Northside Mercury survived by serving downtown customers as well as their Northside working class base. With downtown but a mile away it was easy to shuttle customers to work and back while theri cars were serviced. With over 100,000 folks working downtown every day there is still a market there that can afford new and used cars, service, etc.. Better yet, most of the competition is gone- Hansord don't sell Pontiacs anymore, the Lupient's abandoned the historic Buick dealer they bought on East Hennipen, etc.. The Target site just screams "car dealership". The site is the right size, but cheap compared to downtown. With freeways to everywhere customers can easily access it. So last night I investigated the possibility of bringing a Ford dealership back to the Northside.
I wanted to build a 21st century car store. No hordes of salespeople- the consumers are intelligent, well studied, and don't need salespeople to "help" them. Instead just a couple of salaried clerks to handle paperwork, test drives, etc.. No lot full of ugly SUVs and such with thousands of dollars of options the customers don't want. Instead, order your new car over the internet with exactly what you want. Most likely your car will be built the next business day. Without the waste of sales commissions and huge inventories to carry Northside Ford could sell new cars at invoice and still turn a profit. Used cars? Instead of beat out 100,000+ mile SUVs with engines and transmissions and such about to expensively expire, how about 3 year old family sedans for half new price with 3 years extended warranty? Financing? Bring your own from the credit union and take the rebate, it's a better deal. Service? Open 24 hours, while you wait oil changes, and no $600 charges for a 60,000 mile service.
Northside Ford was stillborn. Strangely enough for a company that is closing factories, Ford doesn't seem to want any more sales outlets. Same for GM and most of the other major car makers. In fact, about the only way to get a Ford dealership is the way the rich white guys do it- the just dig out a few million dollars and buy one. Now Ford does have a minority dealer development program. It works sort of like this- you spend damn near 10 years going to Arizona for a college program in dealership management, internships in Ford dealerships etc.. And if you can survive all that and brown nose real good Ford might finance your purchase of an existing dealership. It's no surprise that in a country that is over 20% minority only 7% of Fords dealerships are minority owned. Industry wide, only 4% of car dealerships are minority owned. Ford makes no attempt to recruit women dealers, and gives no figures as to how many dealerships are women owned.
So the auto makers are not about to let us have a dealership on the Northside. How about a farm supply store?
hanging on in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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