How many of you miss the old speed shops? Thinking of opening one in my area and would like some input. Want to stuff it just like the old shops and offer fair pricing. I'm thinking of matching the mail order company's pricing. Would also handle street rod stuff. Would you support a place like this?
Hell yeah! I wish someone would open a shop around me that wasn't just for street rodders. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
i would if you they actually price match the online guys , but i'm not sure if that can be pulled off..better do your research just ordered this morning at 6 AM from Jegs and Speedway , ordered a shifter from Yogi's last week. hard to beat sitting in your underwear comparing prices and checking stock. both will be shipped out today and i should have in 2 days. i used to buy stuff from a local Minnesota shop , but they never had anything in stock and had to order it themselves
Those were the days ,we benched raced, told stories .So much fun, miss that so much! But that being said.We do live in a different world. It would be hard to stock price and to compete with those big internet places like summit and speedway motors ect. It may be nice to do it as a side job and not invest the bank on it, also you need to live in a very populated area. best of luck. It would be a fun job.
Mail order will kill you. They'll be selling at below your cost unless you can get the volume up to their level. If you're going to build something, build a restaurant / bar for the local car scene to hang out at. You'll do better selling them cokes or beers and nachos than you will selling 85 varieties of chromed valve covers.
IF I were considering the opening of a retail hot rod shop, I would do some serious investigation regarding (1) exactly how much inventory that was needed at the start (answer is probably $100K+), (2) who is my jobber/distributor for the common brands of stuff and what is their low volume pricing for typical items (to compare with the mail order pricing), (3) what are the overhead costs for my local area (rent, permits, cost of help, insurance), (4) what is the REAL market for the goods, what products would sell in my geographic area, (5) would providing installation services improve my revenue enough to make it cost effective?, (6) how can I compete with the mail order people, with the local auto supply stores, WalMart, etc, (7) do I really want to devote 10 hours a day and 6 days a week to a business, and finally (8) can I go at least 6 months without income to get the business going?
And (9) do I speak LS, turbo and " noss". You won't be selling a lot of flathead, Rocket and nailhead stuff.
AND, because of the big mail order guys, the aftermarket parts business has thin margins. Most stuff is only in the 10% to 20% range. Making perhaps an average of 15% on sales means that, if you have $4,000 a month in fixed costs, you must sell $26,667 a month just to cover the cost of doing business.... no profit, just cover. The big boys have volume, volume, volume. This is why a lot of speed shops have disappeared.
Hi. Main problem with trying to price to compete with online is to get those very high volume discounts from the wholesale distributors you must buy in the same quantities as the online sellers. There are a lot of different discount tiers in wholesale and they are based on VOLUME. You can actually compete a bit with online & have a slightly higher price as your buyer will not be paying shipping for items you have in stock BUT with you they will be paying sales taxes. Good luck. I wish we had one locally. Jimmie
I think the only way you could make this work is to offer a specialty services that the on-line guys don't or can't. Then, you could potentially augment your in-house services with low-cost parts that the customers may go for simply because you already have their part or parts. Another issue is that many customers today are a lot more informed than customers from the 50s and or time so they might be your target customers. - EM
......I like the restaurant idea a lot better.... $100,000 ......very low and what are you going to stock? 6 days a week 10 hours a day....yea right...7 days a week 14-16 hours a day. Insurance will eat you alive....then you have the problem with employees.. At least you can give yourself a discount on parts....when you can find time to work on your car....
^^^ LOL, those were the days ^^^^, every car I bought in the 80's went to Super Shops on 82nd in Portland for TA's. It was a great tire store...not much of a speed shop. I still do business with buddies that own their own shops. I pay a bit more and wait a while longer (they don't stock a lot of the parts I need) but I like to support my friends. My wife buys wine on-line once in a while. She clicks, opens the box and puts away the bottles, easy peesy. Still doesn't replace going to a winery tasting room with friends, chattin, drinkin and spittin. You pay a little more but some things are about the experience more than convenience. I enjoy car building...swap meets, speed shops and wrecking yards are part of the fun. Good luck and make a go of it!
I have a friend that made a go of operating a speed shop by himself for a while; he had previously worked at a couple of different ones. He was done within 2 years. He once told me the only way he could make any money at all, was on companion sales; ie, sell the intake manifold "on-sale", then sell the gaskets, thermostat housing, carburetor, etc, at regular prices. But, a lot of guys will buy what's "on-sale", put it on the shelf until they're ready to use it, then go out and buy the gaskets, etc, elsewhere. He even took to selling his own used parts, and consigning parts to try and make it. Everyone's pretty much right, there's just too much competition from the catalog-online stores. I wonder how you're going to get financial backing, it's not cheap, and banks really want to see a business plan, and know that you'll be successful. The one standout locally has even moved; he really made money off the property when he sold it. The "new" business now is't what it used to be, and is 25 miles away from me now as opposed to in the city just down the road a few miles; he is even trying to sell rare engines he's had on display for years (SOHC Ford motors as an example). This was a well known speed shop, machine shop, street rod building shop, truck building shop, and professional racing endeavor; he even had a championship Funny Car, the Green Elephant. Modern cars can't be modified the way we once did things, and the older stuff we play with tends to be already built from years gone by, and we don't change them very much, if at all. Are you close to racing venues? That's what would really help, and being more than just a speed shop; having a machine shop would make it more solvent, but then the EPA has their nose in how that can be run. I do wish you luck. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I really miss them! Loved going into those places. A few years ago I thought about the same thing, then I started digging into it figuring out costs and what not. Went to SEMA to ask the manufactures what it would take. Just for AN fittings, one manufacture told me I would have to sell $10,000 a year just to become a distributor. That's one small line of equipment. If you can stock enough parts and have what people want, it may be possible. But for sure you will have to do something to stand out in the crowd. At the time everyone at Sema told me I had to work on the cars for my customers and I had to be willing to work on imports!
Nice idea but.......if the actual shop is not rented or leased or for that matter owned there are still costs involved every month and always, always taxes to pay.........heat, water and electricity bills. Not sure you can buy on enough discount to still make a profit as shipping will eat into it. Real tough go these days for sure. Do your due diligence first and see how it flies.........good luck!
Good advice from everyone. The reasons given are why many types of retail businesses are disappearing from the US. The tipping point is already passed. In my business, people ask me where to order stuff all the time. Funny thing is I sometimes have it in stock, and that possibility never crosses their mind. As time goes by, fewer and fewer will even consider trying to buy local. The internet has made it too easy to avoid walking into a store. I'm in the bicycle biz, and as of last year, have to compete directly with my biggest supplier. I've got almost 40 years in this, I would NOT start over today.
My shop sells used parts online and I don't even allow walk in customers. People are generally very nice and friendly, but each person through the doors wants to spend an hour talking about projects and stuff, and they all want to browse around but very rarely spend money. Honestly, (and kinda sadly), if you want to run a speed shop, it'll need to be in a cool looking building, with some neat vintage stuff on the walls (all for sale, but very high priced), and you'll make your money selling t-shirts and shit like that. People will come, but as a novelty, to check it out and BS. They'll buy a shirt or a book or something just to say they did, take a picture with their car out front. Actual parts sales would be very little, and probably not profitable.
That really is funny Billy, the only thing I ever bought there was TA's too. Never got the impression that the pimple faced kids working there knew the difference between a bumpstick and a fuckstick.
This would be a great way to make a small fortune in no time !! Just make sure you start with a large fortune.
Awww, shucks, he said rubbing his toe in the dirt, all embarrased. I can't offer sage words of wisdom because to even consider opening a speed shop proves you are nuts and impervious to advice. Thanks Dino64 for that shameless plug! Jeez.
I worked in one in town about 25 years ago. What good times! This was before the online thing REALLY took off. It was around but not everybody was into it. Had a blast, made some good friends. learned a lot!! There is another shop in town now that sells used stuff, does some custom work, and orders new stuff. I think he does okay. Goes to swap meets and shows and stuff. I think it's doable, just depends on what you want to do and expect to happen.
Not to be a downer but how could you match the big box speed shops pricing ? .They move volume and have massive buying power allowing for a narrow profit margin that they all work within. without the buying power you are going to be buying product at basically the same price as anyone can online. Then there is overhead ,employees ,bullshit ,ect.
I owned two speed shops in the 70s and early 80s. one sold parts only, the other was a full service shop. The parts only was the first to go, the full service lasted a few years longer , then had to drop the parts end of the business, most all items could be bought by the public from places like Jegs and Summit at my jobber price or very close to it. This was before the online ordering was so popular. It would be great to have a Speed Shop now, but would need to be a whse. dist. to be competive which would require quite a investment both in stock and advertiseing
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