It is hard to stay competetive. THe company I work for has 9 parts stores.
I have to compete with Pep Boys who can sell the same trico wiper blade
retail at $2 less than my jobber. If it wasnt for paint sales, I wouldnt
have a decent budget to work with, however, GP% on paint isnt great either.
Its hard for me to find and keep good personnel when I cant pay them what
they are worth.
Even worse, there is an auto auction in my area, so most of my wholesale is
dirt cheap. You have to be, or they just wont buy from you.
Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Hedlin" <ghedlin@theramp.net>
To: <dakota-truck-moderator@bent.twistedbits.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 2:04 AM
Subject: DML: Auto Part Stores
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
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