Alamo’s Bumper-to-Bumper Supports Other Alamo Industries

Greg Campbell’s business model with Bumper-to-Bumper is to support other local industries which support Wheeler County.

Campbell originally came to Alamo in 2008 after the housing market crash. He founded a hardware store and worked as an electrician, but soon pivoted to truck driving in order to earn a living.

“I loved the type of work it was, but it wasn’t making money,” said Campbell.

He also served on the Wheeler County Chamber of Commerce, but had to step down due to lack of time.

Eventually, Campbell would begin his own Bumper-to-Bumper, a business he has operated for over 10 years. Bumper-to-Bumper is an automotive parts store, although according to Campbell, semi trucks are their “bread and butter” as opposed to standard cars.

In particular, Campbell’s store caters to the local logging industry, which is Wheeler County’s biggest industry.

“We rely on loggers to survive,” said Campbell.

However, the industry has taken a “heck of a hit” with the recent closure of multiple mother mills in nearby counties. Many of these closures stem from 2024’s Hurricane Helene, which destroyed up to 8.9 million acres of forest land according to the Georgia Forest Commission.

Bumper-to-Bumper also deals in pallet recycling: buying used pallets and reusing them for shipping. These pallets are purchased directly from industrial use, rather than purchased from the public.

One major avenue for Campbell’s pallets is the port in Savannah. He said many shipping containers brought into the port have their goods free packed into the container, which must then be transloaded onto pallets for transportation.

“We’re strictly an industrial scrap business,” said Campbell.

However, Campbell has not seen much business from the port recently due to slumps in the shipping industry.

“The industry’s just slow right now,” said Campbell.

Instead, Bumper-to-Bumper has been readying its pallets for onion season, which is set to begin soon.

In addition to its semi truck and pallet work, Bumper-to-Bumper also does miscellaneous work with local prisons, such as the CoreCivic Wheeler Correctional Facility, and with insurance companies. Campbell recalled one instance where an insurance company had called his team regarding a car lot which had lost the titles to its cars, so he and his team scrapped the cars to ensure they could not be driven.

The business also sells trailers for semi trucks in a lot next to the main building. Semi trucks for sale are also in the lot, but they are not sold by Bumper-to-Bumper; rather, they are on consignment from another seller.