Winter is here in Chicagoland. Temperatures dropped rapidly- last weekend it was nearly 50 degrees and today it is 28 degrees. Brrrrrrrr!!! The cold definitely hits you as soon as you walk outside. And since this is just the start of winter, we are in the “adjustment” stage where we all have to get used to the colder climate. We know we are finally adapted when 40 degrees outside feels warm and not cold. Well, we are not quite at that point yet! We actually had snow flurries yesterday though. Nothing that you see once it touched the ground, but it was definitely coming down for a while. There is another threat of snow just days away, and do you know what that means for us?
Snow tires.
Wiper blades.
Another set of snow tires.
And another.
Another wiper blade replacement.
More snow tires.
And more snow tires.
More wiper blades.
And again, more snow tires.
I think you get the picture.
It has been pure craziness with tires and wipers. We have been mounting so many tires and installing so many wiper blades. We have been getting a lot of shipments of tires that customers have ordered and had shipped to our shop for the installation (after all, we ARE a TireRack.com “Recommended Installer!”). Not only are the tires constantly being shipped to our shop, but we also have many sets of our customers’ tires stored upstairs. We offer free tire storage to all of our customers because we know that many of them switch their tires and/or wheels from summer to winter. The salt that gets put down on our Chicago streets will eat away at the nice summer wheels that are on a lot of our customers’ vehicles. Thus, when winter comes along, they know it is time to take their expensive wheels off and replace them with the stock wheels. As far as tires go, well, during the summer, a good portion of our customers like to have performance or all-season tires on their vehicles. But come winter time, they need to be swapped with winter tires. In Chicago, having winter tires on from December through the end of March is pretty much mandatory if you want to avoid sliding off the road into a ditch or guard rail (or another car for that matter).
So, our phone has been ringing off the hook with customers wanting to have their tires swapped or installed. In our back room, there are piles of new tires that are stacking up from customer’s orders through Tire Rack. Empty boxed that previously held wiper blades are strewn throughout our garbage containers. Used tires belonging to customers are still upstairs, however, now it is their summer tires sitting there rather than their winter tires.
Ahhhh… winter in Chicagoland. It has arrived. (Against my will, might I add.)
This is OUR winter wonderland!
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