I've been going to a local tire shop for several years now; they're less than a mile from my house, so it's uber-convenient; I can drop off the car and walk back to my house. For track tires and specialty tires (ie vintage bias ply tires) I would buy online, and have the local shop mount them. For my daily-driver tires, I'd shop tire rack to figure out what I wanted, and get a baseline price, and then the local tire shop would get reasonably close to that. I've gone there to get flats fixed and other little stuff, even a couple alignments. I've been doing this for a number of years and it seemed to be working well (for me, at least).
I went in yesterday ready to buy a new set of tires for the stock wheels while I figure out what to do about my
other wheels. There's a different guy working the counter. Hmm. I explain my situation and that I'm ready to buy some tires
right now. I already had my sizes figured out (printed out a page from TireRack), and I knew what tire I wanted, and alternate brand just in case. First thing out of his mouth is "We can't get those" Whaaa? I just bought some right here 4 months ago, and I have a quote in my hot little hand. Then he tries to sell my on various other brands - not interested, and I don't even know if I these other brands have both the F&R I need. I tell him I have the tire info
right here but he's not interested. He sits down at the computer and starts banging away. The very first quote he comes up with is for one of his apparent favorite brands (Nexen - which I had never heard of before). No, how about the Hankooks or Sumitomos? The next quote he cranks out is for a set of Bridgestone something or others. How about the Hankooks or Sumis? The facking 3rd quote he cranks out is for Michelins! Fuuuhhhhhhh! Finally I lean over the counter and look at his screen; right there near the top are the Hankooks, and down at the bottom are the Sumitomos. "Can you quote me on those?" He grudgingly works up what could only be considered a GTFO quote. TireRack has the Hankooks for $177/$195 F/R. He quotes me $265/$285 F/R; similar deltas for the Sumis. Shipping is $48.
Could he not want my business that bad, or is there really that much of a margin difference? In the past, I figure $10-$25 per tire delta was acceptable, figuring retail vs wholesale, shipping, etc.