Home cookin’ is just fine with Big O Tires owner

You can call John Niemiec a homer; he won’t mind. Niemiec recently opened the doors to a Big O Tires location at Edison Road and John Wayne Parkway.

Niemiec and his partner, Tony Williams, own three other Big O Tires locations: two in Gilbert, and a south Phoenix location. But for Niemiec, it’s good to be home.

“I’m a Maricopa resident, as well as my store manager Eric Finn, and nine of the 10 employees who work here,” Niemiec said. “I think Maricopa is a great community. I think we’re all tired of having to drive out of town for our business.”

Niemiec and Williams bring a combined 45 years of automotive experience to Maricopa. The partners have been involved with Big O Tires franchises for four years.

Niemiec said one of the appeals of a Big O Tires is that it has more of a “mom and pop” feel rather than the impersonal big-company treatment you get at other stores. “At Big O Tires, the owner is involved in his business. As owners, we’re in our stores, we’re behind the counter working with the customers,” Niemiec said. “We bend over backwards for our customers. We provide a level of service that I think is bar none in our industry.”

Big O Tires has more than 540 locations across the country and nearly 30 stores in the metro-Phoenix area.

“The biggest challenge is to be able to staff the business and run it, and to be able to meet the expectations of our customers,” Niemiec said. “I think these days, we’re in a McDonald’s society. Everybody wants to get serviced in and out real quickly and get a fair value. Big O has a great reputation in our industry for offering a great product at a great price, and with quality service.”

The Maricopa location will carry a much larger inventory of tires and automotive stock than a typical Big O Tires store. They’ll also be open on Sundays, and will extend their hours if necessary to serve customers, Niemiec said.

Big O Tires doesn’t just carry tires. The store will be a complete automotive repair facility. “We’ll even get into some of the bigger jobs. We’ll do a head gasket or a transmission replacement as needed,” Niemiec said. “But we will not do something we’re not qualified to do. We won’t do body work, nor do anything we feel is outside our realm.”

As a business model, Niemiec hopes to be able to provide Maricopa residents that “wow” factor. “We call it ‘wowing the customer,’ exceeding expectations. We don’t want to blend in. We want to stand out in the community.”

Niemiec hopes to have an official grand opening by the end of November or first of December. “We are going to try to go the extra mile for our customers. We realize that there are choices out there; people can drive to Chandler or Ahwatukee for automotive repair and tires. But I think everyone here kind of feels like myself; you would rather keep your money in Maricopa.”

At a glance:

Address: 44500 W. Edison Road
Manager: Eric Finn
Size: 5,500 square feet
Hours of operation: Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.;
Sat., 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.;
and Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Information: 520-568-1460 or visit www.bigotires.com