James Do had big plans for his auto repair business after nearly two decades in a cluster of about 50 mechanics and body shops that fill one side of a whole block just off Little Saigon’s main drag of Bolsa Avenue.
He broke away from the pack with a new location for his shop a couple of miles away on Westminster Avenue.
Getting his customers to follow proved to be a struggle, and several other locations didn’t pan out either. Do returned to the tightly packed stretch of Moran Street near the heart of the Vietnamese-American enclave that covers parts of five cities in Central Orange County.
“I had to come back—all my customers want to be here because it’s more convenient for them,” Do said, looking out from the space he now rents for his new shop, HD Auto Service. “They leave their cars here and walk to the mall. They can spend all day long here.”
The proximity to the various ethnic services Little Saigon offers is a big part of what allows the dozens of auto-related businesses to operate practically on top of each other and still bring in an average of $20,000 a month in revenue each, Do said.
The businesses range from auto repair to window tinting, auto glass repair, tire shops, and smog check stations.
The business park, owned by Cho Lon Dragon Plaza LLC since 2005, sits just south of Bolsa, a quick walk from the Asian Garden Mall and a plethora of other Vietnamese-themed restaurants and stores.
The three sets of horseshoe-shaped, one-story buildings are fully leased, according to data from real estate market tracker CoStar Group Inc. Most units take up 1,200 square feet and rent for $1,800 a month. Each has several assigned spaces in a common parking lot that’s usually overrun with customers on Fridays and weekends, when the population of Little Saigon triples with shoppers, according to the Westminster Police Department.
The Owners
Jerry Vuong, who owns AC Body Collision LLC, has been renting the same corner location among the auto shops for the past 20 years. Vuong said he counts on doing “a good job” and friends’ recommendations to bring in business, usually one to three cars a week. That comes to $60,000 or more in take-home pay a year, he said.
Phu Dao owns a yet-to-be-named car repair shop a couple of doors down from Vuong. He opened his business last month after several unsuccessful attempts at renting a location on Newhope Street in Fountain Valley—his lease offer was rejected after a nearby repair shop complained that his business would be too close to it.
Dao faces no such concerns over competition among his new neighbors in Little Saigon because of the volume of customers the area draws, but he has some complaints of his own.
“I don’t like it over here, but I have no choice—there is no parking, and the way they work is not my way,” Dao said. “They sit, they talk, they smoke. And they always work with the walk-in people, but not me. No referral, I don’t work on car.”
Dao was alluding to a popular practice among the business park’s merchants to outbid each other for repair work, which encourages customers to make rounds from shop to shop to get the lowest price.
“A customer walks into one shop, and they’ll say $500,” he said. “In the next one they’ll say $400, and another one it will be $350, and it looks like soon you’ll work for free. And why would you do that? I’ll stay at home and watch TV.”
Customers
Dao instead relies on a roster of clients he brought with him from his old job in Huntington Beach who call him and “don’t shop around” when they need their cars repaired.
“When you have old customers, everywhere you go, they’ll follow you,” he said. “They trust me.”
Do, however, has a different outlook on foot traffic. To him, it’s an opportunity to gain a customer and even share the workload with fellow business owners, he said.
“Some people don’t want to do a service for free, but I’ll do anything for my customer,” he said. “The first time they come, maybe I’ll give them free diagnosis or inspection, then you develop a relationship. If it’s something I don’t know, I still ask them what they need, and if I cannot do it, my friend can help them. If I don’t know how to do body work but I still have the car in here, I can sell the job. I can share the work around. You rely on the community.”
