DealersEdge Professional Forums

Cleaning out some old storage and found these small thin manuals. While we didn't think that things were so simple back then, we had no idea how good we had it.

Back when you could key in an order over the phone, for 10 lines or less!

Thanks for the memories!!! When you had to order a dozen tubes of touch up paint, mix or match to get one. Customers were usually placed on a waiting list, when you had a dozen to order, hit the button. Paper catalogs that were fairly easy to read, the help at SPAC spoke clear English, stock orders once a week, CSD orders that gave you an extra discount, VIP orders had 15% tacked onto them and the Fed Ex that was added on was outrageous.

As a young man, I'm scared to see what the future looks like if today is my "simpler time"

WE USED TO COME IN AT 6 IN THE MORNING WHEN THE SPRINT LIST CAME OUT AT THAT TIME.
WE WOULD ENTER THE 120-200 PART NUMBERS IN EVERY MORNING IN TO D2D , FIND WHICH DEALER HAD IT ALONG WITH WHAT WE HAD AND ENTER THEM MANUALLY ALL DAY LONG USING TRACS2000.

WE USED TO THE KNOW WHAT WE HAD AND WHAT ALL THE OTHER DEALERS HAD. AT THAT TIME IT WAS A 25% PAY OFF. SO PURCHASING FROM OTHER DEALERS AT 10% WE WOULD STILL MAKE 15%.

HELL I WOULD GO HOME AND FOR A PARTY TRICK SHOW PEOPLE HOW I GO ON THE PHONE AND SELL TO DEALERS.

BOY WE SURE WORKED OUR ASSES OFF. ONE MONTH IN 1998 WE MADE $80,000 IN PROFIT.

THE FEDEX DRIVER HATED US, SOMETIMES WE WOULD SHIP 10-15 FENDERS PER DAY

Here are a few I have saved over the years. The piston is from a Peoples Drug Store van, 15,000 miles, 1985 model, still had the original oil filter, stick was never pulled, oil never changed. The applique is for a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass I purchased in 1978. The telephone test set is from a contractor friend, his company was repairing phone lines for C&P Telephone around Route 110 in Arlington, near the Pentagon. Someone got careless, alarms went off inside the Pentagon, you know the rest. Uniset (points/condensor) and the Delco Guide are reverse lamps lenses for a 60's Oldsmobile Delmont 88.

Yes, it was so much simpler then. Weekly Stock Orders, Target Orders, card file inventory system. Picking up the phone and calling Bensalem to do a parts check. 2 order types, Stock and VIP. We used to get in at 5am on stock order day, all of us Drivers, Countermen and the parts manager to check in the order. Didn't have to look up most parts, you just knew the number. Nothing had bin locations, everything was in the bins by group and the inventory was dead on. If it was slow, you found something to do.
The new stock of counter people will never know how it was, now its hard to get them to do anything but sit in front of their computer.