BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — There’s a national shortage of snow tires, something many of us will need here in Western New York pretty soon.
The President of Fox Tire in Buffalo, Eric Fox, said he heard there was going to be a snow tire shortage awhile ago and they’ve been stocking up for months to make sure they have enough tires for when the season comes around.
“We stocked an extra million dollars of inventory, 10,000 tires,” he said. “We would have been jammed up now because I can’t get them now. Up to the last couple months we were really pressing hard to purchase as many snow tires and all seasons as possible because of all these shipping container shortages.”
They have 40,000 tires stocked including 15,000 new and used snow tires. He said there’s an international shortage of nearly every product.
“It’s taken a lot longer to get parts for the tire machines and all kinds of supplies, lubricants, everything is a whole different world right now certainly more challenging but once again we stock up one everything so we don’t have to worry about the shortages.”
He said the lack of truck drivers is delaying ships going into port, plus there aren’t enough workers to unload product.
Even though his shop has plenty of snow tires, he still recommends getting them sooner rather than later.
“You always want to get them early because once the snow falls everyone gets busy we block traffic here, we could sell a few hundred tires a day so it’s always better airing on the side of caution, get them early.”
He said he encourages people to get their snow tires by the first week of November.