Fortune's Wheels

Business was slow when he opened in late 2003, he says, but with advertising and word of mouth, things boomed. He estimates he moves 60 to 80 sets of rims per week, accounting for 60 percent of the store's gross profits.

Selecting a set of rims in this candy-store atmosphere isn't easy.

Anthony Michaels pulls into the parking lot in a 2000 BMW 323-I. It's a nice black car with 15-inch rims. He walks around the shop for half an hour or so, bending over and checking this set of rims against that one, then goes with the 18-inch Zenetti Deuces, at $2,299.

"It really brings the look of the car out," he says of the rims. "The 18s are fine with me. You can't go any bigger on this car safely."

And that's the issue -- as rims go to 18, 20, 22, now 24 and 26 inches -- the depth of the tires decreases. These tires wear out quicker, and are mostly higher-cost performance tires. One European design company, Claus Ettensberger, reminds buyers that tires on something going 70 mph on the interstate are not playthings.

"There are a lot of knockoff tire companies that have sprung up in the past couple years, and these are not like fake Nikes or Louis Vuitton handbags -- they're a critical safety feature," says Victor Carrillo, a company spokesman. "They're performance tires, so they wear quickly. There is a greater risk of blowouts, so you have to carefully monitor the tire pressure. You have to understand when you get these that they are not going to last like ordinary tires."

Ordinary?

Who said anything about ordinary?

Rims, Oakleys, the latte, the hot stone massage, the 57-inch plasma high-definition -- Americans want ordinary right up until they can afford something else.