On Big Cities and the Internet

No one in DFW stocks winter weather tires for the Miata. They will all special order them, but no one stocks them. No one in DFW stocks tires that are native for the Geo Metro, either.

I ran into the same problem looking for a strapless, backless bra for the wedding... there's one store in North Dallas, and they only had ONE in stock. I got very tired of beiing told to order one off of the Internet. Not only did no one know exactly which site to go to, but they all seemed unwilling to acknowledge that this might be something where fit is important and trying it on might help.

I sometimes wonder if this is because in a city like Dallas everyone expects that someone else will stock that stuff. Afterall there's something like 7 million people in the greater DFW area, someone will want that dollar, right?

Except they all think that, so no one does.

I know that you will but rarely need winter tires in Dallas. But Dallas is also the major car buying hub for a lot of places where you would. Living in Tulsa we saw many cars that were purchased (and plated) in Texas and lived in Oklahoma. Certainly if I'm sending my kid to college in Lubbock or Weatherford, I might think about winter tires. If nothing else, there are people who drive to see the family in Wilmington, Detroit, Omaha, Topeka, Madison, Fort Collins, Park City, etc.

No one wants to be the guy to step up and carry the inventory. It represents a risk.

There's a type of U-Haul Trailer that can be hitched up to a PT Cruiser (and other Class I vehicles), as well. No one in DFW rents those, either. The U-Haul website has them, but not one of the dealers bothers to have them available to rent. One guy in Mesquite sells the hitch for a Class I trailer, but he doesn't actually stock them.

So, if you find out in packing that you just can't fit it all, you need to wait seven to ten business days for U-Haul to get what you need in stock. And since you can't wait, instead that money goes to
the USPS.

I have hopes that living some place where there will only be one or two really big tire stores that they will bother to stock the tires I need. That the next time I need that thing that only one guy is going to sell, that the guy will actually exist. And that every store on the block won't say, "oh, no, we don't stock that. But someone will! It's a big city!"