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Posts Tagged ‘Fall’

CHIC. television backstage and on the runway at Nicholas K Fall 2011 New York Fashion Week.

When the recession really hit it’s peak, it was clear that one of the businesses hit hardest, was mechanic shops. General, domestic, foreign, specialty; all of them were hit with higher bills and less revenue when the world started to tighten it’s belt around spending.

There are many easy reasons for this:

1. Most mechanic shops charge and upwards of an hour for mechanic repairs.

2. Most of the money a mechanic shop makes, doesn’t actually go to the mechanic, usually resulting in poor service from the mechanics.

3. With the rates going up for repairs, many consumers find it cheaper to just buy a new used vehicle, then to get their old one fixed.

4. The rise of the Mobile Mechanic has taken away much of the need for automotive shops.

5. Many people are realizing that if they buy older vehicles, they can preform most of the fixes themselves, giving rise to the DIY mechanic movement.

Now, having worked in shops before myself, I can tell you that the rate at which most mechanics are paid to work in a shop, just isn’t worth it. Most shops don’t have enough mechanics on hand, nor do they usually have enough administrative employees. Leaving a shop mechanic to not only do all of the fag on most of the cars, but also to handle the customer service, accounting, bidding and scheduling. Just as the health industry has taken most of their revenue and paid it to everyone except their main laborers, so to has this happened in the mechanic industry. Most of the money that comes into a shop, goes straight to the top, and is spread thin for the mechanics.

As you can imagine, this leaves most mechanics very disgruntled in their line of work. Many of them have either spent 4 to 6 years in college, or they have had 20+ years of hands on experience, and they aren’t messing around. They know how to do their job well, and should be paid accordingly. Most of them would even be happy with the pay they are getting, if the job of repairing the automobiles was the only task on their regular list. Yet most mechanics have way more than just the fag to do, if they wish to retain their jobs. Leaving them unpaid for many of the tasks they do everyday.

Having disgruntled employees is bad for business no matter how you look at it. If there was one thing that I have learned through being both an employee and a business owners, it’s that the ideal business owners take care of their employees before anyone else. They insure that their employee’s are paid first, and paid well. In the successful business owners mind, the worker comes even before the customer. This promotes a happy and healthy attitude in the business at hand, which leaves customers feeling happier and more loyal to the business. This is something that most shop owners just don’t get. This includes all of the corporations that run “quick lube” shops, and a massive majority of the smaller shops. Granted, I have found a few shops that still know how it works, while it seems that the majority of all automotive shop owners have absolutely forgotten what it was like to be the workman and have gotten greedy. Most of this nonsense had started well before the recession, and once the depression set in, it only prefabricated things worse.

With disgruntled and frustrated employee’s you get poor service, and with poor service, you get ZERO customer loyalty. There used to be a time when consumers had a favorite shop that they always went to. They had mechanics they loved and trusted, and didn’t have to worry about getting ripped off. Now, with the unfair trade in compesation, most shops have ended up highering unqualified mechanics who are happy to take less funds, and yet the shop still charges an upwards of an hour. This creates animosity among consumers. Now instead of just having good mechanics in bad moods who wage horrible customer service, now they have mechanics who don’t know what they are doing, who wage crappy customer service. Would you want to pay an hour for that?

The amount of horror stories that I have heard resulting from this situation have only seemed to mount as the economy suffers more. Those that do risk the shops, usually for demand of knowledge about superior options, usually end up getting ripped off, or not getting their automobile repaired properly. The whole industry of shop mechanics spirals more out of control with the less revenue that shops bring in. Most of the old time mechanic shops in my own city have gone out of business. With high prices, low calibre service and with fewer and fewer shops available, it seems that consumers just don’t feel they are that necessary.

If all this weren’t enough, the rise of the Mobile Mechanics and DIY Mechanics have about slaughtered what was left of the shop mechanic business. Sure there are still many shops that are surviving, though it is only a matter of time before they to close their doors. If it weren’t for the demand of calibre service and the high prices, what makes their situation worse, is that most of them refuse to move along with modern times. It is rare that I have found a shop that offers mobile repair at prices that people can actually afford.

Mobile mechanics offer convenience in a way that most people can’t help but be attracted to. Especially since most people don’t think about taking their automobiles in for fixes until they are broken and unmovable. For the price that it costs to have a automobile towed to a shop, and then the price of parts and repair, they’d rather call a scrapper than a shop. This is where good mobile mechanics have found their niche market. Customers who simply don’t want to be ripped off, and whom will gladly bring their business to a mechanic who can get to them swiftly and affordably. The niche has gotten such a boost, that even most shop mechanics, exhausted of being mistreated, have started their own mechanic businesses.

This works out really well for consumers, as the market has taken such a jump that there is lots of competition. Everything from backyard mechanics to former shop mechanics are vying for business. It’s competitive, acquirable and their is a mobile mechanic in nearly each city, who is willing to fit their price to a budget that their customers can afford.

It works just as well for the mechanic, as they have much less over head than a shops. Most of them have vans or trucks that carry all their tools, with portable air compressors, towing equipment and everything they might need out on the road. Other than covering gas and business taxes, they really don’t have a lot of over head bills to worry about. Leaving fag prices much lower than they would be at a shop. They get a lot more of their money in their pocket, leaving plenty of room to cover home expenses and to upgrade their equipment and vehicles.

Time and time again, I run into friends who tell me all about their favorite mobile mechanic, along with a few horror stories about experiences mobile mechanics they used along their way to finding their favorite. It’s certainly not a perfect industry, though one massive perk is that no matter how the service comes out in the end, the price usually ends up being way lower than any shop near by.

With high prices, heavy competition, poor service and fewer and fewer local shops available, the automotive shops that have long covered the country side, seem to be a thing of the past. A passe service that has superior alternatives.

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