Political pundits argue on a bright flat screen television mounted high on the wall in the waiting room at Will’s Auto Repair in midtown Tucson.
“I don’t even hear it anymore,” said Manager David Kravec as the faces on the screen grew red and their voices got louder. “Inevitably we get a customer complaint: if it’s on FOX they say ‘How can we watch this? How can we listen to this?’ and if it’s on CNN we get the same thing. “
“We usually switch it over to TruTV or wherever the goofy videos are on by the afternoon.”
Kravec believes the election is now spilling from the waiting room into the garage.
“Last week was very slow. This week has been a little bit of an improvement but last week was one of the slowest weeks we’ve had all year.” Kravec blames politics. “I definitely saw it during the primary. I think people were just thinking about other things. I don't think the negativity is really helping people.”
But economic analysts say the economy isn't necessarily slowing down and if it is it would be nearly impossible to prove that it is because of the election. They cite strong home and car sales in recent months.
Kravec says his mechanics work on the same amount of vehicles but people only want to pay for things they absolutely have to fix, forgoing spending money on maintenance or minor issues. He says that wasn’t the case earlier in the year.
