Les Schwab expanding eastward

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jjf729

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I was in Watertown, SD today and drove by a new Les Schwab under construction. Prior to seeing this I thought they only existed in western states, but it appears they are starting to pop up in the upper Midwest. I did some digging and found they are also currently building in Sioux Falls, Vermillion, and Mitchell, SD, Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN (three locations) and Grand Forks, ND as well as Willmar and Worthington, MN.

I price checked them since they’re going to be in my area and nothing seemed like that great of a deal. Lots of gimmicky fees with mounting/balancing.
 
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I live in ND near where one is currently under construction. We just got a Discount Tire under a year ago half a mile from where the Les Schwab will be...next time I need tires, which will be a while, I'll have to compare. I had never heard of them before seeing the name on the city construction map.
 
When Les Schwab expended into the Utah market, their advertising heavily emphasized that they are all about going the extra mile for customer service.

The one time I bought tires from them, that wasn't my experience. They really pushed hard to upsell me, and when I didn't take the bait, it was almost as though I became persona non grata. I doubt I will ever again shop at a Les Schwab.

tbm5690 said:
I live in ND near where one is currently under construction. We just got a Discount Tire under a year ago half a mile from where the Les Schwab will be...next time I need tires, which will be a while, I'll have to compare. I had never heard of them before seeing the name on the city construction map.
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Unless Les Schwab has changed their business model, it will be hard to do a direct comparison between Les Schwab and Discount Tire. Last time I shopped at Les Schwab, they almost exclusively marketed and sold their own branded tires. The first time I priced tires at a Les Schwab, I recall asking for a particular name brand tire, and I was told it would have to be special ordered. The quote was not at all competitive.
 
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I'm curious. Any particular experience with Les Schwab from our BITOG friends up in the PNW, where Les Schwab hails from? I'd really like to know if my experience was out of the norm, or not. @GON or others?
 
Here in Cent Cal Schwab is my go to anything tire related, no upsells, gimmicks or games get you in and out, big windows to see all the work being done on your car, plus I like the free pop corn and coffee. :LOL:
 
jjf729 said:
I was in Watertown, SD today and drove by a new Les Schwab under construction. Prior to seeing this I thought they only existed in western states, but it appears they are starting to pop up in the upper Midwest. I did some digging and found they are also currently building in Sioux Falls, Vermillion, and Mitchell, SD, Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN (three locations) and Grand Forks, ND as well as Willmar and Worthington, MN.

I price checked them since they’re going to be in my area and nothing seemed like that great of a deal. Lots of gimmicky fees with mounting/balancing.
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Nothing is a great deal there, in my opinion. You get great service. Friendly, polite, etc. But you pay an arm and a leg, from my price checking. I've had great service at every Discount Tire I've been to as well and saved A LOT of money on Michelin Defenders compared to buying them at Les Schwab. They kept recommending the Yourmamazama Reputations instead of the Defenders. And they were about $50 more per tire than the Defenders at Discount Tire.

I don't understand the allure of Les Schwab. They're not bad, just not enough better to justify the prices I've seen for my car's tires.
 
BHopkins said:
When Les Schwab expended into the Utah market, their advertising heavily emphasized that they are all about going the extra mile for customer service.

The one time I bought tires from them, that wasn't my experience. They really pushed hard to upsell me, and when I didn't take the bait, it was almost as though I became persona non grata. I doubt I will ever again shop at a Les Schwab.



Unless Les Schwab has changed their business model, it will be hard to do a direct comparison between Les Schwab and Discount Tire. Last time I shopped at Les Schwab, they almost exclusively marketed and sold their own branded tires. The first time I priced tires at a Les Schwab, I recall asking for a particular name brand tire, and I was told it would have to be special ordered. The quote was not at all competitive.
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I've had great, friendly service. I've gone to them a few times for wheel stud replacements and once for tires. But everything seems to be a brand you've never heard of for prices higher than the comparable name brand. You see them on cars all around the PNW. When shopping for our two cars they were way higher priced than Michelin Defenders from Discount Tire. I believe they were sold to a private equity firm recently. Not sure if that's affected things or not but may be why they're expanding outside the West.
 
Les Schwab used to have decent prices on decent tires. They had the Toyo line of tires, which are good tires, and their prices were good.

Then Les died, and it started going downhill. Now they have 4th tier tires, at far more than 1st tier tire prices.

These days it's owned by the Meritage Group, a California-based investment group.

My days of going to Les Schwab are over.
 
BHopkins said:
I'm curious. Any particular experience with Les Schwab from our BITOG friends up in the PNW, where Les Schwab hails from? I'd really like to know if my experience was out of the norm, or not. @GON or others?
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Les Schwab was a rock solid tire store for many decades, had steadfast trust of the comminities they served

Les Schwab sold to a private equity group not so many years ago.Rumor is les Schwab is no longer a trusted/trustworthy tire seller. Les Schwab business model now is to sell lower quality tires privately branded as Les Schwab. Hard sales tactics, etc.

I will not go to Les Schwab based on the business model by their new owners
 
even though les and DT both sell tires, Les does a lot more services than just tires, where DT is just tires. i used to go to les quite often for tires 15 years ago, but its mostly DT these day. Their selection is not a great and the pricing is not either.
 
I always got excellent service at the old Les's, bought a battery there the other day and service was good. That said, I bought last set of tires at Costco.
 
02SE said:
Les Schwab used to have decent prices on decent tires. They had the Toyo line of tires, which are good tires, and their prices were good.

Then Les died, and it started going downhill. Now they have 4th tier tires, at far more than 1st tier tire prices.

These days it's owned by the Meritage Group, a California-based investment group.

My days of going to Les Schwab are over.
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I have lived in the PNW for 25 years and never bought tires from them. When they had the inclusive Toyo contract back in the day, the Toyo Open Country truck tire was shizz. If you had a truck, you went to Les for your Toyo’s. I bought all my tires at America’s and Tirerack. Their stores are always full of customers so people love paying higher prices I guess.
 
CarLuver said:
even though les and DT both sell tires, Les does a lot more services than just tires, where DT is just tires. i used to go to les quite often for tires 15 years ago, but its mostly DT these day. Their selection is not a great and the pricing is not either.
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I will say, when my lug nuts have seized at DT I've gone to Les Schwab down the street to have them replaced. They offer a fair price for 15-20 minutes of pretty simple work. DT reimburses me so Les and I both win! But now I've started paying the $12 for the dealer to rotate so I don't have to make two stops for a tire rotation. And then if they break at the dealer Subaru can't be all silly about questioning who touched them. The one drawback of a place like DT is they ONLY do tires.
 
Expensive often no name tires at higher prices than well known respected tires. They have a lot of customers mainly for two reasons, easy credit and there is a Les Schwab store literally in every town throughout the northwest big or small.
 
My local DT shops do zero alignments so I don't even bother using them I want the car coming out of one shop with new tires and a complete alignment. The same reason I don't use Costco!
 
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