These days in the automotive industry there is a lot of private equity money. Groups of investors buying up independent shops. It's happening in the auto body and paint side, and it's happening in the mechanical repair side, too.
It is likely happening in other industries as well. A by-product, I suppose, of our country's demographics. The baby-boom generation is largely retired, many of them successfully and financially able to invest. And so, small independent shops of many types are becoming corporatized (new word, there).
Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Maybe both? Maybe neither? What I feel is that when private equity happens and independent operators sell, local culture is at risk. The focus often shifts from community service and involvement, to making sure the numbers pencil out, every time. Does this make for bad business people? Not necessarily. But it might remove some of the warmth, compassion, and understanding that you used to have when doing business with friends and neighbors in your community.
At All Tech Automotive, with two locations serving Fort Collins, we're likely as big as we're gonna get. We are local family owned, and local family operated, Our employees, our children and our grandchildren are in this community, and this is largely where our dollars stay.
As consumers, you see the changes happening around you. A little more every day. Yet you have choices where to shop, and whose businesses to patronize, in your community. Be conscious about the life you are leading. The quality of life that brought you here. The quality of life you share with your neighbors, and want to pass on to the next generation.
So about that house you're building - are you building it to flip it? Or are you building it to live in it?