Swift Lube soldiers on: Business is off by 25 percent due to covid-19, but they’re determined to fight through it

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  • Swift Lube 10-Minute Oil Change co-owner Kevin Swisher pours fresh oil into an SUV at the company’s business location on Knox Street in Lake City Thursday.          morning. Swisher, who owns the business with his brother, Benji, said the volume of their business has declined sharply this month from the “safer at home” order in place statewide. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)
    Swift Lube 10-Minute Oil Change co-owner Kevin Swisher pours fresh oil into an SUV at the company’s business location on Knox Street in Lake City Thursday. morning. Swisher, who owns the business with his brother, Benji, said the volume of their business has declined sharply this month from the “safer at home” order in place statewide. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)
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The give-and-take for local business success does not require a fancy economics degree or hyped government speeches and programs. Just shop local and remember who gives back to the community no matter the circumstance.

Be loyal to small locally owned businesses. That’s the message Kevin Swisher hopes people remember while they’re dodging coronavirus and changing their routine for a month during the Florida “safer at home” mandate in April.

Swisher, who co-owns Swift Lube 10-Minute Oil Change in Lake City with his brother Benji, said his business has seen a sharp decline during the past two weeks as people have changed their daily routines to stay home and shelter.

“Our business is essential, as we’re classed as an auto-repair business, and we do a lot of service work changing oil for law enforcement vehicles, ambulances and emergency vehicles,” Kevin Swisher said. “We change the oil in the vehicles in a lot of nurses’ cars and medical professionals, too. Our fleet accounts have been steady, but individually, our business is way down.”

Customers on Thursday morning had no wait time for the double-bay drive-through garage building located on Knox Street between Baya Avenue and Main Street. Oil changes are always completed in 10 minutes or less, but it is not uncommon for Swift Lube to have 15-20 minute wait times with cars in line waiting to get into the building.

“People are staying home, and that’s good they are staying healthy, especially our older customers are staying home, but that’s not good for our business. People aren’t traveling or driving to work, so they aren’t putting miles on their cars and they aren’t needing oil changes,” Kevin said. “This shutdown is really hurting a lot of local businesses. It’s really changing the way we’re doing things and it’s doing this very quickly. We’ve always tried to do things right. We give thousands of dollars to programs at the schools each year, we support other local businesses, we do right by our community. I’m concerned about how long it may take us to come back from this once things open back up.”

Besides oil changes, Swift Lube also offers transmission service, but not mechanic service. They sell wiper blades and will change out clogged air filters, vacuum your vehicle and check the air pressure in your tires during an oil change as part of their full service offering.

“We opened here in 1998 and this is the slowest our business has been in the past seven years,” Kevin said. “Our business in the second week (of the shelter order) is off more than 25 percent of where we should be. For some of our customers, it’s even worse. They are coming through telling us their business is off 40-50 percent. This is terrible.”

Both Kevin and Benji Swisher said people need to realize that for small businesses to survive at any time, local customers need to shop and spend money at locally owned businesses. While commercial business is slow, or everyone is working from home, this might be the perfect time to have the oil changed in commercial or personal vehicles, just the same as it is the perfect time to order takeout from a favorite locally owned restaurant to make sure it’s still there when the shelter warning is lifted.

“To keep things going in our local economy, we have to support each other and we have to do business with each other,” Benji Swisher said. “I hope people will come out and support us now because our business has really been slow. We support other local businesses in this community. We shop local and now we need people to support us.

“This is what living in a small community is all about. We love Lake City. This is why you live here and do business here.”

Both Kevin and Benji Swisher are lifelong residents of Lake City and graduates of Columbia High School. They are both married and chose to raise their families in Lake City, investing their lives in the community.

Swift Lube employs seven people, five full-time and two part-time high school students. The business is open six days per week: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Friday and 8 a.m. - noon on Saturday.

“Nobody should be relying on government handouts to survive,” Benji said. “Small businesses just need the support of the people in the community where they live.”