BOOK IT. BANK IT. M
www.usedcarnews.com
August 20, 2012
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" )"/ %,40 +!201/6T0 ,,! &!" By Ted Craig
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Darla Booher wants to improve the perception of buy-here, pay-here dealers one customer at a time. The owner of Deal Depot in Greer, S.C., took the opportunity of her store’s tenth anniversary to host local business owners and make a few remarks about her industry. “We’re just like you, we’re juts hard-working people,” Booher said. Booher feels the need to defend what she does these days. “Buy-here, pay-here sort of has a target on its back,” she said. Deal Depot’s customers live in an area without public transportation. Without buy-here, pay-here, most would have no other way to buy transportation. Dealers, especially those who finance their sales, have always faced criticism. People misunderstand what the business is really about. “From the moment you sell that car, you have a relationship with that customer for the term of the contract,” Booher said. Different issues come up – mechanical, personal, etc.
Booher said the key to success is maintaining communication with customers and dealing with problems as they arise. In the past few years, these criticisms have started turning into new regulations. The buy-here, payhere business today is far more regulated than when Booher first opened shop 10 years ago. That was after nearly two decades of selling cars for franchise and independent dealers. Booher had made the financial commitment to open her store when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sent the economy into recession. She had no choice but to move forward. Booher sacrificed personally in the early days. She rented out her house and moved into a doublewide trailer. She didn’t have a car of her own and drove units from the store. “My total expenses were less than $1,100 a month for everything,” she said. Booher pushed all her money back into the business. It grew over the next few years and in 2008 she opened two satellite stores. Booher convinced herself she couldn’t grow any more at her original site. Today, she sees there was room to expand without spreading her operation physically. The good part is the stores are small, with staffs of two, and she opened both at the same time. Deal Depot sells 50 cars monthly between the three locations. Booher employs 15 people in full-time and part-time positions. In the past, she mainly belonged to the Carolinas Independent Automobile Dealers Association for
Photos Courtesy of Deal Depot YAY HER: Customer Michelle Fegas, above, is thrilled after winning a 2007 Suzuki Reno from Deal Depot during the store’s 10th anniversary. Below, owner Darla Booher enjoys the celebrations with her grandsons, Noah, left, and Jacob Arrington.
educational opportunities. In recent years, the rise of regulation drove Booher to seek a more active role. She now serves as an officer with the IADA. Many of those pushing regulation portray dealers like Booher as predators. But she shares a common background with her customers. Booher was a single mother working 12-hour days when her son was young. She followed in the footsteps of her own mother, who was a single mother on welfare raising six kids. Now Booher raises her grandsons.
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8/14/12 2:21 PM