advance auto

Yeah heard that this morning. Guy I work with's wife works for carquest and they just told them yesterday, they don't know yet if they'll keep their jobs, work in the cooperate office
 
oh great!! part of Advance Autos "streamlining" of cost is to hire low wage people who know very little about cars, let alone the parts that make up one, we use World Pac for most all of our parts they have a good website, good quality parts and deliver 3 times a day to our shop, that will probly change now...........
 
The stock is up 16% today. Wish I had bought some.
 
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Infamous1 said:
oh great!! part of Advance Autos "streamlining" of cost is to hire low wage people who know very little about cars, let alone the parts that make up one, we use World Pac for most all of our parts they have a good website, good quality parts and deliver 3 times a day to our shop, that will probly change now...........
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Advance is really our only option here. They do ok but I get tired of new parts that are worse off than the one its replacing. Their very good about warranty. Worldpac is next day for us and thats the only factor that pushes us away.

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its the end of an era. Carquest was the only place that would open a book to find the right part you needed... They used to be great, but now you have to press them to open a catalog to find things.

It was great for us in Raleigh, the main distribution center if off Millbrook, they had everything in stock.
 
In a town as small as Lexington NC, there is the Napa store (which has been here a long time) on one end of town and within a half mile of each other, there is an Advance Auto, a Pep Boys an Oreily Auto Parts and a brand new CarQuest store that they just built. Hard to imagine they can all stay in business!!! There are also a couple small mom and pop shops.
 
ManglerYJ said:
In a town as small as Lexington NC, there is the Napa store (which has been here a long time) on one end of town and within a half mile of each other, there is an Advance Auto, a Pep Boys an Oreily Auto Parts and a brand new CarQuest store that they just built. Hard to imagine they can all stay in business!!! There are also a couple small mom and pop shops.
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Seems to happen that way...in Salisbury we have an Advance and AZ right across the street from each other, and a mile or so up on 29, you have an Oreilly's...and Rowzer's is just around the corner from the AZ. If you drive about 5 miles south on 52, you get a NAPA, an AZ and a newly built Advance all within a half mile stretch of eachother. No idea how they can make money that way.

That said...I order all my stuff online anyway.
 
Same way in Kernersville. There is an Advance auto and Autozone across the street from each other, then less than 1/8 mile up the road is an O'Riellys. There is a MASSIVE NAPA distribution center a couple of miles from my work, but the customer service there is only slightly worse than FUCKING horrible. I refuse to set foot in that store.
 
being on the business end of parts, this sucks. i can't afford to to wait on parts ordered online, and advance and autozone get the shit that fails quality control at major producers of parts. i'm really not the one you want ordering parts anyway(that's what the wife is for). i can't order online because i need someone to be accountable for mistakes. if i call and order a belt and it isn't here in a half hour, i will be on the phone asking them if the damn rubber tree has stopped growing yet so i can have my damn belt.
 
I can't stand dealing with any of them, but sometimes it's my only choice. I've had really good service w/ Rock Auto. I'd much rather deal w/ a mom and pop, but those are pretty much extinct around here....
 
Rock Auto is pretty much a Mom & Pop.

So is Walker, the Raleigh-area NAPA franchisee.
 
NAPA is my go to if I absolutely need a quality part. ( you get what you pay for)

Autozone, Advanced, O'Riley's pep-girls is just for random cheap parts that don't matter so much if they wear out.


That said I have a starter from Autozone with a lifetime warrenty that they have replaced 3 times no questions asked.
 
Bogleparsons said:
NAPA is my go to if I absolutely need a quality part. ( you get what you pay for)

Autozone, Advanced, O'Riley's pep-girls is just for random cheap parts that don't matter so much if they wear out.


That said I have a starter from Autozone with a lifetime warrenty that they have replaced 3 times no questions asked.
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I used to think the same way, but if you take the PN's and cross reference them...alot of times they tie back to being the exact same part, just in a different house brand box. On top of that, alot of folks complain about how cheap a part is...I'm a Ford guy, so Motorcraft is OEM brand. I haven't gone in to a box store yet that doesn't have or couldn't get the OEM part...trick is, you have to pay for it. Instead, people would rather pay $20 for the cheapie fuel pump then complain when it goes to shit, than pay $60 for the OEM replacement.
 
Not good. Carquest here in Aberdeen has my PPG paint for me.
 
UTfball68 said:
I used to think the same way, but if you take the PN's and cross reference them...alot of times they tie back to being the exact same part, just in a different house brand box. On top of that, alot of folks complain about how cheap a part is...I'm a Ford guy, so Motorcraft is OEM brand. I haven't gone in to a box store yet that doesn't have or couldn't get the OEM part...trick is, you have to pay for it. Instead, people would rather pay $20 for the cheapie fuel pump then complain when it goes to shit, than pay $60 for the OEM replacement.
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True, but a lot of times the OEM stuff is really no better than aftermarket. I use as a rule of thumb - if the part is a pain in the a$$ to get to and replace (i.e. fuel pump), I don't want to rely on the warranty, I want to get a quality part that won't fail to begin with.
 
Article says the General Auto head will remain president and just report to Advance CEO.
The two chains severe different niches and markets, it wouldn't really make sense for Advance to close the CQs and take over, they (board and shareholders) make more $$ operating the separate businesses.
 
This deal has been working over the last several years.

You might have noticed that there are no more "privately owned" CarQuest stores, even in small towns the CQ that was there is either gone or has gone corporate. All part of the deal.

AA didn't want to deal with private owners, nor did they want to deal with the shops that many of the small town stores had attached to them. ( Smthfield, Clayton, Apex all corporate stores now )

For the near future they (AA) are supposed to leave things as is and run them as separate entities.

All I know about it is what I've gathered from the small stores I deal with on a regular basis, and the stories all seemed to jive as the information was pretty much the same from all as the process unfolded.
 
Just what we need-a bigger "big box" type store, employing "cashiers" rather than knowledgeable staff who aren't afraid to open a book. another loss is a fair amount of the carquest stores had machine shop services attached. I'm gonna scream the next time I hear "It's not showing that in the computer"
 
I used to buy $1000's from Advance. They got the point they would be sold out of common parts, didn't have any at the warehouse, and couldn't tell me when they would get any more. I had to switch my account.
 
ManglerYJ said:
True, but a lot of times the OEM stuff is really no better than aftermarket. I use as a rule of thumb - if the part is a pain in the a$$ to get to and replace (i.e. fuel pump), I don't want to rely on the warranty, I want to get a quality part that won't fail to begin with.
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I agree that warranty doesn't mean jack when you're broken down on I-40 somewhere between Waynesville and the NC/TN border...ask me how close to home that hits. IMO though, if I'm just looking to stay stock and not upgrade...if the OEM (Motorcraft in my case) part lasted 5-10 years why change it? No need to go aftermarket upgrades if I'm not going to utilize it. And OEM is a helluva lot better than the china made aftermarket crap. Although, been pretty disappointed the last couple parts I've picked up from the dealership said 'Made in Japan'. Then I got looking through some of my 70's NOS parts, and they too, said 'Made in Japan'.

GubNi said:
I used to buy $1000's from Advance. They got the point they would be sold out of common parts, didn't have any at the warehouse, and couldn't tell me when they would get any more. I had to switch my account.
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Here is one of my favorites...been quite a while since I've shopped a box store, but I had coupons so I figured I'd give it a shot. I was upgrading (I use that loosely) my 79 Bronco to the 350 brake system. That was the first mistake, telling them a part I needed from a different vehicle than what it was going on. But once I get past that, it didn't get much better. First store I go to was Advance (largest discount) and I gave them the part number for the booster/mc combo I need...they don't have it in the store or a warehouse anywhere in the country...I did that dance with AZ, O'Reilly and NAPA. I do a little more digging and find that every one of them have the individual parts, but not the combo. Now I asked several times if they had the individual booster and MC...every time I was told 'No sir, if we don't have the combo, we probably don't have the individually'.
 
With advance and napa we select our own parts and see stock levels without calling which helps. I'm not willing to pay a dealer for a part they wont warranty and do not cover labor reimbursements on.

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.... b/c they only see or know what that computer tells them..... very rarely do you find anyone that has any real knowledge, as stated earlier.... cashiers, not parts counter guys
 
We have an account at carquest most because they stock a bunch of wix filters, always have deals on diesel oil, and if the very good people working there are busy i hop on an open compter and find my part numbers (i worked there in highschool), also when i say i need somthing for a f750 they dont look dumbfounded. Ours was a family owned store and the son of the owner who is probably 40 knows where most parts are without checking the book or comptuer
 
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