Last year, when Les Schwab Tire Center opened its doors on Sept. 17 near the Highway 25 bypass in Hollister, there were many in town who expressed their feelings on Facebook, ranging from outrage to disbelief to acceptance that it could possibly harm San Benito Tire and Automotive, located just a few blocks down the street on Tres Pinos Road.
However, nothing could be further from the truth, said Bob Cain, who has owned and managed the business since the day its doors first opened 27 years ago. In fact, business has been so good that a little over a year and a half ago—before Les Schwab appeared on the horizon—he was thinking of expanding.
“I’ve been in the tire business for 40 years and at that location for 27 years,” he said at the soon-to-be opening store located on the corner of Sixth and East streets, just off San Benito Street in downtown Hollister. “It’s a family business of myself and my two sons, Brian and John.” The building is the former sight of Autoworks.
Cain said it has been a family business from the first week, when Brian, who was just 13 at the time, began working there while in grade school and returned after college. He’s been there ever since. Cain refers to Brian and John as his retirement plan as he prepares to retire and turn the business over to them. There is a third partner, Orlando Quintana, who Cain described as his right-hand man the entire time the business has been open.
Cain said that, so far, having two large chain tire stores—including Big O Tires—in town has not affected his business, as far as he can tell.
“Competition is good. We’ve been here for 27 years, and we know how to operate in a small town,” he said. “We take care of our customers, we’re locally-owned and family-operated. The reason why we’re opening up at this location is because I’m landlocked where I’m located now and I can’t expand there.”
The two stores will complement one another and, Cain hopes, bring in newer customers from downtown and the north side of Hollister. The present location, 240 Tres Pinos Rd., provides repairs and service for about 22 cars each day, which does not include tire work or emergency services.
“We also sell a lot of tires,” he said, without revealing just how many. “We were trying to expand the location where we were at, but it was too expensive, and I wasn’t gaining anything. This building came up for sale, so I bought it. We’re hoping that when we’re busy at the other location, we can bring some cars here and when we’re booked there we don’t have to say ‘no,’ and they can come here.”
Inside the building undergoing renovation, Cain explained that it is a little over 7,000 square feet. He said it was a mess before he took it over, cleaned it up and pretty much began from scratch to redesign its functionality. He re-wired and re-roofed the entire building, installed four new roll-up doors, along with three new bathrooms, two of them being ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible. There’s a new computer and security system, as well as a hydraulic lift and state-of-the-art alignment rack.
“We’re just going to continue doing what we’ve done for 27 years,” Cain said of the two locations.” If you go to the other store, the lot is full all the time because we’re good at what we do. We provide service, a good value for the money you spend with us, we carry a full line of tires, and we’re here to help our customers and, hopefully, stay another 27 years.”
Having a large tire retailer nearby doesn’t concern Cain, he said, because he knows many of his customers by name and they’ve been loyal.
“I’m selling tires and doing automotive repairs for kids who were in grade school whose parents bought tires from me,” he said. “Now they’re coming in with their own kids. We’ll just keeping doing what we do best.”
Cain said he plans to open the store shortly after the motorcycle rally, which will run June 30 through July 2.
“There wouldn’t be much sense doing it before that because the streets would be closed off and no one would be able to get in here,” he said.
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