'A national auto parts retailer plans to close more than 700 locations as part of “a strategic plan to improve business performance.” Advance Auto Parts, which has more than 4,700 stores across nearly every state, announced the decision as part of its third-quarter update to investors.

The company’s footprint is expected to be cut by 523 Advance Auto Parts corporate stores, 204 independent locations and four distribution centers, the press release noted.

A list of stores expected to shutter was not immediately available. Advance Auto Parts has more than 500 locations in Florida, more than in any other state. In seven states — Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia — there are more than 200 locations.

Advance Auto Parts, which has been around for nearly a decade, joins a growing list of retailers that have announced store closures this year. For some, like Big Lots, Dirt Cheap and TGI Fridays, the closures came as part of bankruptcy filings. For others, like Wendy’s, Denny’s and Walgreens, the impending closures are intended to boost the company’s overall financial performance.'

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexsta...-parts-to-close-more-than-700-locations/

They bought out the CarQuest stores here a few years back, and closed some of them. Now they have just one Advanced location that that I know of. although there may be a few more stores in other parts of the valley I don't frequent. Here it's mostly Oreilly and NAPA stores with some Autozones thrown in.

A friend of mine is closing his CarQuest store. He has been in business for 41 years and decided it is time to retire. He still is going to build engines but do things at his own pace. He started drag racing in the 70s...

Our local Car Quest store still has a Car Quest sign on the building, but all the paperwork says Car Quest/Advanced auto parts.

With in a few blocks we also have an Oreillys Auto parts store (their paper work does not even have Oreilly's name on it), an Auto Zone parts store, and a NAPA parts store. None carry a lot of parts in stock (all have large warehouses within 100 miles). The NAPA store has the largest warehouse attached, they also have the highest prices (and I get a discount there, as well as at Oreillys and Car Quest). Auto Zone is the very last resort, too many issues from them at this store. All of the parts stores serve the local repair shops and most have a pretty large fleet of delivery trucks.

I would be surprised to see any of our local auto parts stores close.

On the street behind my house there are 3 Autozones, 1 Napa, 3 Oreilly's and 3 Advance Auto Parts within 5 to 7 miles of each other. 2 Autozones are less than 2 miles apart.

They could close a few and nobody might notice but they are always packed.

PepBoys stopped selling parts over-counter. Not these closing. Getting where likely won't be able to buy parts to work yourself.

I have a Pep Boys and an Advance a few miles from my house .. I miss Pep Boys ( they still have service ) I was just more successful buying parts I needed there and their Speed shop was great . Their customer service wasn't the greatest though. Advance is OK nothing great I would say average , convienent at least.

Been around for nearly a decade? I remember going to our local Advance Auto Parts w/ my dad to buy parts for our first project car in the early '90s.

I can't recall much advertising for Advance, nor much presence in the market wherever I've lived; been in exactly one in the last25-30 years.
I mostly use AutoZone & O'Reilly's, or occasionally NAPA or Rock Auto for the "normal" stuff.

an Advance Auto Parts opened in the next city over from here in the mid 80's, and it was well stocked with chrysler parts, unlike the parts stores here, which only seemed to have GM parts and the "wax of the week".
at that time, it was well worth the 18mile drive to get parts, and it was open 7 days a week from 7am until 9pm.
as i worked in that city my entire machinist career, i didn't have to make a special trip, unless something happened when i was not working on any particular day.

I live in a town of about 3500 people, and for about the last 15 years we've had had an Advance Auto parts and an Oreilly's about two blocks apart. We also have a Ridge and Kramer store about a mile away that probably only survives because they are a PPG dealer. They just built an Autozone right across from Advance which looks about ready to open, and supposedly Napa will open a store about a block away from the Ridge and Kramer store. I can't see how five stores will survive in this area, but I guess time will tell.

I usually only buy cleaners, chemicals, washer fluid, antifreeze and stuff like that. I really don`t like the parts that are sold there or at Autozone. Tend to buy OEM stuff when I can.

no loss in this area.. the advanced here is horrible.

If I go down the parkway, turn right and go straight, there is/are...
- NAPA
- Autozone
- Advanced
- Autozone

If I turn left after the NAPA, there is/are...
- Advanced
- Carquest
... and those two are literally across the street from each other

Sad to hear this, that's a lot of jobs.
Advanced has always been my favorite, been buying stuff since the 80's.
I drive by O'Reilly's and AutoZone to go to Advanced.

But I must admit RockAuto has been my go to lately.
It's hard to justify ordering local (they don't stock much) and then waiting AND paying 25% more for the same exact part that RockAuto delivers directly to my door.

We have two CarQuest stores and then an Advanced Auto and an O'Riellys and a NAPA in the fairly small town that I live in. Only store I've ever gone into is the NAPA. It is a really big NAPA with about 10 employees and a full machine shop. The NAPA machine shop has some top dollar equpiment and they build some serious race engines for the local racers.

I'm not surprised the AA is closing some stores. With the mergers that they have done over the years I would imagine that they have duplicate stores in some areas. Since they own CarQuest that means that they have 3 stores in the town that I'm in. Nobody needs to own three identical stores in this town. We only have have one Wendys and one McDonalds.

The local Advance is just so-so. They chased off the 3 long-timers that really new their stuff, the new crop are just there to use the computer to tell em what to do next.
Best in town is napa. I was needing a new floor mount dimmer switch, and they had several in stock.
They also have a large fitting supply, and can build hoses.
Rockauto and all the MO places are going to take their toll.

here, we have a choice between o'riley's and napa, and of course they mainly stock GM parts, with sometimes a wait time of up to a week for mopar items.
at times, there is also a ups fee tacked on if you need something around the two day time frame.
for years now, i have been planning repairs if possible, and ordering on line from many sources.
if an emergency repair arises, i usually have important items on the shelf, and other things can be fabbed with materials i have on hand.
this area is semi-depressed, with only a few jobs paying a decent wage, and i hate to jeopardize any job in what parts stores we do have, but it is becoming borderline ridiculous the way local parts stores operate these days.
just my personal life experiences dealing with parts stores for almost 60+ years.
your mileage will vary.

I remember the days of only having one or two auto parts stores and the mom and pop places that don't really exist anymore. "F" PepBoys! I wanted to get a replacement part(still under warranty) and they wouldn't replace it since they "don't sell parts anymore". This was just after hearing about it. My question to them is why is there a red painted "AUTO PARTS" on the front of the building if you don't sell parts? (It's still there today!) They didn't like that and told me i had to buy another one and submit it to the corporate office. I opted to say FU and have never set foot in their stores since! Auto Zone changed their hours, I went to one at 9PM and the guy said we are closed. They used to be opened till 10. Can't remember the last time i was in a Advance.

I had to look and find there are 4 Advanced Auto's in Vegas. I've never been to one. There are 2 AutoZone's and 2 Oreille's within 3 miles of me. I try not to go because they are expensive and I'm cheap. When looking for parts, I usually check Rock Auto first for part numbers if its not a stealership only item. Then I shop around to see if I can get it for less when calculating Rock Auto's shipping. Sometimes Amazon wins with overnight free shipping. Sometimes other retailers. Fluids are usually cheapest at Wallyworld. Brick and mortar stores rarely get my money, unless I need the part immediately.

That is exactly the way I do it, too. Look at Rockauto to see brands and part numbers to shop Amazon and ebag and any other vendor that has them.

Unless it is a little bit lager order, Rockauto's shipping usually takes them out even with 5% off. They must lose a lot of business over that. I have always wondered why they cannot compete better on the shipping?

A member on here figured out RO has a shipping scam. They intentionally split shipping from at least 2 warehouses on multi part orders.

I can't say that I'll miss advance auto. One bit. Good riddance
Before advance took over the local car quest they were absolutely the best. Not anymore. They suck now

Not true at all.

In fact they give you a tool to help you see what parts are in the same warehouse as parts in your cart.

But if you can't figure that out well, the scammer is you.

You need to look at what parts are where! If they are in two different locations you will get billed for the shipping.

They provide plenty of information to help sort out the shipping. It often takes a few changes in choices to get the best deal overall which is why I think the larger the order, the more likely Rockauto is to get the sale. But, they really only get maybe 20% of our business because other sources beat them on the total price plus shipping.

Like Harbor Freight and other 'cheapy' sellers, they are not the end-all be-all, but they do have their place and should not be totally dismissed out of hand.

The gist was 2 parts would ship together. Its when 3 or more were in the order then 2 warehouses started happening, regardless of what the website told you.
Wish I had saved the post, it was pretty in depth.

In Volaredon's defense I have created orders at Rockauto where it said everything would ship from 1 warehouse except 1 part. I switched that part for another that would ship from the same place and suddenly it was shipping from 3 places or parts that were originally shipping from one location switched to another.

It happened more than once so their shopping algorithm does some sketchy stuff.

In the end you do have to watch out but if you pay attention it will tell you shipping very plainly.

Plus the shipping isn't real expensive so I don't think it is a total rip off but still sketchy.

Yes I experience this too. EX: Ill select 4 items. 3 ship from location A and one from B. So I remove B from my cart. Now I have 3 items shipping from A. I then choose the 4th item that has the "Delivery truck" symbol near it (The Truck means this particular item comes from the same location as the items already in my cart.) I select the Truck marked item only to now see in my cart the other 3 items no longer ship from A but have been broken up and are now coming from various locations. I'm still a Fan of RA. The risk of all out counterfeit parts is very low to non existent with them. YES RA has cheap parts offerings, but not full blown counterfeit junk versions of OEM brands that Amazon has.

they all live on commerical accounts. do it your self is ilrelevant

The worst thing about fewer brick & mortar stores is being able to see, hold, and inspect a part.
Same is true of speed shops, of course, and most of us are getting by using Summit, Jeg's & etc.
In an era of substandard parts, it's nice to have them in your hands - photos just aren't as informative.

All 150 Advance stores in Commifornia are closing:

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/1...-stores-including-14-in-san-diego-county