When Gerry Rich was in high school, he’d head each day to his dad’s tire store in Olympia after class and fix tires for a couple of hours, earning some extra money.
Today, 34 years later, Gerry now runs his dad’s store – Gary’s Tire Factory. Since 1973 when the store first opened, Gary’s Tire has been living up to it’s motto “Trust what you love to Gary’s Tire.”
Besides offering great deals on tires and car repair, Gerry has always emphasized customer service in both their tire sales and repair.
“It’s the relationship you have with your customers that really counts,” Gerry said. “You build a trust.”
After nearly 40 years of service, Gary’s Tire has built a reputation of being honest and fair.
“It’s an easy business to take advantage of someone and a lot of people do that,” Gerry said. “We just want to be honest without having to go down the that road.”
Gerry tells his crew not to recommend repair that doesn’t need to be done.
“There’s tons of honest work to be done already,” Gerry said.
Customers have learned they can trust Gerry and his crew, which includes four in the tire store and three in the auto repair. Mark Hipfner heads the tire shop and Mike Gioulis heads the car repair shop.
“They’re both just great personable people and very knowledgeable,” Gerry said.“We’ve kept the same faces around here. The customers get to know us.”
When Gerry’s dad, Gary Rich, left the San Francisco area and moved to Lacey 39 years ago, he opened his tire store just five years after the city first incorporated.
“There wasn’t much around here when dad first opened,” said Gerry, who graduated from Timberline High School in 1978. “There was a gas station on each end of the block.”
Businesses have come and gone. But Gary’s Tire has survived.
Seven years ago, Gerry took over his dad’s business when Gary retired. Gerry has learned the business from the bottom up, first as the young teen patching tires. When he was working his dad’s store in high school, he hoped one day he’d run the business. That dream has come true.
In a day and age when cars can last up to 250,000 miles, Gerry tells his customers about the importance of maintenance, doing the little repair services to prolong the life of a car.
“Maintenance is really important,” Gerry said. “Twenty years ago, cars lasted 100,000 miles. A lot of things just wore out and you bought a new car.”
Now, ongoing maintenance, getting the oil changed, power steering fluid flushed and transmission fluid flushed, makes a huge difference on when you buy your next car.
“Maintenance exptends the life of that car,” Gerry said.
Five years ago, Gerry began to focus more on car repair, building that side of his business because he said the tire business is really saturated. Now, besides getting new tires, customers can get everything from an oil change, brakes repaired and a tuneup. His shop works on all makes of cars, foreign and domestic.
“We service all types of cars,” Gerry said. “We do them all.”
Gary’s Tire is affiliated with Tire Factory, which is a tire chain store in the western half of the United States. Whenever customers are on a trip and need a tire repaired, they can go to a Tire Factory outlet and get service. Also, by being part of a chain enables Gerry to stay competitive because he buys tires at a group rate and gets better deals. “The days of being an independent tire dealer are gone,” Gerry said.
Gary’s Tire Factory
Address: 4325 Martin Way, Olympia
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m.-noon; Sunday closed. Phone: (360) 456-4383
