so you may be able to get tires installed at your local Walmart. They may not all be open yet, but each individual store manager could decide when to reopen the TLE
Walmart is starting to reopen their Tire and Auto centers
- Thread starter slacktide_bitog
- Start date
I had Walmart put a set of Cooper's on my Altima right before covid started. When I went to have them installed they told me the could not start due to having an appointment in 30 min and they would not be done with mine if they started. I looked around and sure enough they had a sign posted they now take appointments and you could setup in store of online. I said you have multiple bays why not start mine in one bay then when the appointment shows up you can do it then finish mine. They agreed and then the appointment ended up being over 30 min late an since they were nearly done with mine and the appointment being late they went ahead and finished mine first.
Meh, I've had appointments at places and they still goofed around and didn't get it done for hours so I recommend planning to drop it off early, with an early appointment, and pick it up at end of day.
At my work service makes appointments but it is only to give them an idea of what will come in and space them out a bit. They won't turn you away if you just stop in for 4 tires or an oil change because you didn't call ahead. Sometimes maybe if they are really slammed with work they will give a longer than normal estimate just to under promise and over deliver.
That is pretty sweet.
I used to find that at my local Chevy and Ford dealerships. I could pop in for a state inspection and they'd fit me right in. Didn't matter what make/model. They seem to have all gotten away from that now. The Subaru store next door pretty much laughed at me once when I came in and asked if they could fit me in. Appt. only.
We will work on pretty much anything. Like F-650 and up and motorhomes we are limited on because we don't have the room. Also any Ford with a Cat or Cummins we don't have the diagnostic software, and honestly looking up parts for them sucks.
But like oil changes or little things we will do. I keep a stock of Omnicraft oil filters for competitive makes that are commonly sold. If we don't have it we will get it usually from O'Reillys and get the Wix or Microguard which is a relabeled Wix anyway. Or if I know soon enough I can get them cheaper from IMC, which people here know as I think Parts Authority, especially Euro stuff that the prices are cheaper to us and then the savings are passed onto the customer. Basically if you show up unannounced with lets say a Mercedes don't think we are going to get you in and out in a half hour for $35 kinda thing.
Tires we do stock maybe 40 sets, but the strategy is geared towards top selling for Ford and Mazda, so there are some sizes we won't stock because they just don't fit anything we usually work on. Now there are some sizes for Ford and Mazda that the movement is so low that we don't stock because it would turn into idle inventory.