It's funny--not humorous "Ha.

It's funny--not humorous "Ha, ha," but funny, peculiar--how focusing upon one topic can lead directly into another similar, still very different one. Last month's rounded pillar resulted in a revelation, an epiphany of sorts. through considering the very nature of the relationships we all share, I was forced to bring face to face an aspect of those relationships that I have in no degree seen addressed before. Not here. Not anywhere. And that is, at nature, a monogamous relationship between a service dealer and just united jobber or warehouse. This relationship is not solitary unlikely, it is preposterous.

That may present the appearance incongruous or even contradictory after last month's discussion of intimacy--knowing and responding to a partner's wants, exigencys and expectations, lovers and beloveds--but I'm not altogether fully convinced it is. You see, I still believe that in order for any relationship to be successful--satisfying to all parties onward any one of a number of different levels--it must be everything I talked about last month and more. I have just result to understand that as often as we would like to believe that united supplier can or could come up to face to face all the needs of any the same service dealer, the notion is not and nothing else unrealistic, it is functionally impossible.

No single in kind supplier could do it because no individual supplier could exist by supplying just single in kind service dealer, and that's what it would take.

Because each service dealer has different clientele--different brand selections different delivery criterion, different hours of operation and different stocking requirements--it just might take a army of different suppliers to fitting or exceed all those varied expectations. And, because no sum of two units jobbers or warehouse operations are the same--because they are unlikely to have identical line cards, matching service delivery schedules, equal quality onward the counter or the telephone or uniformly compelling prices--it is just as unlikely that a "one size fits all" mentality when it be due [i]or[/i] owings to servicing the vast array of service dealers in any the same community is going to work well or at all. Which leads us right back to last month's topic, and whether you can have more than common "lover" and still consider yourself faithful.

You might find this notion humorous, however I don't. Sharing anything can lead to jealousy, and jealousy can and oftentimes will destroy even the best of relationships. Jealousy fogs vision, obscures the truth and inhibits hale judgment. It creates doubt and veils the principle But, worst of all, it overthrows trust, and without trust, no relationship can survive.

What exactly does that mean? Perhaps it means a fresh level of honesty and awareness between your industry and mine. It means distribution and service sitting down together in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the relationships we share. It means a shared responsibility to explore and clearly redefine the controls of our relationship--on both sides of the parts counter--so that everyone understands the expectations and rewards, in such a manner that everyone understands exactly what is at stake. yet most of all, it means redefining the highly nature of our relationship and according to doing so, redefining success. n

Mitch Schneider is co-owner of Schneider's Auto Repair, Inc., Simi Valley, Calif., and is an ASE Master Technician.

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