It was about 1970 when the Rodriguez family learned of a great business opportunity – a gas station-car wash for sale in the rapidly developing Tutu section of St. Thomas. Most of the neighbors were cows, in fact, just a few years before, the land the station stood on had housed a chicken farm.
But things were changing fast.
“My grandmother and my grandfather came down” from Washington D.C., and bought the station in 1971, said Enrique Emilio Rodriguez. Shortly after that, “My dad (Enrique Pedro Rodriguez) came down to help my grandfather and then we all came down.”
Just seven when he moved to the island, Rodriguez remembers a lot about the early years. Sitting behind his desk at Rodriguez Auto Parts in the Time Center building last week, he traced the history of the business as it shifted slightly throughout the years in response to market demands.
On St. Thomas 40 years ago “tow trucks were really pick-up trucks with a rope,” he said. But his grandfather and father brought in a real one and operated it themselves, delivering roadside service any time of the day or night. After a late-night call, they might not even bother to drive home but go straight to the store and sleep in the truck until opening time.
“It was a period of time when to make a dollar you really worked hard,” Rodriguez said.
The family leased the property at first, but when the landowners left island, they took the opportunity to buy it. In the late ‘70s, they began specializing in tires and opened up an auto parts store. Both the car wash and the pickup truck are long gone, but tires, batteries, and a wide range of other auto parts remain the mainstay of the business.
“My grandfather and my father were brand-orientated,” Rodriguez said. “They learned early on that if you sell quality you’ll get a repeat customer.”
Today, he said, Rodriguez Auto Parts is still the only outlet on the island that buys tires directly from Goodyear, Michelin and Cooper. He cautioned consumers to be wary of dealers who claim to be selling big name brands but may substitute inferior tires.
The newest competitor, of course, is the Internet. But Rodriguez said once customers add shipping and installation costs to their orders, they realize that aren’t saving money. And meanwhile, they’re losing time as they wait for a part to be delivered.
They also miss out on the convenience. At Rodriguez it’s usually a one-stop event: Drive in with a low battery or a low tire, see if the guy can plug the tire or charge the battery – which he very often can do – or replace it immediately if that’s really the only option.
The service center employs 18 people, and the staff has always been a source of pride.
From the start, the family has hired many of its workers just out of high school and trained them, as Rodriguez put it, before they could pick up bad habits elsewhere.
“We try to instill a sense of direction in our employees,” he said. “We teach them how to treat customers and to have pride in themselves and in their work. We tell the tire guys, ‘your job is as important as a doctor’s. You hold someone’s life in your hands.’ ”
Some workers have stayed with the business, and many have moved on and up, he said. About 20 “alumni” have joined the V.I. Police Department, others became fire fighters; several had distinguished military careers. There are also a few former commissioners and senators among the ranks, and at least one NASA official.
“That’s one of the things my dad is so proud of. It’s one of his joys,” Rodriguez said.
“My mother had an eye for good employees,” he added. She was also very good at spotting trends and at instituting controls. She detected the occasional bad apple and saved the company thousands of dollars. “Both my mom and my grandmother were very important to the business.”
The younger Rodriguez, however, originally had other plans for his life. He attended Georgetown University and earned a degree in international finance, with a minor in computer science.
“I wanted to own restaurants at one time,” he said. To prepare himself for culinary school, he hired on as an apprentice chef in a D.C. restaurant and found out that the hours were long and the rewards few.
“I did that for a year and burned out.”
Then he put his degree to work and began importing European artwork for sale. After a year of that, he said, his dad offered him a job back home and he returned to St. Thomas.
One of the first things he did was to suggest the business replace the trailers it was using for warehousing with a building that could handle storage, retail and office space. That grew into Time Center, a small strip mall with several tenants. Rodriguez’s grandfather was gone by that time, but he says it was his grandmother’s idea to build in the large, working clock from which the area takes its name.
Rodriguez says he has no regrets about joining the family business and no thoughts of leaving it.
“This is my home,” he said. “I’m 50. I’ve got another good 20 years at least. My dad is 77 and he’s in the next office, still working.” In fact, “He still does software programming … My dad’s a genius.”
The elder Rodriguez recognized the importance of the technology when it was new and is a self-taught computer programmer, according to his son. He wrote the software that the company uses and turned down an offer to sell it for wider distribution.
It will be a while before anyone knows whether there will be a fourth generation interested in running the business. Rodriguez and his wife Candela have two children, Pedro and Aurora. But right now the twins are mostly interested in snow skiing on trips to the states. At 5, they haven’t decided on a career path yet.
