Located in the tiny community of Mowrystown, Ohio, Chuck Wait Tire has become one of the most successful tire dealers in the country. Wait opened his tire shop in 1983, initially serving only Mowrystown and the surrounding communities of Mount Orab and Georgetown. Today, Wait serves an incredibly wide geographic area, with customers coming from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

As an independent tire dealer, Chuck Wait Tire carries tires and wheels from a wide variety of manufacturers. With so many competitors offering the very same products and services, what keeps customers rolling into his store? Wait said his company’s ‘secret sauce’ is the lease-to-own option he offers through Acima.

The people that come into Chuck Wait Tire carry average to lower-than-average credit scores. The Acima lease-to-own option is extremely valuable for these customers who don’t have the available cash and do not qualify for traditional means of transacting. Chuck Wait began offering Acima in 2015, and from day one, the response was overwhelmingly positive. “The first month, sales just blew up,” said owner Chuck Wait. “Acima’s lease-to-own option is the best thing that has ever happened to us. It’s been a blessing for our customers and for our company.”

According to Wait, customers regularly travel significant distances to visit his store, many of them hopping online to get pre-approved for a certain leaseable amount before they leave home. All in all, he said about 90% of his customers are pre-approved before they even enter the store. They have seen the lease-to-own option advertised on his company’s Facebook page or website. The other 10% apply in-store, and usually get an answer back in 3 to 5 minutes. Wait said he typically sees an approval rate of 97-98 percent, with an average amount approved of about $1,600 to $1,800.

Chuck Wait Tire focused on tire sales for many years, but offering Acima’s lease-to-own option helped him expand to a greater degree into wheel sales. “Last year, we sold 600 sets of wheels, and 90 percent of those were through Acima,” he said. Today, Acima-leased tires and wheels comprise about 60-65 percent of his store’s overall sales.

So what’s next for Chuck Wait Tire? He’s now developing a franchise tire business. And — you guessed it — Acima will be a highly recommended option for franchisees.

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