Word: carmax
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
USED CARS, NOT CUSTOMERS "Car buying shouldn't be any more trouble than buying groceries and should take no longer than a lunch hour," says Richard Sharp, chairman of Circuit City, the giant electronics retailer that owns the CarMax chain of used-car superstores. CarMax, which has four outlets in three Southern states and plans to open three new stores this year, is the acknowledged leader of efforts to back up Sharp's words. CarMax customers can leave their children in a supervised play area and use computer screens to scan as many as 1,000 vehicles...
This lunch-hour version of car shopping has been catching on fast. Nine of the largest U.S. auto dealers formed a chain of superstores called Driver's Mart last month to woo back customers from outsiders like CarMax. In Madison, Wisconsin, dealer Jon Lancaster recently opened an outlet called CarAmerica, which he hopes will be the first in a chain of similar stores. "Fun, fun, fun," is how Madison police officer Susan Carnell describes her 90-minute visit to CarAmerica. Carnell drove off in a 1994 Nissan Pathfinder truck, whose $19,950 price was more than $2,000 below...
DETROIT STRIKES BACK Chrysler has become the most aggressive U.S. automaker in putting these retailing ideas to work. The company angered many of its dealers by giving CarMax a franchise to sell new Chryslers, Plymouths and Jeep Eagles in Norcross, Georgia, beginning next month. Chrysler is also testing a new-car dealership called MidPark Jeep-Eagle in Dallas, where the fixed-price vehicles carry discounts of $1,800 to $2,000 below the manufacturer's suggested retail price. "People appreciate a low-pressure place that offers a fair price," says MidPark co-owner Jim DeWolfe. That spreading realization could soon...
That switch has already happened on a smaller scale at Circuit City Stores of Richmond, Virginia, the national appliance and consumer-electronics retailer, which launched its haggle-free CarMax division in 1993 and now successfully operates four superstores in North Carolina and Georgia, as well as Virginia. And soon, H. Wayne Huizenga, founder of the Blockbuster video group, will forge a similar no-dickering used-auto chain, called AutoNation USA, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida...
| 1 |