Are Mom and Pop Service Shops Going Away?

[olpoop]

Are you still seeing many little Mom and Pop Shops that provide repairs or a services in your area? We still have a few around, including the sewing shop that my wife and I have, but the couple that operated the used appliance shop across the street from us closed it down because few people get appliances repaired or buy used appliances much anymore. He went to work as a driver for a transportation company, and still does a little appliance work out of his garage. The barber next door to us retired and closed his shop this year. He didn’t find a buyer for it and stripped all of the equipment out of it. The lady barber up the street passed away recently, so that shop is now closed also, but it’s too early yet to see if anyone will open it back up.

I hear that the USA has gone from a manufacturing society to a services society, but it seems that our repair and services businesses are getting harder to find than ever, especially small family operations.

CD in Oklahoma

[Ozarks Tom]

I think a lot of the problem stems from the fact nothing is made to be repaired anymore. The days when you replaced a part are gone, now you replace "assemblies", and the assemblies cost as much as a new unit. I had the neutral switch replace in my Suburban yesterday, one wiring harness - a connector with 5 wires - $87!!

[paisley]

Here I am seeing cottages industry starting..

Retired workers hanging a sign out... small engine repair...mowers, tiller, four wheeler,and sleds
Knife and blade sharpening
Butcher's,cut wrapped sausages making signs.

Nothing big but on the back side of political signs.. on a stick with a phone number.


Word is they do good work.

[Deleted]

Nick works for a fellow in town who repairs cars. He charges reasonable prices, and they work on cars that other shops turn down b/c they're too old or too beat up. But sometimes, that's all people can afford to drive.

So AJ found his niche, and they're providing a necessary service to the community. And it really is a "down home" type service. I know of a couple times when older folks who are hurting and on a really low fixed income got their car back on the road for cost of parts...

Nick is proud to work there, and I'm proud of him and AJ.

[Ozarks Tom]

I've seen so many small businesses fail even though the work they do is first rate. The problem often lies with the operator's ability to work with customers. Over the years I've known lots of very fine technicians/journeymen whose work was unsurpassed, but they just didn't have the personality to communicate well with customers. If they'd had a "front person" handling their customer service they'd have been rich by now.

When I sold my wood flooring business to my nephew I told him "the first thing you'll have to do is hire a salesman, otherwise you'll be out of business in 6 months". A great guy, smart as I've ever known about everything mechanical and carpentry, but the personality of a stump. No sense of humor at all, you could tell him a joke and he'd turn right around and tell it wrong. He hired a salesman, apparently a really good one, as he's gone from one showroom in Dallas to showrooms in Austin and Houston. From 25 employees to 70. He knew his deficiencies, and worked around them.

[paisley]

I made note of all the signs and the one I forgot was Harry.

With one arm and one leg...not kidding the other arm and leg are fake... two different accident. He does tire repairs and logging. STILL. Tire change overs etc. If your dead broke trade with him.....he won't leave you in a bind... but certain there is a wait were you wait outside by a fire... with a sign that says..... cook your own hot dog... I'm busy.

[fixitguy]

Small shops are not gone, It just takes a lot of money to get started today.
You see a lot of people with a dream and no money turn to "kick starter" and here in Wisconsin we have "crowd funding". The small business administration is nothing but a joke, attempting to obtain loans from. Yep, they will give you a loan, you better know how to double jump, jump ropes and run a hula-hoop at the same time.

I've been self employed for about 8 yrs, as a repair shop. I've grown my business slowly, taking on very little debit for capitol equipment. When I do buy equipment, I have made sure I had 1/2 of the cash in hand for the equipment. The other 1/2 comes from the equipment making me money. I try to buy one thing I need per year, but that don't always work. This year has been awesome, but you just never know who the economy will affect your business.

I've seen two used car lots, a meat market, many sit down restaurant's, and a pizza place fold up in my little town. In just about every situation, They took on a lot of debit before the doors were even open. We had a craft beer/restaurant open this spring. The guy said business was so good, he had to quit his full time job. He has never made it through the winter yet. Typically, restaurant's slow to a snails pace in our area.  

I could go on and on about the Do's and Don'ts of starting a business, but its a learning curve. You have to figure it out yourself. I have a nephew that just started a fabrication shop. He calls me weekly and says, "now I understand why you didn't do this or buy this right away."   

[olpoop]

Oct 22, 2015 0:18:57 GMT fixitguy said:

I've been self employed for about 8 yrs, as a repair shop....

We’ll celebrate our tenth year in March 2016.

What kind of repairs do you do?

CD in Oklahoma

[fixitguy]

Oct 22, 2015 14:31:45 GMT olpoop said:

Oct 22, 2015 0:18:57 GMT fixitguy said:

I've been self employed for about 8 yrs, as a repair shop....

What kind of repairs do you do?

At start-up I was 100% small engine, today I'm about 50% small engine, 35% automotive and 15% fabrication and welding.
I'm pushing for more fabrication work. I really want to get into custom golf carts and 1/4 scale farm tractor builds.

[od]

We use a bunch of "mom and pop" type shops, not all are repair, though. The mechanic for our cars, the guy for our leather goods, the butcher that grows his own chemical free grass fed beef and pork (and when he needs more buys it from other local like minded farmers), we have a local quilting shop - great fabric, yarns, books, classes, etc, a other such places. Not too far away we have a REAL cobbler ...use to have one in town, but they closed up shop about 10 yrs ago. There are at least 2 local appliance shops (one owner one store type place). The one guy can "fix" almost anything. Walk in and tell him what it is and what it's doing.....he'll open a drawer, hand you a part and then tell you how to fix it!   Lots of "specialty" machine shops in the area, too.  Not all do all operations, though.  Sometimes they will tell you "which Bubba" down the street does XYZ....sometimes not. Occasionally they say to call back and tell them if you find someone that does xyz.....and they will add it to their list for the next guy that is looking. Almost forgot the small engine repair guy!