The king of Les Schwab country dies
His insistence on polite, swift service and his loyalty to longtime employees made his homegrown tire company the Nordstrom of radials.
It's fitting that tire king Les Schwab wore a Resistol cowboy hat often when he was photographed, or when driving around his hometown of Prineville, Ore., in his Jeep. A motto for the sturdy cowboy hats is "Best All Around," an observation a lot of folks might use for the self-made Schwab, as well.
Northwesterners who might not recognize one of their state's U.S. senators on the street are as familiar with Les Schwab's face as a favorite uncle's photograph in the family album. The death of one of the region's most successful businessmen, at 89, is prompting wonderfully nostalgic feature obituaries in newspapers and lowered flags in his hometown of Prineville.
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Schwab's insistence on polite, swift service and his loyalty to longtime employees made him the Nordstrom of radials.
One Northwest blogger who rants (and occasionally raves) about customer service experiences related the classic Schwab story of driving up to one of the chain's stores and having an employee run to open the car door almost before the vehicle has stopped.
"Show me all the cheesy commercials you want," writes the blogger in a 2005 post. "If you make this generally uncomfortable and sometimes extremely stressful experience an almost (gasp) enjoyable one, you have won a customer for life. Will I ever buy tires anywhere else? Probably not, if I continue to live in the Northwest. And I don't even care if I get the beef."
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Comments:
Posted Sun, May 20, 1:02 a.m. inappropriate
Schwab's Good Neighbor Policy: It isn't often that business owners take the time to reach out BEFORE they become your neighbor. As co-chair of the Aurora-Licton Neighborhood Plan, I hoped more local business owners would take the time seriously consider the potential impacts of their redevelopment plans. Not long after our plan was completed (March 1999) I had a call from one of Schwab's managers in Prineville, asking if they could make a presentation to the community regarding their plan to locate a new store on Aurora. As it turned out, their planned store was further up Aurora, in the Broadview-Haller Lake area, so I gave them the telephone numbers of the other folks to call. I wasn't able to make it to their presentation, but I was impressed enough to become a customer. We could still use more business owners like Mr. Schwab.
Posted Wed, May 23, 4:55 p.m. inappropriate
Thank you for the mention: I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for the link and the quote. It's not often that I'm taken out of context in such a positive fashion.
On a more serious note, it's truly an honor to be included in an article celebrating the grandeur of Les Schwab and the company he built. Thank you for letting me be part of it.