and they had an extinguisher. In the latter case, I'd never done business with them at all, and I was apparently small fish. The former I actually knew the owners personally and they were title sponsors on a site I owned several years ago. Maybe it's part of a larger rant I have about customer service (it's dead and the customers are to blame) maybe I rub people the wrong way, maybe my little projects are beneath them... Who knows. Either way, I'm not surprised they're dying. So many dudes have sticks up their asses about their shops, and so many customers are trying to shove the stick in further, it's a wonder anything gets done. 

I don't think a speed shop is ever going to be able to compete on parts prices. 

If you want to stay alive right now, you do it on services or social activities or both. Build cars for customers. Host car show wednesdays. Have a presence at the local races with a few drivers driving top end cars built by you. All those things bring in fans who will essentially pay a premium to feel like part of the cool people club. 

My guess is the guy learned you'd be doing your own labor so he quickly figured out he's not gonna make any money on you.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

No, I just asked for prices on half a dozen parts and threw one or two curve balls that Dad has thrown my way while making it clear that I was just looking for info on those if he could find it.  I didn't talk to him at all about labor or anything.

If you say "I'm looking for Torque Thrusts for a Mustang" I'd whack you with a rolled up newspaper. 

GearHead on US19?

I usually head up there to try to keep my money in town for at least one more transaction.  They will literally go on the Summit site and price it the same, or better if they recognize you. I saved $40 on a $1000 fuel cell, it had to be shipped in either way.

stanger_mussle (Forum Supporter) said:

Huh. I didn't know there was one was close to the base. What was the name of it? 

 

Its over in Clearwater.  Gearhead Performance

jgrewe said:

GearHead on US19?

I usually head up there to try to keep my money in town for at least one more transaction.  They will literally go on the Summit site and price it the same, or better if they recognize you. I saved $40 on a $1000 fuel cell, it had to be shipped in either way.

Yup.  I wonder how they make money if that's the process

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

No, I just asked for prices on half a dozen parts and threw one or two curve balls that Dad has thrown my way while making it clear that I was just looking for info on those if he could find it.  I didn't talk to him at all about labor or anything.

Well...  When I worked in a performance oriented shop, it was cheaper for us to buy from Atech than from the manufacturer, so we'd buy from Atech.

Atech is Summit's jobber name.

Now, the kicker... with Atech you had to pay shipping.  With Summit, shipping orders over $99 is free.  The jobber price for Atech was so close to Summit's retail, that shipping sometimes pushed it over the edge to where it was cheaper to call back as a street customer and not a business.

Now, with that in mind, consider that as a business it was often cheaper to pay Summit's retail than to do a manufacturer-to-business purchase...

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

I don't think a speed shop is ever going to be able to compete on parts prices. 

If you want to stay alive right now, you do it on services or social activities or both. Build cars for customers. Host car show wednesdays. Have a presence at the local races with a few drivers driving top end cars built by you. All those things bring in fans who will essentially pay a premium to feel like part of the cool people club. 

My guess is the guy learned you'd be doing your own labor so he quickly figured out he's not gonna make any money on you.

Depends.  Up here in western Canuckistan, I bought a set of LS Hooker cast manifolds for my Camaro for about $100 less than Jegs with dollar exchange, and that was before duty and such.

Hardcore Performance, about six blocks from me.

Summit IS my local speed shop. 

I buy stuff at the store and save the shipping. I was able to try out a racing seat for the Miata at the store before buying it and save shipping charges. It's good to live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. All the good stuff is here...

I remember picking up parts that I NEEDED today by driving from Toledo to the original Summit that was just a part of a building in an industrial park in Tallmadge Ohio. This was when they just had column ads in Hotrod selling reman'ed engines.

I'm a believer in shopping locally whenever I can.  If you don't patronize your local speed shop (or any store for that matter) one day they won't be there anymore.

In reply to jgrewe :

Now you can walk into their store and walk out with an LS3 crate motor. They have them in the showroom. 

stuart in mn said:

I'm a believer in shopping locally whenever I can.  If you don't patronize your local speed shop (or any store for that matter) one day they won't be there anymore.

The brand new Summit Store I posted should be there a long, long time. Of course I thought the Fry's down the street from me would be there forever too. Thanks Amazon. 

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

I've driven by the one in Ga. a few times. One of these times I'm going to stop and put the hurt on one of my credit cards and make the truck ride smoother on the way home with a bed full of goodies.

Once upon a time I bought an explorer. IIRC this was about two weeks before the firestone tires episode. I am gifted with great timing. 
 

...anyway I'm 6'-5" and after a month of ownership I realized the drivers seat in the explorer wasn't real comfortable for me. So I looked up a local speed shop who sold Recaro seats. They had a couple in the showroom. I sat in them and was really leaning toward purchasing local. 
 

I asked "if I buy the seat bracket from you, would you let me demo a seat for a couple days".. to make sure it was a good fit. Offered to pay a deposit, whatever. Seemed reasonable to me. 
 

The shop owner said GTFO. I was surprised - I had hoped they'd go for it to make a nice sale. 
 

Not sure why I just told this story but I absolutely want to support local shops. Sometimes they just don't want my support. 

Supporting local is great...but only if they earn it.

I work hard for my money and Im not going to deal with crappy customer service just because youre here.

I think that a lot of this can be said for anything: local bike shops, local record shops, local guitar shops, etc. 

I'd love to support my local bicycle shop.

Except I had to show their mechanic how to put my rear wheel back in.

Cannondale does things weird.