I agree with what Jon said about part stores, "what makes a good auto parts
store is not the name on the front of the building but the people behind the
counter". But a big problem facing the auto part stores is pricing. I have
an uncle manages an auto parts distributor, where they buy parts from the
manufacturer, sell the part to your NAPA's and, stick it in their NAPA box
and then ship them to the distribution centers. Its a common practice in
the industry, you can find one part in several different boxes. But pricing
is the main difference.
It used to be you're NAPA's and AutoZone's had great leverage in buying from
the distributors. They bought THOUSANDS of one part, and got a good price
because of volume. But recently, the mega-chain stores like wall mart have
been purposly buying out distributor's warehouses of your common parts (air
filters, spark plugs, etc...) in exchange for a say in what the distributor
can sell those products for. So, Wall-Mart could buy spark plugs for 22
cents a piece, while the part stores are paying 40 cents.
90% of a part stores sales are your common items, the rest is your
alternators, water pumps etc... In order to compete with the mega-chains,
the part stores have a slimmer profit margin, and have to hire anyone that
can look up a part number in a computer for minimum wage (basicly any idiot
can do that) The only reason the part stores are staying open is because of
repair shops and shadetree mechanics.
Auto Zone has been very good about hiring people that know their stuff. The
prices arent the lowest arround here but the people are the reason why
people go there. Plus, I've had several situations where I needed somethng
like a belt or a battery, and they wouldn't hezitate to pop open the hood
and change it (I'VE NEVER ASKED... THEY JUST DID IT). For me, with having a
disability, its worth paying more. I just wonder how long they can do it
before they get driven out of business.
Gary Hedlin
ragingquad@yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:04:14 EDT