The closest one to me is in Salem. Smaller store, but very knowledgeable. I too get a discount.
I use to live in Goffstown and use to by my parts at GAP … the one in Pinardville. But Sanel bought them out.
“It’s basically a warehouse with a retail counter… that gives me a shop discount 'cause I know enough to ask.”
Many years ago, I patronized an indy auto parts store that had an interesting way of giving everyone a discount. After pulling all of the parts that you needed, the counter guy would ask for your first name. He would then hand-write a receipt using your first name, ergo: George’s Garage, or Joe’s Garage, or…whatever your name happened to be.
Because–in theory–the parts were to be used for resale, they didn’t charge anyone the state sales tax! Needless to say, word got around, and that parts store did a very good business.
After a few years, the state tax authorities took notice that all of the sales at that parts store seemed to be for resale, and took issue with that situation. A few months later, the store was out of business.
AZ recently laid a few eggs for me.
I was replacing sway bar connector links on my wife’s 07 Jeep Liberty.
I looked online and they had them, but I had to go to the store and order them. Why I can’t order them to “ship to store” in 2015 is a mystery to me. If I did order them to ship to my house, it was an additional $10. Call me frugal-mcdougal, but not happening.
So I stroll into the local place and order the part, which they say will be in the next day. He showed me the pic on the computer and everything. It all looked good. I show up the next day, and it was the wrong part. He accidentally ordered the bushing for the sway bar, not the link. I was in a hurry, and I hadn’t paid any $ on them, so I said thanks, but no thanks and left.
2 days later, I go to a different autozone that is close to my office. This time I did my homework and got back on their website and printed the part number for the part I needed.
I took the guy the print out, he double checked everything and ordered the part. This time he made me pay for it too.
The next day, I walk in and get my two sway bar link boxes. One was missing the link (they only sent the new bushings), and the other was a complete set. I was pretty hot, but I agreeg to just come back the next day. BTW, they blamed it on the FedEx guy stealing… OK…
Next day, I pop back in and pick up my missing piece. I finally have everything I need. I’m so ecstatic.
I get home, jack up the jeep, pull off the old sway bar link on the left side, and HOLY CRAP… the new one in 2" longer than the old one. Oh boy, needless to say, I had blood shooting out of my eyes. I was so frigggen mad, that I just sat silently to avoid making a fool of myself.
After I regained my senses, I said screw it and removed the old bushings from the old bar links and just installed the new bushing in the old sway bar links, This was in no-way easy. I tried several different ways, but eventually I just used a drill to chew away the old rubber. it was a long night, and in the end, I felt like McGuyver.
I still shop at AZ. I feel as though I should have known what I was getting into. Next time, I’m calling Mopar.
Other than that, AZ had their in-house Synthetic oil priced wrong in their store for 4 or 5 months last year. It was $12 for a 5 qt bottle. that was a buck cheaper than their conventional. I stocked up… right after I informed them of the mishap, which they still didn’t fix for months.
Years ago there was an auto parts chain store that I was going past. I knew I needed a new brake drum for the rear of a car we owned. I figured that because I was right there, I’d get the parts instead of going out of my way to get them from my local place. I picked up the parts and headed the 45 miles back home.
I Got ready to use the drum and when I opened the box, I was surprised to find that it was a Disc instead of a drum. I checked the label on the box and it did say it was a drum.
I went to my local parts house and got the correct part, figuring that I’d just return the disc after I finished the car.
I called the store and I was referred to the manager who informed me that there would be a restocking fee of !5% even though the wrong part was in the box. Then when I explained that I had paid with a check, he informed me that I could come in with the part, but that a refund would be sent by mail after my check cleared the bank. I reminded him that it was a Sunday and that the banks were closed, so he could just give me back my check after I paid the 15% restocking fee. He then told me that he had put my check…along with his daily deposit into the “night deposit” at his bank.
When I told the wife about what the manager told me, she felt that it wasn’t right and decided to dig a little deeper. She called another of this chains stores and got the number for the district manager…he was on the golf course. After explaining the story to the DM he told her he’d check it out and call me back.
In about an hour he called back…told us that there would be no restocking fee…and that the manager would return my check.
I couldn’t believe that anyone was that much of a Low Life to lie that the check was in the night depost.
I figure he wouldn’t have ever sent my refund or that he was willing to lie to have my $30 ??? to collect a few pennies of interest on for a few weeks until the refund was sent.
Yosemite
I personally have never had good luck with AZ for anything beyond picking up a tube of something or perhaps a lightbulb. For some reason the guys at the local AZ stores just don’t seem to know what the heck they’re doing. They’ll usually have no idea what I’m talking about and give me the wrong part, or direct me to the wrong display rack, or tell me they have an exhaust bracket I’m seeking and give me a motor mount.
I go around the corner to PepBoys, or to Sanels, and get exactly what I need.
So I simply don’t stop at AZ stores except as a last resort in an emergency. I get tired of trying to explain cars to dummies that pretend they know what I’m talking about but don’t… and then talk down to me, trying to make me look like a dummy, trying to make themselves look smart… and then bring me the wrong part anyway and insist it’s the right part. I don’t get this treatment anyplace but the local AZ stores. They’re terrible.
Get in the zone . . . !
Worse than the AutoZone operation itself are the AutoZone television commercials. Those are about as juvenile and lame as it gets.
I used to love NAPA. but here in Memphis, they are just as big of a joke as everyone else.
It’s same type of highschool kids in there who cant find anything without an exact part number (provided by you).
When I was a kid, I remember dad handing the NAPA guy a broken belt for a mower deck, and they guy would return to us with the exact belt the first time. there was no 2nd or 3rd trip back to the store for the same part over & over.
Ask a kid for mower part at a NAPA now… might as well go buy a new lawn mower.
Auto Zone and their McParts store clones recognized the profit opportunity in catering to the DIY market with jobber prices and convenient hours and took over that market. And as the McParts stores prospered they cut into the profits of the locals which have been steadily declining in number. In my hometown of 35,000 there are now 2 each of the McParts chain stores while 5 local stores have gone out of business and one local has become a Car Quest and the previously locally owned NAPA is now a corporate owned store and relocated to a nearby town. The chain stores now deliver and seem to have a somewhat knowledgeable person dealing with commercial customers. They also seem to all now stock a line of high quality(?) hard parts catering to the commercial customers. Knowledgeable counter help seems to be in short supply in all the stores. They seem to use the same HR team as Wal-Mart. As for refunds, etc., the efforts to prevent employee theft appear to be cumbersome and greatly annoying in dealing with errors which are all too common. On more than one occasion the local McParts stores have fired excellent managers over what I would consider petty issues.
The buying public got what they wanted I guess. McParts, Big Box stores and online shopping rule the market.
Rod Knox, that is a good observation. My dad said the same thing about Home Depot & Lowes. A couple years ago, it dawned on me that I never saw people doing home improvement work 20-30 years ago the way that I do now. A home remodeling was a huge project with a contractor involved and a 2nd mortgage. Now you just take you tax refund down to Lowes and buy new dishwasher and install it yourself. I know I’ve been slowing renovating my whole house over a period of 5 years. I should have just hired a contractor and took out a loan. LOL
Like I said previously, I buy sophisticated parts from napa, but have never had an autozone issue. There are usually 3 people working and 3 registers, but their prices are good and services outstanding. Daughter needed a new battery, and at a different time so did wife. Free install, used a memory saver, cleaned the heck out of the clamps. Will go again for next battery. I do my own wiper blade install, but they will do that also. I have bought a few parts from them, parts have been right, if they did not have the part would get it next day or let me know a nearby store that has one.
The parts people at our store AZ store are very knowledgeable, NAPA even more so, I guess I am one of the lucky ones.
Like any other chain business, be it resteraunt, hotel, parts store, much depends on the quality of management. There are two O’Reillys about the same distance from my house in opposite directions. I’ve had completely different experiences in them. I refuse to use the one to the west, but the east store is staffed by good people who know their stuff.
Among the McParts chains my observation has been that boot licking is a much more rewarded trait than initiative and tallent. And the gestapo efforts to eliminate inventory loss is often outrageous in enforcement while the stores lay outs and product positioning invites theft. One of the local stores had a case of motor oil that had been dropped upside down, rupturing all 12 bottles at the cap. After seeing the case moved from one place to another on several trips there I asked the counter man if it was the same case and he confirmed that it was. The store had to dispose of the case of oil in a method that was environmentally friendly with multiple management people verifying it. I laughed at the situation and suggested that they give the oil to a regular DIY customer but company policy wouldn’t allow that since it would possibly preclude a sale.
I live in a bigger metro area so we have all the major ones (Advance, Autozone, O’Reilly’s, etc.). I’ve probably been to all of them over the years, just depending on what’s closer at the time. Mainly for minor things – headlights and other bulbs, batteries, various filters, oil change supplies, etc. Never had a bad experience. The guys working there are always friendly and very willing to help any way they can.
Here in a rural town of 35,000 there are 6 of the McParts stores and all the help seems friendly and willing to help any way they can. The problem is many are not very knowledgeable about automobiles beyond what would be learned watching Counting Cars and reading through magazines. If you need a piece of 3/8 inch rubber hose and the counter man doesn’t understand that fuel line and transmission cooler line cannot be interchanged his gracious service could be vey costly. Likewise young and eager counter men often recommend GL-5 as the “better” oil for a manual transmission which can be costly to the customer who doesn’t know better. And spark plug brands are pushed to get points that can be cashed in, not because they are the best product. But the corporate decision makers are almost certainly non-motorheads and are themselves clueless of what they sell beyond charts of various data. For many years Auto Zone sold a V-belt that wasn’t much better than a rubber band.
I was in the AutoZone here a couple of days ago and noticed they’re now selling Snap-On brand mechanics gloves.
I wonder how that goes over with the Snap-On route guys and if that could be the start of a trend…
They also sell “Snap-On” lamps at Costco
I put it in parentheses, because I asked the tool truck guy about it, and he said that stuff isn’t legit. He said the corporation has decided to just “let it go” because it’s not worth a legal battle
I’m not sure if what he said is correct, though. But he seemed to think so
:neutral:
Just curious, what do professional auto mechanics shops do for parts? Do they send someone to the nearest parts store? Or do they use separate wholesale vendors that only deal with auto shops, never to diy’er customers? If so, do these shop-oriented parts vendors simply deliver the needed part directly to the shop?
One reason I ask is b/c of the very common problem I’ve had dealing with retail shops of getting parts that are not labeled correctly, the box says it is p/n 349374 but what’s inside the box isn’t that part number. Someone has mixed the parts and boxes up at some point, likely a customer that returns the part. If that happened as commonly to pro mechanics as it does to me, it seems like it make the job of a pro mechanic near impossible.
@GeorgeSanJose, of the top 3 suppliers I use, only one will also sell to the public. The one that is also a retail vendor has a specific phone number, counter, and 2 guys that do wholesale only. If I need to call them and both the wholesale guys are busy the phone then rings at the retail counter. If one of those guys answers I will call later to get the wholesale desk. I can’t waste time with a guy who doesn’t know what a LDP on a Chrysler is, or what Honda Dual Pump fluid is for.
Of course they deliver parts to us. I don’t think I’d do business with a supplier that doesn’t deliver. Just about anything I need is 30 minutes away.
I talk with other people in the same business that I am, and I constantly remind them that for their sake, the sake of their customers, and the industry in general, please buy your parts from local vendors and forget about rockauto, amazon, and the like. Internet vendors are nowhere to be found when that part you need is misboxed, defective, or need any service from them. All they do for professionals is cheapen the industry and cause headaches.
It is also a big strike against doing business with a wholesale vendor that pays labor claims for defective parts, but that’s a different discussion…
Excellent & informative post @asemaster , thanks!