I have been buying and using tools for a very long time, but after many decades, there are not a lot of tools I need that I don't already have. As a young hobby mechanic working on motorcycles and sports cars, I just didn't have the money to buy M/SO off of a truck. A few years in I worked as HD and MD truck mech and the railroad shop provided everything except small hand tools - that I already had. Tool truck never came around, I didn't go looking for it. Then I moved over to a VW shop and the local Mac truck (small university town near a military base) was at the dealership as regular as clockwork - even though we didn't buy a lot from him. We had a few other service trucks that came in, and over a few short years they all had one thing in common - extremely cordial, friendly and helpful. Now, Mac didn't have everything I needed (of course shop provided all of the REQUIRED VW special tools) but I regarded the guy more as a friend/Father figure and came back to buy from him (500 miles, but he was on way to in-laws) for many years until he retired. When I left that store to go into the Northern bush, I had my first ever conversation with the guy who sold us welding supplies - off of a truck. He, too was there once a month, you could set your watch by him. Older guy, quiet but very polite. He came over to offer his best wishes for my future when he heard I was leaving, and I took that opportunity to ask him why, even though we only bought a bottle of gas or two a year he would come by every month and walk through the shop. He said: "Sonny (not my name, he called all of us that), if I was willing to turn my back on any of my customers for the 5 minutes it takes to be here because they didn't buy a lot, what kind of a man would I be?". Those words have stuck in my mind, clear as a bell for 50 years.
It seems that a long time ago, even going back 30 years, people did the tool truck business as a career. When I need the odd thing these days, I have to chase all over the place (probably 7 to 9 trucks around me) as the same brand seldom has the same dealer for more than a few years. The ones I encounter all seem to know what to say to make me want to believe they give a darn, but I do have to admit MOST will bend over backwards to do what they can when I need something (usually arrange a meeting point), I do really feel though that Mac and Snap On have priced themselves out of the market. I can buy equivalent to or far better tools for less these days and they are NOT made in Asia.
I have also been on the shop owner side several times. Yes, I fully realize that once the tool truck pulls in, I am not getting billable hours from the techs, but guess what? I PAY them for being what they are and that means having tools ($10k would be laughably cheap these days) to do their job. It is simply part of being a repair shop or dealership.
