Advance Auto Closing 100's of stores

[Betty White]

Sign of the times, thanks for the warning.

 

[sgtsandman]

I was kind of wondering how that would go since Advance, AutoZone, and O'Reilly's are all with in a couple blocks of each other at home. I usually go to Advance since the pricing between all three was pretty much the same, they are on the correct side of the road to make dealing with traffic less of a headache, and they usually have what I want in stock. The other two have typically have had less available right there in the store.

 

[901wd#2]

Tomorrow I’m going to the parts store to get a brake line that I know they’ll have, silly thing to order and wait for but usually that’s what I do when I need something, stores 20 miles away. They’re not gonna have it. I’ll just order it instead of having them order it for me.

 

[Bill]

I went in to the location near work. I bought brake fluid, brake cleaner, and a few other items. Overall, it was only slightly less than if I would have bought the same items at Walmart. The Valvoline brake fluid was $8.02. It would have been $8.47 at Walmart. The brake cleaner came out to be the same price. I also bought a 3/4" impact socket because I needed one for my 1/2 drive impact wrench. It came out to be $6, which is a good price.

I was kind of wondering how that would go since Advance, AutoZone, and O'Reilly's are all with in a couple blocks of each other at home. I usually go to Advance since the pricing between all three was pretty much the same, they are on the correct side of the road to make dealing with traffic less of a headache, and they usually have what I want in stock. The other two have typically have had less available right there in the store.

Advance is more expensive that the other two over here. Autozone is just a little less than O'Reilly, but close enough to make me think they both price fix parts. I expect Napa, Autozone, and O'Reilly's to close stores in the future. Like Home Depot and Lowe's, they ran the independent stores out of business then raised prices once that competition was gone, then along came the internet. But, it isn't entirely the fault of online competition. They are pricing themselves out of existence. They charge $40 for gallon of oil that you can buy at Walmart down the street, $300 more than Rockauto for a timing kit for the 4.0, and just under three times the cost of the same Raybestos rotor labeled under their house brand. People might pay those prices if they need something right now, which happens. But, it's much more likely that most people are going to plan out that brake job ahead of time and probably not buy anything at the local auto parts store once they realize they want $110 for the same rotor they can buy online for $40.

 

[Brain75]

some very interesting regional differences I see here and I saw myself over the years...
In Colorado (native) all walmarts are super walmarts (with clothes and auto and and - big ass stores). there are like 3 "neighborhood market" (food only) in the state I can name - and those (neighborhood market) are all in very ethnic and economically destroyed areas. When I went to Austin TX, I found out there was almost no big super walmarts, they were all neighborhood market, so you HAD to go to an auto parts store since there was no wally presence. Overall I paid more for stuff in Texas cause there was that lack of pricing pressure.

Back in CO again, but this time 100 miles past where jesus lost his sandals and there is one half ass auto parts per tiny little town, and sometimes none (but there is a dollar general!). I hadn't thought of carquest but from this thread pulled it up and yeah they have a presence in the itty bitty towns.
When I lived in Austin all the parts stores would price match each other on just about everything and match partsgeek. they wouldn't match rockauto though... some managers would match rockauto with a $20 add (since rockauto rapes you on shipping it was a wash anyhow).

In Denver all the auto parts stores were very very competitive with each other and would price match each other (including pep boys) except napa. Napa has tiers of pricing... If I am your buddy you get tier 1, if not tier 6, corporate people get tier 2, etc ... basically they rip ya off overcharging you based on if you are in the "in crowd".

I think you will see one of advanced/zone/oreilly near bankrupt and then get bought by the other one... don't know who the big fish is and who the little fish is though.

 

[Brain75]

FWIW, the last thing I bought was a serpentine belt for my GM, and I got it online through oreilly and they shipped it direct to the door next day (fexed overnight) free.. I can't image that business model is profitable... eating $25 shipping on a $45 part to get it there on saturday before noon.

 

[MaicoDoug]

"Back in CO again"> (meanwhile back at the ranch)

Sorry I had to. Such a tragedy. Advanced had the only radiator that actually fit & didn't leak from the transmission cooler connections. They also had issues with their online vehicle and related parts look up robot tool last summer. One of my favorite stores.

 

[John97]

I'm going to have to check out the ones here in town and see if any are closing. I typically go to O'Reilly.

 

[pjtoledo]

"Back in CO again"> (meanwhile back at the ranch)

Sorry I had to. Such a tragedy. Advanced had the only radiator that actually fit & didn't leak from the transmission cooler connections. They also had issues with their online vehicle and related parts look up robot tool last summer. One of my favorite stores.

there's a NSFW joke there involving Granny

 

[oldgeek]

Our small town parts store was a Carquest affiliate. I liked that I could go online to Advance website, find what I want, call the store up and give them the numbers. They were always cheaper than the website. Usually their prices competed with anything I could find online.

But, they are an O'reily affiliate now. The owner said Advance's warehouses were getting empty and it was harder to order parts. In his first week of switching affiliates, he said he fulfilled over $8K of backordered parts. I guess several Carquest affiliates in the area are switching. I just hope he is flexible with his pricing as he was always lower than any other parts stores. He would get complaints from stores in a bigger town 10 miles away because people would make the drive because of his lower prices.

 

[Bill]

In Denver all the auto parts stores were very very competitive with each other and would price match each other (including pep boys) except napa. Napa has tiers of pricing... If I am your buddy you get tier 1, if not tier 6, corporate people get tier 2, etc ... basically they rip ya off overcharging you based on if you are in the "in crowd".

I think you will see one of advanced/zone/oreilly near bankrupt and then get bought by the other one... don't know who the big fish is and who the little fish is though.

The issue with price matching is the chains have slapped their own label on the parts they sell to avoid price matching. So, instead of Moog or Mevotech, Oreilly has Precision and Autozone has Duralast. This also makes it hard to buy the brands you like because you don't know what is in that labled box until you buy it and inspect it.

I don't think they will go bankrupt. I think individual stores will be closed. Instead of having three Autozones and three Oreilly's, plus a Napa within five miles of each other, I think there will be one or two.C

Also, it seemed to me like there were plenty of Walmarts in Austin when I was there, and all of them sold the basic auto maintenance items. What I'm seeing with Walmart is the shelf space and the selection of auto stuff is rapidly shrinking. They used to have a full selection of Motorcraft, ACDelco, Mopar, and Toyota filters. Now the selection of OEM filters is about 10% of what it was in the past. And some of the stores don't have much beyond Supertech available for gear oil and wheel bearing grease.

 

[19Walt93]

There's a Carquest about 2 miles from me that's got good countermen with experience. Napa is about 12 miles away and their guys are good, too. Advance is right across the street from Napa and seems to hire rookies. Autozone is about a mile closer but their crew is also a bunch of rookies and I've never been impressed with their parts. O'Reilly is just down the street from Autozone and I've only used them a couple of times so I haven't formed an opinion yet.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

There's a Carquest about 2 miles from me that's got good countermen with experience. Napa is about 12 miles away and their guys are good, too. Advance is right across the street from Napa and seems to hire rookies. Autozone is about a mile closer but their crew is also a bunch of rookies and I've never been impressed with their parts. O'Reilly is just down the street from Autozone and I've only used them a couple of times so I haven't formed an opinion yet.

Our carquest is decent but they all are pretty arogant
Napa is similar but doesn't seem to be able to get anything for newer vehicles for some reason
O'Reilly's hires anyone with a pulse.

 

[Shran]

O'Reilly's hires anyone with a pulse.

This... super frustrating. I try & order everything online to pick up at the store because I don't want to talk to them (much.) Purple haired teenager, ancient guy on oxygen and smoking outside, very large guy with developmental issues, or lady who exists only to argue.

There is one store out of four here that has excellent employees but usually they don't have what I need so they always send me to ^^^ that place... put your good employees at the hub for cripes sakes.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Here O'Reilly's liked to build its stores right next to existing Advance stores. I don't know whether this is common elsewhere, but having a competitor literally right next door can't be helping Advance.

We're going to see a shakeout in this sector anyway. Pep Boys gave up selling parts a few years ago. That was a sign. As new cars become nearly impossible to work on outside of dealers and become EVs, the auto-parts stores will be shut out of parts for those because independent shops and vehicle owners won't be able to do the work.