I do equipment maintenance and general repairs for a guy I call Dale the Builder. After several evolutions and countless flats, he has finally realized that used car tires on his dump trailer are not the answer. So, he tasked me with finding some 10 ply trailer tires and having them mounted. Doesn't want to spend a lot and I can see his point there, it wouldn't take much for the tires to be worth more than the trailer. Asks me to look online for a deal.

Looked around, best deal appeared to be WalMart.com. They advertise a decent looking tire for $69 each.

Happened to be in town, figured I'd stop at WalMart and make sure they had them and set up an appointment to get them mounted.

Uh...Nope. We don't get our tires from WalMart, we get them from a local distributor and he can't get those.

Of course, I could order them online, have them shipped to the local WalMart, wait for them to arrive, hope they're the right size, wait for them to be mounted etc. etc.

Or, I could go to the local tire store, pay an extra $6 per tire and get them mounted tomorrow.

Hmmmmmmmmm...

On a side note, there are two tire stores in town.

One has a carpeted waiting room, TV, free WiFi, a Keurig with free coffee and a parking lot full of $50,000 SUV's, Beemers and Subarus.

The other one hasn't changed since about 1950, smells like cigars and real American rubber, has a few old armchairs and a peanut machine.

Guess which one I use?

quote:

Guess which one I use?

Hopefully the latter.

I love a good, old-school shop. The kind of place with an ancient Aamco brake lathe, flywheel resurfacing machine, and floors that could be deemed a superfund site.

quote:

Originally posted by Rev. A. J. Forsyth:

quote:

Guess which one I use?

Hopefully the latter.

I love a good, old-school shop. The kind of place with an ancient Aamco brake lathe, flywheel resurfacing machine, and floors that could be deemed a superfund site.

Ah. So you've been there too.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
there are two tire stores in town.

One has a carpeted waiting room, TV, free WiFi, a Keurig with free coffee and a parking lot full of $50,000 SUV's, Beemers and Subarus.

The other one hasn't changed since about 1950, smells like cigars and real American rubber, has a few old armchairs and a peanut machine.

Guess which one I use?

How were the peanuts?

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
there are two tire stores in town.

One has a carpeted waiting room, TV, free WiFi, a Keurig with free coffee and a parking lot full of $50,000 SUV's, Beemers and Subarus.

The other one hasn't changed since about 1950, smells like cigars and real American rubber, has a few old armchairs and a peanut machine.

Guess which one I use?

How were the peanuts?

Stale...

The shop I go to has a hand-painted sign reminding employees to not spit on the floor.

I hope they're just joking.

quote:

Originally posted by whanson_wi:
The shop I go to has a hand-painted sign reminding employees to not spit on the floor.

I hope they're just joking.

I don't believe I'd care to crawl around on the floor of my place looking for a dropped valve core. At least two of the boys in the back dip snuff...

The OP made reference to the "smell of rubber". Well here in our town, back in the 1950s there was a store that sold guns, bicycles, Whizzer motorbikes and James British motorcycles.

This place had a smell like no other. The smell was rubber from all them bike tires. I loved it!

Smells can do a lot to enhance memories. Back when I was learning to fly in 1956 , I flew a ten year old Piper J3 Cub and a PA12 Piper Super Cruiser. Both of these aircraft were only ten years old but would qualify as "beaters". They had definitely been "rode hard and put away wet", if you know what I mean?

I remember especially the Cub reeked of gasoline, hot engine oil, rubber, plastic covered upholstery and airplane fabric dope. This scent
medley was an absolute symphony of smells to my nose! I can smell it in my dreams.

WalMart!

See it was a trick question. You have to remember OP's from Maine, then it makes perfect sense.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:I don't believe I'd care to crawl around on the floor of my place looking for a dropped valve core. At least two of the boys in the back dip snuff...

Those concrete floors deeply impregnated with solvents and oils of every persuasion are the original antimicrobial surface. No living organism can survive more than a few seconds.

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
Those concrete floors deeply impregnated with solvents and oils of every persuasion are the original antimicrobial surface. No living organism can survive more than a few seconds.

A valid point, and one I hadn't considered. Then again, having that sort of thing ground into the delicate, virgin epidermis of my knees doesn't really appeal either...