The Tire Review team recently visited Dallas, Texas for the Big O Tire Dealer Conference. While we were there, it was our goal to get a pulse on the industry by tracking down tire dealers and asking them our most burning questions.

This week, that question is: How are you dealing with rising tire prices?

With inflation and supply chain issues on the rise, it’s becoming harder for tire dealers to keep costs down, especially when they have to pay more for the tires they sell. In this episode of “What’s the Deal?”, Big O Tire dealers tell us how they have been dealing with the rising cost of tires.

As part of our ongoing “What’s the Deal?” series, Tire Review will be asking tire dealers their thoughts on a variety of topics. Do you have a topic you’d like addressed? Let us know! Contact us by emailing [email protected].

Full transcript of the episode below:

Greg Kimberlin – Big O Tires

Christian Hinton: How are you dealing with rising tire prices right now?

Greg Kimberlin: Right now, it’s something that we have to look at. And we literally look at cost and local retails every two weeks. We tell and talk to customers and say, okay, this price is good to the end of the month, whether it’s the 30th or whether it’s the first. We tell them, there have just been so many tire increases. But when talking to the suppliers like Michelin or Goodyear, raw materials are a problem. They’re having trouble getting the supplies, the rubber from South America. And I think we’re halfway to a peak, unfortunately.

Mitch Beranek – Big O Tires

Mitch Beranek: Unfortunately, I think we’re all dealing with that same problem. We’re just trying to adapt and try to find the best deals, and just try to make the best we can, unfortunately.

Christian Hinton: Yeah. Are you trying to reach out to different people to try to get different deals?

Mitch Beranek: We’re very fortunate with Big O. We have a great distribution system, so that’s where we go and get the best pricing on all that. We just keep fighting the battle every day.