Ever thought about what a $100,000 remodel would look like in your store? Tunes-N-Tint, Lakeland, FL took the plunge last month on a down-to-the-studs renovation with an interesting backstory.
Back in December of 2015 we reported on an experiment by Tunes-N-Tint, where it advertised for Black Friday at one of its two stores but not at the other. The idea was to find out if participating in Black Friday paid off. The store running the Black Friday sales captured about three times the sales of the non advertising store during the holiday. That triggered further examination of the two locations. Eventually, owner Joe Cassity determined he simply didn’t need the second store.
“I decided I could do the same amount of business out of one store, with $50,000- $100,000 less in expenses. The stores were within 10 miles of each other so I had a lot of overlap,” said Cassity, explaining, “And the retail business is no longer drive by and walk in. People don’t go shopping any more. We’re now a destination. People that come in know what they are looking for.”
So in April last year it closed the second location. The remaining store is on track to make the same profits as both stores combined. Sales are expected to hit $1 million, compared to previous sales at both stores of $1.2 million.
For the renovation, 19 new displays from 5Axis Solutions were installed plus two new counters.
Cassity wanted a clean look where all displays were similar and he wanted to expand certain categories including graphics and wraps, upholstery and leather seats and driver safety.
The display is “one of the number one things that differentiates us from the Internet. Customers can see pictures of the items and specs on the web, so…active, functioning displays, that’s the differentiator… You have to woo the customers while they are here in the store,” he said.
Until now, the shop, a member of the Mobile Electronics Specialists of America (MESA) buying/marketing group, dabbled in upholstery and wraps.
“We’ve done small wraps and minor graphics, but we really haven’t had a good way to display it. We’re trying to increase our business with graphics and the same thing with upholstery, and the lighting display we’re doing is very in-depth. It’s with Race Sport and all custom made to our specs and needs,” said Cassity.
The shop has been dabbling in upholstery, selling about 10 to 20 leather kits a year. With the leather kits they seek to add headliners or floor liners to the sale, which contributes to profits. The hope is that with the better displays, the shop will increase the add-ons.
Tunes-N-Tint received a lot of help from suppliers in providing discounted demo products to fill the new displays. “Vendors have given us very aggressive pricing for merchandise that goes on the displays. Some have agreed to volume incentives and if we hit those numbers, they will offset the cost of the displays,” Cassity said. Companies also helped with graphics for the displays and Scosche donated all the wiring.
Tunes-N-Tint has a staff of 7, hoping to increase that to 8 including 1.5 full-time installers and 1.5 window tinters that are cross trained. It’s been in business for 16 years, previously as Alarms, Etc, but under the same owner. It changed its name in 2012.
Top photo: Tunes-N-Tint shop after the remodel
Idk, you have got to offere a lot of something to fill the profit gap from the gapping hole made by online cut rate prices lower the distribution pricing. I’m serious I look at distribution price, compared to online and I ask myself how the hell can you make a profit? And your going full out on doing a store knowing Amazon’s selling the same stuff at or below dealer cost? Worse the dealers doing it online will not take returns for defective products. The industry needs to take a serious look at how things are being done. The only way to deal with this is protected markets, and or no more dealer agreements asking for quartlry sales goals. The only way a dealer can make money is off labor.
That means the dealer has to pay taxes, pay mortgage or rent, pay overhead power gas water and advertising, as well as salary commissions and insurance healthcare and tax on LA bore as well as sales taxes and anything I forgot to mention. 1 million in sales is not giving that much return on investment and its tottaly reliant on a healthy ecomeny people don’t buy this stuff when they don’t have the money to spair. This isn’t an investmate I’d have done on credit, and I’d seriously thought twice about it with cash. Car audio is not alone going to support a store anymore. You have to do several things to make it. I’d think more about doing an auto salon where you can get custom paint, audio, alarms, graphics, tint, tunning, wheels, tires, full mechanical work, lifts truck assories, ex…. Even if one section is slow, you have several others to take up the slack. Hire top quality help help pay for schooling and always strive to be the best in the bussines. Then your store will be a destination. You can also sell cars and trucks on your lot to help fill any voids. I’d even go after dealer work. A store like this would be as big or bigger then a new car dealership.
You also pay good, and have continue improvement meetings using the staffs input as a basis as well as your own.
Wow! what a great positive response to the above article…Sounds like maybe you should try another industry!
High speed internet has been a thing for many many years. Why not put some high definition photos up so we can actually see all the beautiful work done here? These are only 300×600 pixel images! Even a smart phone with a tiny screen has HD displays these days let alone a desktop monitor. From what I can make out, the remodel looks nice.
Okay. Changed the photos!
Nice job. But honestly, why did you think two stores within 10 miles of each other was a good idea to begin with?!?
Nice job Joe!