Document 4QK0MdB3vq58kraxrV4N78xOp

In the good old days whenever people needed auto parts or supplies, they auto matically headed for the neighborhood parts store. If their car had a problem that couldn't be diagnosed or repaired at home, they automatically took it in to the neigh borhood service station, which in turn bought supplies from the neighborhood jobber. Nice system -- except that it didn't last. You see, wherever there's good busi ness like that going on, it's going to attract competition. Today, it seems as if everybody is in the market to sell auto parts and services. Specialty shops, mass merchants, discount and department stores are all selling automotive replacement parts -- and in some cases, repair services -- to cus tomers. Furthermore, such outlets have of fered powerful buying incentives -- low prices, fast service, and highly visible and convenient locations -- causing "bargain" conscious consumers to flock to these out lets in droves, utterly forsaking the neigh- 16 With careful planning and your enthusiastic support, a successful Car Care Days promotion is in the bag. borhood service station. Unprepared for such a drastic customer preference change, these neighborhood stations, suddenly found themselves ir reversibly losing sizeable chunks of their service repair trade. To make things worse, many station owners discovered that they had placed themselves in a position where by cultivating other sales opportunities to compensate for lost business was going to be next to impossible. For years many service stations had en joyed a large, fairly dependent market. They hadn't been faced with the need to scramble for business by keeping up with a changing industry. Many station owners had simply opted not to offer repair ser vices for the newly specialized domestic and import automotive systems, thus avoid ing the trouble and expense of further train ing and equipment purchases. Conse quently, when the "dependent" customer base chose to take their business else where, all of the operators who had refus ed to expand their capabilities found themselves unable to offer the repair ser vices necessary to reclaim lost business. These station owners also had other problems which made attracting new busi ness difficult. Since they'd never had to solicit customers before, most had never bothered to advertise. Moreover, by now it was too late for them to remedy that situa tion -- declining sales bases had made any