For you Michigan residents, this may be of interest. In the last few weeks, Michelin and Belle Tire (my employer) have had a bit of a squabble over what I'm told is several reasons (one of which is that Michelin doesn't want to sell us new Artic Alpin tires, they instead want us to push their new X-Ice winter tires.. but we want to sell the Artic Alpins still. All the ones my store currently has in stock have been warehoused within our company for a while and simply started to distribute them once the Fall season came upon us).
This squabble has resulted in us not being able to buy new tires direct from Michelin for now. What does this mean? Well, for my specific shop, since we were apparently one of the better sellers of the Michelin HydroEdge tires, we're getting overstocked with them from what was left in the warehouse as well as many from other shops. It's a pain for me because I'm partially responsible for the stock room. We're running out of places to put the tires!
On the bright side, this may mean you can get HydroEdges at a discounted price simply because we will likely start stocking up on more Goodyear Assurance TripleTred tires to replace the void left by the HydroEdges once we move them out.
The co-manager of the shop spoke off-the-cuff when all this started about how this was going to really mess us up. He went on about how we'll have to order some new tires of a different brand when our stock of Michelins dries up, and then corporate will probably make amends with Michelin eventually and we'll start receiving their tires again and give me another big headache over re-arranging the stock room so many times.
Oh well, that's the way it goes. Discounted Michelin prices may very well be in the works, though. They may wait a few weeks yet just to see if corporate can patch things up soon before they start trying to move the Michelins out.
If anyone's interested, I'll keep you posted on any further developments.
For those who don't know of Belle Tire, it is one of the most profitable retail chain of tire stores in the country--but it's mostly limited to the Southeast Michigan region!
This squabble has resulted in us not being able to buy new tires direct from Michelin for now. What does this mean? Well, for my specific shop, since we were apparently one of the better sellers of the Michelin HydroEdge tires, we're getting overstocked with them from what was left in the warehouse as well as many from other shops. It's a pain for me because I'm partially responsible for the stock room. We're running out of places to put the tires!
On the bright side, this may mean you can get HydroEdges at a discounted price simply because we will likely start stocking up on more Goodyear Assurance TripleTred tires to replace the void left by the HydroEdges once we move them out.
The co-manager of the shop spoke off-the-cuff when all this started about how this was going to really mess us up. He went on about how we'll have to order some new tires of a different brand when our stock of Michelins dries up, and then corporate will probably make amends with Michelin eventually and we'll start receiving their tires again and give me another big headache over re-arranging the stock room so many times.
Oh well, that's the way it goes. Discounted Michelin prices may very well be in the works, though. They may wait a few weeks yet just to see if corporate can patch things up soon before they start trying to move the Michelins out.
If anyone's interested, I'll keep you posted on any further developments.
For those who don't know of Belle Tire, it is one of the most profitable retail chain of tire stores in the country--but it's mostly limited to the Southeast Michigan region!
