Mario Avgousti has been the owner of Mario’s Auto Repair for over 20 years and is one of many automobile repair shops in Hammonton. During that span, the automobile repair shop has been in three different locations. It originally started on Route 30 for seven years before moving to Egg Harbor Road and then settling in its current location on Weymouth Road in September of 2022. For Avgousti, the current location offered more perks and convenience for his customers as well as for himself in terms of space when comparing the previous location.
“This location has a much better parking lot here and a bigger office. I hope it’s more convenient for my customers to get in and out of the parking lot, compared to the old location,” Avgousti said.
Avgousti praised the Hammonton community and its residents for its support of businesses, including his own, and with the residents knowing him, he tries to give his customers the best service he can provide. He also made it a point that with more businesses means it can lead to more customers.
“It’s a nice community with good people and good customers. A lot of people know me and I try to take as good care of their cars as I can for them and the more businesses there are, the more customers that come in so we should all have enough business for all of the garages here in Hammonton. It’s good that we have a lot of businesses in Hammonton so that way, we all have work and it all splits up and doesn’t go out of town,” Avgousti said.
Avgousti said he loves the work he does.
“I love fixing cars and the difference between having my own business and working for somebody is that I don’t just have just one boss, I have many bosses. I like that every person that walks into my shop is my boss,” Avgousti said.
Avgousti tries not to see the negatives when running a business as he likes to stay positive all the time but sometimes, there are negatives. Those negatives can mean a car not being fixed or something breaking down.
“We try not to see the bad parts, you got to be positive all the time. Yeah sure, there’s bad parts like some cars don’t want to get fixed or you fix one thing, another one breaks. It’s a bad part of the business,” Avgousti said.
Another bad part that Avgousti emphasized is getting car parts, which has been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some parts, there’s no change [when having it delivered on time] but some other parts, it’s not a matter of how long it takes, it’s if you can get them or not. Some of them might usually take a day, week or month, depending on the specialty of the part. A lot of parts are discontinued at the dealer so we have to get used parts, which makes it hard to find good used parts,” Avgousti said.
Avgousti’s advice for those who are looking to start a business, whether it’s a repair shop or any type of business in general, is to be prepared, read up on starting a business and the general area of the field and talk to a lot of people before doing it.
Mario’s Auto Repair is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. while they are closed on Sundays. They are now located on 196 Weymouth Road in Hammonton.