few businesses hung on and they became the historical legacies.
Buildings sat vacant for a decade or so until an owner here or there would die and his kids would then rent the building at a discounted rate to some business that would never have before been able to afford space downtown. That new business would rejuvenate the few historical legacies that were still open.
It would continue to evolve, but today downtown Irving now had a dozen or so legacy businesses and the rest tend to serve the automotive industry. For instance there are several tire dealers, there are a couple of auto repair shops. There are three new car dealers, there were two muffler shops that also did breaks, and there are many used car lots.
Jill had begged me for a day off and I really didn’t need her for this step, so by myself armed with a photocopy of the five diamond shaped tread pattern, I explored downtown Irving. It was my intention to find out which manufacturer had made the tire so that would help me figure out who had parked at two of our crime scenes. I was really hoping that I found not only the specific tire tread but I would also happen to find someone who remembered putting that type of tires on a vehicle owned by one of our suspects. Of course I also hoped it would be the first business I walked into. Fat chance.
I had eleven automotive businesses in the downtown area to investigate. I wanted to do them in some pattern that would eliminate any backtracking, and I also wanted to prioritize them in such a way that my chances of hitting pay dirt came early in the rotation rather than later.
The three new car dealerships are near the outside of what would be called the downtown area. If I could get them out of the way I could then park the car in the center of the downtown area and walk the rest of the businesses, so I started with the new car dealerships.
The Mitsubishi dealer would be first. I was in the building a lot longer than I needed to be. You see what happened was that as soon as I walked onto the lot a salesman attached himself to me and I was his for the duration of my stay. No matter what I said to him about not wanting to buy a car but wanting to talk rather about tires, he just didn’t get it. By body language and gesturing he made it clear that we would not get inside the office until I had looked over his sparkling expensive inventory. After thirty minutes of saying “Ooh, ah, what a nice color, how much is this one?” we were finally inside the building.
He took me first to the finance manager. I have no idea why the finance manager would have any knowledge of tire tread patterns but my salesman insisted
he would be able to help. Honestly it took only about ten minutes to establish that he could not help me but he did make it quite clear that at my age and financial level he could make me an auto loan that was “practically” interest free.
I asked my salesman if we could talk next to the service manager and he told me we could but then he told me that the parts manager would probably be more help about a specific type of tire. Fool that I am, I allowed the salesman to take me into the office of the parts manager. Immediately there was a problem though because the parts manager is the guy they take you to so that they can load up expensive options onto the car they are trying to sell you but since I was not buying a car they really did not know how to follow their well practiced sales routines. I admit I got sidetracked a bit when we started talking about a navigation system that would allow me to talk to my car and it would give me step by step directions. He assured me he could fit it into any car that there was but as it turned out he was not familiar with any car that was not manufactured by Mitsubishi.
When my salesman escorted me out of the parts managers office I told him I needed to use the ladies room. I did take advantage of the plumbing but I waited a full seven minutes after I was done and
Buildings sat vacant for a decade or so until an owner here or there would die and his kids would then rent the building at a discounted rate to some business that would never have before been able to afford space downtown. That new business would rejuvenate the few historical legacies that were still open.
It would continue to evolve, but today downtown Irving now had a dozen or so legacy businesses and the rest tend to serve the automotive industry. For instance there are several tire dealers, there are a couple of auto repair shops. There are three new car dealers, there were two muffler shops that also did breaks, and there are many used car lots.
Jill had begged me for a day off and I really didn’t need her for this step, so by myself armed with a photocopy of the five diamond shaped tread pattern, I explored downtown Irving. It was my intention to find out which manufacturer had made the tire so that would help me figure out who had parked at two of our crime scenes. I was really hoping that I found not only the specific tire tread but I would also happen to find someone who remembered putting that type of tires on a vehicle owned by one of our suspects. Of course I also hoped it would be the first business I walked into. Fat chance.
I had eleven automotive businesses in the downtown area to investigate. I wanted to do them in some pattern that would eliminate any backtracking, and I also wanted to prioritize them in such a way that my chances of hitting pay dirt came early in the rotation rather than later.
The three new car dealerships are near the outside of what would be called the downtown area. If I could get them out of the way I could then park the car in the center of the downtown area and walk the rest of the businesses, so I started with the new car dealerships.
The Mitsubishi dealer would be first. I was in the building a lot longer than I needed to be. You see what happened was that as soon as I walked onto the lot a salesman attached himself to me and I was his for the duration of my stay. No matter what I said to him about not wanting to buy a car but wanting to talk rather about tires, he just didn’t get it. By body language and gesturing he made it clear that we would not get inside the office until I had looked over his sparkling expensive inventory. After thirty minutes of saying “Ooh, ah, what a nice color, how much is this one?” we were finally inside the building.
He took me first to the finance manager. I have no idea why the finance manager would have any knowledge of tire tread patterns but my salesman insisted
he would be able to help. Honestly it took only about ten minutes to establish that he could not help me but he did make it quite clear that at my age and financial level he could make me an auto loan that was “practically” interest free.
I asked my salesman if we could talk next to the service manager and he told me we could but then he told me that the parts manager would probably be more help about a specific type of tire. Fool that I am, I allowed the salesman to take me into the office of the parts manager. Immediately there was a problem though because the parts manager is the guy they take you to so that they can load up expensive options onto the car they are trying to sell you but since I was not buying a car they really did not know how to follow their well practiced sales routines. I admit I got sidetracked a bit when we started talking about a navigation system that would allow me to talk to my car and it would give me step by step directions. He assured me he could fit it into any car that there was but as it turned out he was not familiar with any car that was not manufactured by Mitsubishi.
When my salesman escorted me out of the parts managers office I told him I needed to use the ladies room. I did take advantage of the plumbing but I waited a full seven minutes after I was done and
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