Les Schwab rushes to handle customers
A Moses Lake Les Schwab employee sets a tire down Wednesday afternoon. This week's blizzard brought an onslaught of customers to the business seeking snow tires.
MOSES LAKE - George Legg was waiting patiently inside the warm lobby at Les Schwab Tire Centers in Moses Lake Wednesday.
Legg, of Warden, said he brought his pickup in to have tires put on.
He wants to feel safer traveling over the mountain pass to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Legg doesn't use snow tires. He finds that four-wheel drive and good tires works just fine, he said.
Nearby, Mirth Caudle, of Moses Lake, said she needed winter tires for her pickup and was having them installed.
She's not traveling for Thanksgiving, but is driving over the pass for Christmas if conditions aren't too bad.
As customers constantly dropped off their vehicles, employees were rushing inside to meet the demand caused by this week's blizzard.
All stations inside the work area were full of vehicles. The parking lot was also full.
Early Wednesday afternoon, cashiers were quickly helping customers with questions and payments.
Other customers were standing outside, drinking hot coffee.
About 20 miles away, at the Ephrata Les Schwab, store Manager Les Mather said his store was seeing an influx of double than normal customer counts.
Mainly, customers were preparing for winter by having their snow tires put on, he said.
Customers were also buying new batteries because the cold snap was causing excessive drag and more failures than normal.
Chains were also being purchased.
"Customers are being very patient," Mather said. "With the adverse weather conditions, they are giving employees a lot of pats on the back for working these conditions. You wouldn't believe the customers."
Wednesday's high temperature was 11 degrees, according to the Accu-Weather 5-Day Forecast.