Last week John Quinn sat back in a chair with his feet on his deck and nodded at his wife, Kate. They had just finished a conversation that would likely influence the direction of their lives for the next several years or longer.
John retired a little less than a year ago after 25 years in the Lake Oswego police department. He had steadily moved up the ranks and retired as a captain. Although his career had, in his mind, gone excellently, he had been working much more than he had been home. Initially upon retiring, he had reveled in the ability to spend time doing things he was never able to do while working: complete repairs around the house, travel with his wife, spend time with the children still at home, and visit those who had moved out. He was even able to knock five strokes off his golf handicap. However, he had become increasingly restless, and both he and Kate agreed he needed something to do, but that something did not involve a full-time job.
John had, over the years, bought, restored, and sold a series of older Corvettes. Although this had been entirely a hobby, it also had been a profitable one. The discussion John and Kate just concluded involved expanding this hobby, not into a full-time job, but into a part-time business. John would handle the actual restoration, which he enjoyed, and Kate would cover the paperwork, ordering parts, keeping track of expenses, and billing clients, which John did not like. The last part of their conversation involved ordering parts.
In the past, John had ordered parts for old Corvettes from one of three possible sources: Weckler’s, American Auto Parts, or Corvette Central. Kate, however, didn’t want to call all three any time John needed a part but instead wanted to set up an account with one of the three and be able to order parts over the Internet. The question was which company, if any, would be the appropriate choice. John agreed to develop a list of common parts. Kate would then call each of the companies asking for their prices, and, based on this information, determine with which company to establish the account. Kate spent time over the last week on the phone developing the data located in the data file called Quinn Restoration. The question John now faced is whether the prices he found could lead him to conclude one company will be less expensive, on average, than the other two.