Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is phasing out its Brad Ragan/Carolina Tire retail stores.
The process, which started in January, should be done by the end of the month.
Goodyear will either sell the stores to independent tire dealers, turn them into Goodyear Automotive Service Centers or close them completely.
"All Brad Ragan and Carolina Tire outlets operate in the old automotive/appliance format," says a Goodyear spokesman. "With increased competition from specialized retailers, they weren't making it."
The Akron tiremaker will retain ownership of the Brad Ragan and Carolina Tire names "but they won't be used."
At the beginning of 2001, Goodyear operated 86 Brad Ragan/Carolina Tire stores in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The manufacturer had assumed 100% control of Ragan in March 1999, after buying into the chain during the 1970s.
