Dinner and an oil change
Dealerships try to attract service customers by adding amenities
The waiting rooms attached to auto service departments tend to be dismal places, with stale coffee, patched seats, cable news on a flickering TV and last week’s copy of Sports Illustrated, if you’re lucky.
At some dealerships, that no longer passes muster. Today, you can get blackened chicken or grilled salmon on the lunch menu at Honda of Fort Worth in Texas, or a complimentary workout at the fitness center attached to the Lincoln-mercury/ Land Rover-jaguar store in Merritt Island, Florida — assuming you wouldn’t rather play pool or watch a movie.
This amenity-laden shift
to add more functions, such as engineering.
The company began selling aligners less than two years ago. It has raised $80
million in funding so far, Schultz said.
“One thing about Columbus is that it has a buzzing startup environment right now,” he said.
The goal behind the company is to bring orthodontic services to more people and at lower prices, Schultz said.
The aligners cost about $1,900, about 60% below traditional services, he said.
Older teenagers to adults have been the primary target clients.
Customers can start the fitting process at one of 21 studios the company has throughout the country, or they can do so at home with materials mailed to them. The company expects to add 50 more studios by the end of the year.
Once the company moves into 34 S. 3rd St., the former Dispatch building will be full.
The Dispatch staff moved out of the building to 62 E. Broad St. after the sale of the newspaper to Gatehouse Media in 2015.
Candid will join the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, The Dispatch Printing Company and its real estate operation, Capital Square Ltd., in the building.