I have an entry for the flip side of the auto-parts-store stories.
In the early '80's the clutch pressure plate broke on my '67 Sunbeam Alpine.
This was before I had discovered Victoria British in Kansas so I didn't know
where to get the part. I called several of the local auto parts stores but
kept getting the same answer: "I don't show anything for that car." Even
the couple of local shops that worked exclusively on foreign cars couldn't
help me.
When I had about given up I made one last look through the auto parts
section of the yellow pages, reading every ad. I noticed that there was an
ad for a tractor supply store that had, in small text down in one corner,
something about foreign car parts. With nothing left to lose, but dreading
the conversation that I knew was coming, I gave them a call.
It was friendly, obviously elderly gentleman that answered the phone. I
explained what I was looking for, and that I was calling them because of
what I had seen in their ad. He was a man of good humor and we chuckled a
little bit about my chances of finding my clutch at his store, but he went
and dug out the proper catalogs and looked it up anyway. I don't know who
was more surprised, me or him, when he said "Well, I'll be! It looks like I
CAN get that for you."
I went down to the store and ordered the clutch while standing among all
these farmer types buying parts for their tractors. It came in about three
days later and, I later found out, cost me about half of what Victoria would
have charged for it.
It was the right part for my Alpine........from a tractor supply store in
Lincoln NE!
Mike
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