What’s the future for local auto parts stores in your area ?

.... there’s a recent build here - OreillyAuto - nice store 40 car parking lot ...,

HUGE real estate lot cost ... building had to have cost near a MILL -

NO MORE than 5 cars EVER in the parking lot ...

Older AZ and Advance stores the same way .....

Wow

3 AutoZones, Advance, OOO O'reilly and Napa along with a CarQuest all within 10 miles....

None of which are really busy.

AutoZone, O'Reilly and NAPA all within sight distance of each other. Wish there was an independent store with guys that knew how to use a parts book. I have had issues at each with the corporate approach to stocking parts. What works in big cities and metro areas surely does not work in rural areas. The most common issue is in this area many people drive and work on older vehicles. Most common reply to part requests it will be here on Tuesday. Fuzzy dice, wax, additives of all sorts, steering wheel covers, sensors and relays of all sorts are stocked.
My most recent dealing at the NAPA store went thus: I asked for a basic battery for a lawn tractor "cheaper the better". They had only 1, for $147, I balked and asked for a cheaper one, he said he didn't have any others, I started to leave he said wait I may have another one, $117 after looking at the computer. I said something did not seem right as I looked on line and web said you had a "xyz" , can't recall number) on hand he looked at me puzzled and I started to leave the kid at the far end of counter had been listening in and said "wait, we have that one it's $79", The first guys glare at the kid could have raised smoke of the side of the kids head, I paid the kid and thanked him, walked past the other guy with what I came in to get.
These local stores do not give case discounts, look at me as though I were talking a foreign language if I ask if there is a "racers net" price for specialty speed parts.
Te worse thing is most of the older guys know the old days, the kids don't have a clue and think they are doing a great service by installing wiper blades. Then there is the whole issue of poor tolerance bearings and re-man parts that is spelling the demise of flaps's

My son is parts pro for comercial at Advance.He is always busy.The store does a lot of buisness.We have Orileys, AZ, Pep Boys, NAPA etc here and we arent a big araea.More then a few of each also.They all seem to do a healty buisness.Rocky

Depends on what part of town you are in.

Lower income areas have tons of parts houses and they always seem to be very busy. Sometimes even guys working in the parking lots trying to keep their stuff running or passing safety/emissions.
Middle income there are still quite a few of the usual parts houses, but they are less busy and seem to mostly sell car wash stuff and windshield wiper blades. They seem to be busy on the phone though supplying local repair shops.
Upper income parts of town there are none to be found.

When I was 16 years old I got a job at a local Kentucky Fried Chicken that never appeared busy. Little did I know the people wheeled in, grabbed a 21 piece bucket of chicken and wheeled out. With today’s auto parts stores like Auto Zone, Advance Auto, Orilies, etc, you are an idiot if you walk into your local store to place an order when you can go online, find the parts you need, (probably the right ones) place the order, and go pick it up ten minutes later getting the 30 percent discount, speed points discount for your next order, and almost zero wait time. In and out works for me.

Never got a 30% discount at Advance, best I got was 25% Those 30% discount" code"s were not valid. AZ has a 15% but only orders over $100.00. There are no Oreilys around here but plenty of radio commercial, guess they like to waste money.

"local" parts stores have pretty much disappeared here . . . more "large" stores strategically placed. . . . I pretty much go to Napa main warehouse for what I look for, or get from my parts buddy at dealership (for newer cars I have) . . . used to have a Napa a couple blocks from home, back in 80's - manager there had anything I needed when I was working on my 74 Duster360 !! But over time, his stock got reduced and reduced and then store was closed . . . of course as was previously said, looking up onliine, and getting stuff "pulled and ready" for pick up is nice. Or have to say it - Rockauto delivered right to the front door ! . . . even with the delivery charge, they are still lower price . . . sign of the times . . . ?!?!?!?

i have a pretty good stock of trinkets that could possibly cause my daily driver [99 carrotvan] to die, therefore if it happens, i can have it back up and running quickly.
anything else, i can plan for. that allows shopping around for the best deal.
i quit going to the one parts store in town that NEVER had anything but "the wax of the week", and they could get you what ever you wanted "tuesday". they then charged you UPS fees.
no thanks !

Delivery is big around here so most stores do it. Our local Walker Auto Parts store wised up years ago and rolled the dice and came up golden. they realized they couldn’t go head to head with the big boys so they put on a two bay addition and hired a mechanic. They could then offer installation of the parts they sold and followed that up with state inspections. The Napa followed this up and did the same thing. The mechanical part worked out so well he unloaded the Napa store and both do well now. Side by side partners.

i used Advance exclsively until about 10 years ago when they stopped stocking most aprts for 60-70's vehicles. Almost everything became factory direct which equaled 7-10 days. So I jumped over to Napa and they started heading the same direction afew years back so currently with Oreilly's which appear to have most of what I need in stock or less than a day away

Parts stores in my area (about 10,000 population, mostly lower income) are all busy, and all have commercial sales.
That's a NAPA, O'Reilly's, CarQuest and AutoZone.
In-store, getting correct parts in a timely manner means finding the sharpest guy.
That hasn't always meant the oldest guy, but a minute observing will tell you who the sharpest guy is.
I try to get friendly with that guy, and generally end up on their computer or in their parts books for a lot of stuff.
Actually pretty much have the run of the local AutoZone, since I helped open it & co-managed it for a couple years.
Typically, non- or out-of-stock parts are maybe a day away, often a few hours.
You can definitely tell the well-off from the regular folk by what they're buying.

X2. Waited a week for a single field alternator for a 68. I had a hunch they were gonna send me a dual field alt and they did. Waited another week for the correct one. Reman unit from CHINA. the hot terminal had a metric thread and bolt!! , but it works.

The same here Doc barely anyone in the lot. But the stire has 8 or more little trucks that deliver to local shops as a parts jobber

I haven’t been to one in a long time. I can buy the same garbage on rock auto at a huge discount and I don’t have to deal with 1000 questions from a clueless kid at the counter.

The smaller locally owned stores are almost extinct. Around here, those that are left are no better to deal with than the chain stores.
I usually order my stuff from rock auto. The stores have NOTHING in stock for the older cars anyway. I'm not making 2 trips to the store...one to order the part and then have to go back later in the week to pick it up. I can order it online (for less money usually) and it gets dropped off at the house a couple days later.

Had to order a thermostat and gasket for my dad's road runner a few weeks ago. Not one to be found in stock locally...ridiculous.

The money makers for all theses stores is the 'Corporate Account Sales' and delivery.

When I was an Automotive Technology student (at 37 years old) going for VA required retraining, I set up the Carquest account for my local Community College that was being ripped off by NAPA. Everything but Brake and Clutch parts, 15% of sales, we had been ordering 85% directly from NAPA but for the same Carquest part it was 25% less. By switching to Carquest my college saved $25,000 in the first year. Yes the college was adding the 'LIST' price to all repair bills so the lower cost up front did add to the profit margin. All the profits went into a scholarship program.

a few x-tra bucks for scholarship programs are perfectly acceptable, but the rest is just a big rip off.
don't get me wrong. i'm not about not allowing a profit to be made, an outfit has to, to remain in business. it's just the "name brand price" charged for "offshore trash" that rubs me the wrong way. then add in UPS charges from your warehouse ? i'm going elsewhere !

We have a few stores with decent prices and stock of stuff that stay somewhat busy. The best here is Carquest that is still stocked old school with long walls of hoses and belts etc.. and they are also really nice at letting you look for yourself for whatever you think would work for whatever oddball combination you want it for. A lot of these stores its the local garages and commercial users that keeps them going. The good stores are usually busy, the others not so much.

New Oreillys in my town. 2 actually. Hardly any cars in the parking lot. (Just like Mattress Firm) The AZs in my town are almost always BUSY. Brake parts radiators CV shafts etc. I often like shopping at Oreillys and Auto Value. Never busy I can get in and out. Rock Auto if I dont need the parts immediately and local stores if I do. Check them all out online for price and stock before I start the car.

I really rarely use local parts suppliers. Most of the time they don't stock anything. That and the clueless dolts that they have working behind the counter, it makes it difficult to even attempt to buy from them. I try to plan all of my projects ahead of time and order online (RockAuto, Amazon, etc). I have had much better luck with online parts than local.

My hometown has one parts store, CarQuest. Next town over has two each of Advanced,Napa, and Autozone and one O'Reilly's. None ever seem busy. My CarQuest is second generation owner. I've told him long ago I'd rather pay him more por parts because they are always right, and if there ever is a problem he takes care of me. Then Advanced took over CarQuest. He can still order me anything I need, but Advanced makes him tack on an extra handling fee. It's cheaper to go on Advanced's website and there is always a 20-25% off code, and it's easy to get free shipping. I asked him if Advanced knows what they are doing to the brick and mortar stores like his, and he said they know,,,they just don't care. Then there is Rock Auto. Cheap prices but watch the shipping. I looked up brake shoes for my D100, $25 for the shoes plu $9 ship...then I added valve cover gaskets, $6 for FelPro, but the gaskets added $18 shipping.

Nothing close to me, 40 miles, I still avoid like the virus. Either a young kid whos clueless or a Senior who thinks they hold the store together....

I do there lifetime exchange parts only because I keep things till dead and its smart money.

Ive been able to avoid the
"No clue kid" by looking up the part beforehand on my phone. Then I show them EXACTLY what their store shows- part number, manufacturer stock etc. The stores are ok when its brake parts, shocks and ball joints. But when you need a bearing or seal- something deep inside an assembly they can be out of their element.

The Pep boys in my town are closing down the only two locations. They are closing the retail parts but keeping the service centers open. I have often wondered how in the heck they stay open anyways, there is one 1/2 mile from my house but it is always my last resort because its expensive and hard to deal with. Even at the %40 off they are doing things aren't that good of a deal unless its a big ticket item. They still had a large selection

There is some good mom and pop stores outside of the metro here but they are often to far away for me to justify going.

I try and buy auto parts from Summit Racing when i go online. They don't scam you on shipping like Rock Auto and the prices are very good. Some Moog front end pieces for my Jeep were %30 less than Orielly and had free shipping and handling because it was over $100.

I'm the idiot that signed up on-line to order parts and get discounts etc. I'm the idiot that got looked at like an idiot when I went into the store to pick up my order the following day (not in stock/shiop to store) and gave them the paperwork with code supplied for the discount that was offered. They told me that they don't give the discounts when parts are ordered online and I'd have to ask NAPA for a rebate. The offer was clear, 30% discount when ordered online and paid for at store. The part guy and owner were looking at me with vacant faces as I left without close to $500 in brake parts sitting on their counter. Brakes got done the following weekend when my parts were delivered in an amazon box (at a better price) two days later.
I live in a rural area, try to shop locally first and am pushed to other areas or on-line by inavailibity of local stores to provide quality products at a fair price. Typically name brands (parts, clothing, footwear, electronics) are rarely in stock , need to be ordered and when rarely on hand charged full-tilt.

One like that just closed here, it looked fairly recent too and anytime I was in there I was the only guy there but I guess their real business is supplying parts to local shops, not walk ins.

Considering I had to hook up my alternator and test it myself because the woman at O-Reillys (who had been there 4 years) couldn't figure it out, I don't have much use for them anymore. I occasionally buy a metric large socket or oddball tool I don't have but that's about it.

RockAuto shipping.....

Last year I ordered about $2500 of parts that was still cheaper with shipping added on. They had parts in 4 different warehouses so you get charged a different shipping from each. But 3 of the boxes came from the same city in LA CA, just a different address half a block from each other. The 4th box was shipped from their Auburn WA warehouse JUST 6 miles from my house.
The box from Auburn went FedEx to Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, LA, Seattle, Tacoma and 8 days later to my house. SIX MILES.

Mancini is just as bad with their shipping ripoff. They sent me 4 parts in 3 boxes. All 4 parts were about 25 pounds combined. All 3 boxes were stuffed with air pillows. The 4 parts would have fit in 1 of the boxes. But they charge shipping AFTER you order, they just add it to your credit card after you get the first invoice. Ended up being $32 just for shipping. I will never order from them again.

I learned my lesson with Mancini long ago when they kept pimping the "Moparts discount" yet never gave one...

I experienced Mancini's shipping charge once. enough for me.Summit gives free ship, but they tack on a "handling fee"

I've only got two locally; BC's own "Lordco" and a small NAPA.

Both places have experienced, knowledgeable counter-staff. I can't fault either place. They do have some less experienced staff there, but most days you can avoid them.
The problem I have is that their pricing schemes are getting ridiculous. They aren't making any steps to try to combat online places like RockAuto.

Several examples:

1974 AMC Hornet front brake drum: Lordco: $300, NAPA: unavailable, RockAuto: $92 + $18 shipping.

Remanufactured engine for a 2004 Hyundai Tiburon: Lordco: (sourced from ATK) $7200, NAPA: unavailable as they only dealt with Jasper engines, Direct from ATK with shipping: $3600.

I understand capitalism. I understand stores need to make profit. But when your profit margins are 200%, 300%.... you're almost FORCING folks to seek out alternative methods. I had a hard time when I worked at Kal-Tire 10 years ago. During training, their videos explained a MINIMUM 450% markup. They actually made us sign non-disclosure forms. It made it very difficult for me, to tell friends and people that I've known all my life (small town, remember?) that winter tires for their 1987 Ford pickup was going to be $2,200.

Just recently, I'm doing a Holley rebuild for a friend. The Kit at Lordco was $55. Online, they start at about $35 plus shipping. In this case, I bought from Lordco as they had it on the shelf. It saved me time for sure, and didn't cost a whole lot more versus buying online! Makes sense.

My brother runs a KOI store in northern KY. and they STAY busy , both counter and outside wholesale sales

45+ years at this crap. Dealerships, independents, buying parts commercially, selling performance/race stuff, a few months managing one of the national chain stores, even a few months in a dealership parts dept. It's not 1978 anymore and it all sucks.

One little Carquest left close by. They mostly went away when Advance bought them. I liked Carquest and used them 100% for years. Now we have NAPAs, but they are being bought up and a few larger operations run all of them in the whole area. I still prefer NAPA parts now, but it's hard to avoid Chinese crap. A few Federated, One of the Carquests became an Auto Plus. And an independent I know of with multiple locations who do OK. And a bunch of AZ and Advance. All within an hour.

AZ and Advance I try to avoid. Overpriced, help is paid poorly, and I make sure I have part numbers and they have it if I go.

5 auto parts stores, 4 of which are on the same street. The 5th is just 1/2 block from that street. All within 3 minutes of each other. 2 chain stores, 3 mom and pop stores.

Anyone know why ADV and AZ seem to want to be as close to each other as possible?

Never seen them next door to each other... but a couple hundred yards yes

......
Never seen them next door to each other... but a couple hundred yards yes......


Carlisle Pa. AutoZone 725 N. Hanover St. Advance 707 N.Hanover St. The 2 stores are separated by their parking lots

I too learned a lesson about Mancini and their shipping charges. Used to order a lot of stuff from them, now I just use their website to look up part numbers occasionally.

In my town there is NAPA, Oreilly, Advance, and Auto zone...all in a row on the same side of the street and all in about a 1/4 mile stretch.
A lil further down the street is one "mom and pop" store, Larry's Auto. They "went out of business" a few years back, then reopened w/ just the machine shop in operation and a handful of parts.

Same in Clarion, PA. One in front of the other just off exit 62 on I-80. Guy built Advance Auto only to have his Ex-wife build the AZ in front of it AFTER the divorce finalized!

Knox Auto Supply is a NAPA store in Knox. Very knowledgeable counter people and owner is a Mopar guy and member here!

New Kensington pa we have an Auto Zone, Advance Auto, and they just opened an Orilies Auto within a stnevthrow of each other. 3 miles down the road another Advance Auto and Napa Warehouse.

didn't knox auto have a store in clarion at one time where the advance and az is now ?

was up the road above Pizza Hut

thanks lon.

I try to support my local NAPA as much as possible. I don't want to have to drive 75 miles to get a fan belt. That having been said, I sat down with Rockauto and NAPAOnline one night and just compared prices for the exact same material for a typical overhaul for an RB, rings/bearings/gaskets/oil pump/timing chain. NAPA was anywhere from 50% to 100% higher than Rockauto. The only thing close was the gasket set and that was 20% higher. The owner, who is no dummy, and I talked about this and he expressed his fear that NAPA is going to turn into nothing but an outlet for lubricants and car care products. I gave him the list I had worked up, he submitted it to the district office, and the response (which took three months to arrive) was basically that the higher NAPA pricing was due to the "increased value that a NAPA customer receives". I can't believe that corporate NAPA is this clueless but I can come to no other conclusion.

The NAPA in my town is in a new building and already expanding with a pole building behind the main one. They are the best in town.

What is boils down to is that RA is a drop shipper. By not having to own brick and mortar stores- pay employees, pay utilities, property tax, insurance etc etc the online retailer can be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper. Ive seen some members here asking if they can go to Rock Auto and pick up their parts to avoid shipping. I believe any address for Rock Auto would be a building with a handful of human employees and a mega big server that handles all the online orders. I use them often but I also use local stores too. I maintain 4 cars and when I need the parts now the local stores get my business.

The comments about Rockauto are true. But I am having difficulty believing that NAPA needs a 100% markup (double) over Rockauto's price to pay for employees, taxes, etc. keeping in mind Rockauto is making money at their pricing structure. Does NAPA need a Nascar team? Or sponsor a host of other teams? It's all overhead that someone has to pay for.

The comments about Rockauto are true. But I am having difficulty believing that NAPA needs a 100% markup (double) over Rockauto's price to pay for employees, taxes, etc. keeping in mind Rockauto is making money at their pricing structure. Does NAPA need a Nascar team? Or sponsor a host of other teams? It's all overhead that someone has to pay for. [/quote]


Just look at the stick figure grade school animated Rock Auto TV commercials. No actors, No announcers, No set,No props,No unions needed. Best deal I ever had from Rock was 2000-05 Neon lower control arms,AZ and Advance they were 99.99 each side. Rock Auto was $ 37 each side , same p/n in Dorman. How do they do it??

i retired from an independent napa chain. mother napa kind of dictates where the pricing will be on certain things. the store manager can sell at or below cost to "buy" a sale to a good customer. but mother napa does not help them out. only time mn helps is during farm sale on filters and stuff like that 2 times a year. then they balk at that from time to time. the 2 posters above are correct about the way ra works. in a big building with a BIG server, handling thousands of calls an hour.

Generally speaking I go to two parts stores and shop online for my parts.

I go to Napa for my parts in most cases. I go to Autozone to dump my used oil and on rare occasion I will get a part from them if it it's aft 1 on Saturday or on Sunday, NAPA is closed then.

In a lot of cases Napa doesn't list a part for my 51, so I go online and find it. Usually I shop RA,, Amazon and Ebay to see what the best price is and get it there. Since they all now charge sales tax I look at shipping too. I have found, generally, that Amazon's "free shipping" prices are as much or usually more than RA's shipping added prices. Some times Ebay wins.

Been looking at twin Weber IDA based EFI throttle bodies for a build and Ebay is way cheaper for the same item compared to Amazon.

Wow ... lots of interesting input ....

My recent experiences have been on eBay.... shipping charges are as plain as day.

I tried surfing RA .... my experience was cloudy

parts geek has been advertising on tv lately.
i did a little surfing there. it seems anyone needs to spend some time in a bunch of places to see what exactly is out there, at what cost, what quality, and then factor in delivery time and cost before making the decision that works best for you.

my local NAPA store has been on point price wise with RA on some of the last big $$ purchases I've made. Within a $1 or 2 and in 1 case cheaper.

Me personally... I would pay quite a bit more buying parts from a local brick and mortar AND keeping the money locally BUTTTTT......

There is a breaking point.

Two recent quick examples ..... that cable hose clamp pliers- local - 30$ plus tax — ebay - 9$ delivered to my door. Carrotvan front wheel bearings —- NAPA local - 75$ each .... ebay - 50$ FOR THE PAIR - lifetime warranty.

Guess where I went ??!!

The future is to chase the old guys out and replace them with kidz who can run the register, but have the worse time imaginable finding parts for you. If it ain't in the computer then forget about them finding it. I wish the monitors were double sided so I could see what they are looking at. I suspect I could point out the part if I could see them scroll right past it....

Parts stocked will be geared towards replacing the whole item vs tearing into things yourself. Forget buying gaskets, o-rings, to service something yourself.

We have a NAPA here in town that I rarely ever go into and I build cars on almost a full time basis. I order stuff from Summit several times a week. I'd love to have a local store where I could buy stuff but the folks at NAPA are just too big of a pain to deal with. They carry crappy parts and the counter staff turns over so often that they never seem to know anything.

I will say that my buddy lives in a farm town and his NAPA store is pretty good. They have counter guys there who are real mechanics. But where I live the counter guys can't find an oil filter for a big block Mopar unless I tell them the year, make and model. If I tell them big block Mopar they just have a blank look on their face. The same exact look the cat gives me when I talk to it.

It's been a while since I did this and I thought it would be good to update it. The only direct comparison I couldn't make was the timing set. Everything else has the identical part number.

A little SPIN OFF of this topic ....

China Mart or Hobo Fright vs say Snap On .....

That cable operated hose clamp plier ....

Snap On (much fancier than the CM piece but probably made there) ....150$ PLUS !!

The CM piece on eBay delivered to your door ? 15$ !! ... or less !

6pak, any idea on the shipping costs from RA on your list comparison ?
shouldn't that also be added in as well ?

Excellent point. I'd estimate about $100 for shipping these items. The reason that I didn't address shipping initially is that my local NAPA store wouldn't have any of this on the shelf. Their stocking warehouse probably wouldn't have anything other than the gaskets on the shelf. So my NAPA store would charge me freight from a district warehouse like Minneapolis or Denver. Short answer, it's a horse apiece.

Edit: This was an interesting question so I actually filled out a RA order to see what shipping was to me for the parts list I used for the comparison. $75.96. Less than what I thought.

We've got 4 local shops so close together you could pretty much throw a blanket over all of them.
That being said, of the 4 I typically go to Advance Auto, but order the parts online for in-store pickup. I apologized to the Manager once and he acknowledged the online discounts made it a no brainer. He was pushing to be able to offer the discounts for walk ins, but it was shot down.
Auto Zone is sketchy at best. I went to the local NAPA a couple weeks ago and it was a ghost town. I got tired of dealing with their superiority complex but needed an industrial belt (they were out).
I've been slowly shifting to O'Reilly's. So far they have had everything I needed at a decent price and the counter guys a) know their stuff, b) don't have attitudes and c) are more than willing to give suggestions for other options if they don't happen to have what you need.
I will admit that wiper blades always come via Rock Auto. I can replace them on all 4 vehicles for what it would cost to do one if sourced locally. And yes, they are the same parts.