How to locate a PBE Store in your hometown

[Mike Phillips]

How to locate Meguiar's Professional and Detailer products in your hometown

At every Detailing clinic held on Saturday's here at Meguiar's in Irvine, California, around the rest the of the United States by our Professional staff, and constantly on discussion forums all over the web, the question comes up,


"Where can I find the Professional Line of products and the Detailer Line of products?"


Meguiar's Professional Line
For those that may not know, Meguiar's Professional Line of products, are the products that come in the Tan Bottles with the Numbers on them. Like this one,



Or sometimes they're not in a tan bottle, but another container, but they have the distinctive and often talked about or posted part number, like this one,



This is what is known as Meguiar's Professional Line. These are products primarily formulated and sold into the professional side of the auto appearance industry. This includes products for use on the assembly line at car manufacturing plants, and also products for use in the Refinishing Industry, for example your local body shops and dealerships that offer collision repair.

Meguiar's Detailer Line
Meguiar's manufactures the highest quality products for the professional detailing industry. This includes,

Degreasers and Multi-Purpose Cleaners
Car Washes
Glass Cleaner
Wheel Cleaner
X-Press Liquid Wax
Last Touch High Gloss Quick Detailer
Body Solvent
Tire Dressings
Solvent Dressings
Water-based Dressing
Aerosol Spray Dressing
Leather Cleaner & Conditioner
Plus other miscellaneous tools and supplies

In order to purchase these products locally, you need to find what is called a PBE Store. Let me explain what a PBE Store is.

In the Automotive world, there are two types of auto parts stores,

* Hard Parts Stores
* PBE Stores

A Hard Parts store is a store like Pep Boys, Kragen, AutoZone, etc. These types of auto parts stores sell a large variety of auto parts including Meguiar's highly popular Consumer Line which includes, Meguiar's Deep Crystal, Meguiar's Gold Class, and Meguiar's NXT Generation.

Some Hard Parts stores sell a few products from the Professional Line, such as M-02 Fine Cut Cleaner, M-07 Show Car Glaze, M-2616 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax, M-3416 Final Inspection, and M-4016 Vinyl/Rubber Cleaner & Conditioner to name a few.

PBE store is an auto parts store that like a Hard Parts store sells traditional auto parts like spark plugs, starter motors, oil etc. but they also stock and sell Automotive Paint, and Body Shop Supplies and Equipment.

PBE stores don't tend to have large neon signs on the outside of their building because they often lean more to the Mom & Pop type of business than belong to large, nationwide chain stores.

For this reason, these stores a little harder to find. But note this, if your town or city is large enough to have a body shop or two, and also a new car dealership or two, (which probably includes a majority of towns and cities in America), then chances are very good there is at least one PBE store within an acceptable driving area from where you live and work.

Here are three ways to find a PBE store in your area,

1) Meguiar's Online Dealer Locater
Simple click on the link above, type in your Zip-Code and then select the Meguiar's Professional Products option. Hopefully this will give you some accurate leads.


2) Look in the Yellow Pages of your local phone book. Look under the Automotive section under Paint Supplies, (or something similar). Often, if there is a PBE store in your area they will place an add in the local yellow pages. A quick phone call will tell you if they do indeed sell body shop supplies and carry Meguiar's Professional Line.


3) This is probably the easiest and simplest, but not always the fastest way to find a PBE store. The next time you're out driving around and you see a Body Shop that is open. Pull over, and locate someone who is wearing jeans and looks like they work in the shop. Often times their clothes will be dirty because the refinishing business is a dirty business. Ask this person,


"Where does your shop purchase their paint, compounds and polishes at?"


Chances are very good he is going to tell you about a local PBE store, also called a Paint Store, (but not house paint), and point you in the right direction.


Those are three ways to locate a PBE Store in your hometown.


Important Note: After you locate a PBE Store in your hometown, upon exploring the store, if you do not find the Meguiar's product you are looking for, whether it be a Professional Line product or a Detailer Line product, but you do see other Meguiar's products in tan bottles with numbers, rest assure they can order the specific product you're looking for, simply ask one of the counter people if they can help you out.

Sometimes it will help if you have either a Meguiar's Professional Catalog with your are the part number for the product you are looking for. For example, if you're dying to try out Meguiar's very popular quick detailer in the *New* Detailer Line, the part number is D15501 and the name is Last Touch Spray Detailer



I hope this helps...

Mike

[ksrep28]

Thanks Mike, I have to say this is a truly great forum thanks to you. I've never had anyone get back to me so quickly and thoroughly. You do a hell of a job!

[hamanncheese]

something's wrong with the dealer locator link, mike. I think this is the right one:

http://meguiars.com/dealerlocator

[kenji815]

Hey Mike what happen to the dealer locator to find PDE dealers?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by kenji815
Hey Mike what happen to the dealer locator to find PDE dealers?

It's right here!

Dealer Locater on Meguiar.com


And I'll edit the above link to make it go to the correct page. Once in a while they move things around on meguiars.com and then the links don't always work on this forum.

Thanks!

[kenji815]

the database seems to be broke.. you might want to notify them.
after you type in zip code and search it gives a database error.

[OctaneGuy]

Works fine for me. Entered 90066 and tried all sort options.

[kenji815]

oh it's fixed.. thanks..
it wasn't working a minute ago.

[mikeg8r]

Just wondering, why isn't this a sticky? I can't ever find the link to the dealer locator on the main website and I always have to search for this thread. I guess that's what bookmarks are for, but still...

[the other pc]

Originally Posted by mikeg8r

...I can't ever find the link to the dealer locator on the main website ...

If you click on the "community button" on the top of the page you'll find it on the left side menu.

There's also a link to the site map on the bottom of every page. The dealer locator is about a fifth of the way down (do a "find word" in the page).


PC.