I just read that the stock of Icahn Entetprises, headed by the activist investor Carl Icahn plunged 30% on Friday. The company owns both Pep Boys and Aamco. The decline in market value was attributed to the decision by the company to cut their quarterly dividend.
I think it is a little funny cause BSRO (Bridgestone Retail Operations) was about to buy Pep Boys and as the deal was about to be completed basically (terms already agreed on), Carl Icahn came in and offered a crap load more money (about 19% more) and Bridgestone said you can have it…
Pep Boys was already closing locations left and right as Firestone was still opening new locations… Will be interesting to see what happens to Pep Boys…
Back when Pep Boys still had hot rod automotive parts in the showroom and not kids toys and whatever else they ruined it with, I used to use them all the time, but hadn’t been in one in years now…
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The only PepBoys I know of around here stopped selling parts several months ago. All they do is service. On that same intersection, there’s an Advanced Auto and AutoZone.
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In at least two states (CA & NJ) and possibly others, the service part of the business is still branded as Pep Boys, but the retail parts sections are branded as Advance Auto. This article discusses it:
I wonder what they’re going to do at this Pep-boys in Salem NH because there’s an Advance Auto directly across the street.
We also have a chain called VIP. They sold their parts store to O’reilly’s. That’s how O’Reilly’s got a foothold here in NH.
Look at Map here. You can easily see the Advance Auto across Rt 28 (Broadway) and Advance Auto across Hampshire Rd. The Red Dot is where Pep Boys is located - right next to IHOP.
that is happening to most (if not all,) of them in Arizona as well.
I wonder if there is a decline in the number diy’ers repairing their own cars these days? If so, why? Newer cars judged too complicated for driveway repair?
Video games, smart phones and social media… Most kids today are clueless how to check the air in there tires or check the engine oil cause parents are either to busy or just don’t care… Plus schools don’t teach automotive anymore for the most part… I will stop there… lol
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I definitely don’t see as many folks, teenagers especially, working on their cars in their driveway, big drop compared to just 20 years ago. But there must be a significant subset of teenagers interested in performance related diyer’ing , judging by the commercial success of the Fast and Furious movies. One of the clues in a recent NY Times Crossword puzzle: " The title of the most recent release of a popular car racing movie series"? Answer: “Furious X”, presumably the 10th installment.
When Carl Icahn bought Pep Boys, he made it known that he’d be de-emphasizing the parts business in favor of the service side as the service side was much more lucrative and he believed the parts business would continue to decline since cars had gotten too complex for most DIY repairs.
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That’s how it is in my area
I don’t know about the Pep Boys service side of things . . . but the items at Advance Auto Parts are significantly more expensive, versus Autozone and O’Reilly
Like you say, PepBoys now only provides service in my area, no parts except for batteries and tires. Their service business seems to keep the place packed full of customers, seems pretty popular place for car owners to take their cars. Cars in that shop appear to be mostly 5-20 year age range, mostly widely sold makes and models. No BMW’s, but I did see a few older Mercedes. The PepBoys parts side is now Advance Auto Parts. So far I’ve never purchased any parts there, so no opinion on the price/quality.
PepBoys makes for an interesting business study. I used to go there all the time for car parts in the mid-80s. They had an actual parts counter staffed with car-knowledgeable employees. Then one day I discovered the parts counter was closed, and I had to purchase parts at the check out counter, standing in line behind customers buying car-fragrance. To make things as difficult as possible, they blared loud music in that area, making it nearly impossible to convey necessary parts information, like the make/model/year/engine/transmission configuration for the car you were buying parts for. My solution, I took my business someplace else that had an actual parts counter. Apparently I wasn’t the only one.
I’ve only priced Advance Auto online but on the items i’ve checked they’re higher than Autozone, who’s right across the street.
Carl Icahn used to be called a “Corporate Raider”, that term is probably politically incorrect now.
In 1988 I was hired by TWA (remember them?). Icahn had just bought them. He wasn’t there to run an airline. He was there to strip it of it’s assets.
Soon after I was hired he did something I thought would be illegal (but of course it’s just business). We had a fleet of Lockheed L1011’s. They were long in the tooth but TWA owned them outright. Carl sold them all to a leasing company. If you think that money went into the airlines operations you’re wrong! Carl’s pocket. So now we were operating old airframes AND paying to lease them. That is how scumballs like Carl operate.
And we called him “Uncle Carl”!
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Yes, I very much remember TWA, good airline. And another long-gone airline, Pan Am.
I do too, even though TWA was eventually said to stand for Teeney-Weeney-Airlines.
My first flight to Europe (circa 1978) was on Pan Am. We got there on time, but the level of hygiene on that plane was essentially at Third-World levels. I recall the stewardess coming around–repeatedly–to offer more coffee, but their version of “coffee” was so putrid that I refused, even though I usually am a coffee lover.
Last year I watched a few episodes of the Pan Am tv series. It’s about Pan Am circa early 1960’s, plots mostly about the antics of the crew and cute stewardesses. Apparently at the time to be a stewardess the requirements were (1) not married and (2) age 32 years or younger, and (3) wear a girdle. Those rules wouldn’t go over well these days … lol …
It’s an accurate term, as far as I’m concerned
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Too many complaints about Pep boys services I like them better when they offered tools, parts accessories… Never had any work done by them and around here I wouldn’t. yet they got rid of the parts/tools aspect and sold half the store front to Advance auto…
As for AAMCO I’ve bene advised by AAMCO corporate to speak with a services center in Laurel MD. yet they did not replay to my phone calls or emails and when we drove by the location, the gates were locked. Search online BBB or other review sites shows that AAMCO have a very poor rating.
The Aamco in Madison Tennessee has a very high customer rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars and is family owned and operated, Grant has been there since late 97 and I have delt with them off and on for as long as he has been there… As with anything, it is not always the company but it’s employees… Now the one in Nashville just the opposite, Grant even bought that one out and tried to build it back up but gave up on it after a short period of time as it’s rep was very bad and he didn’t want his Madison store to decline any… I was told by a DM once that it takes about a year and a half to bring a business back up after a team has run it into the ground, and that can only be done if the new management and sometimes staff is willing to put in the extra hard work to get a good rep back… So sometimes they never recover, or the store manager get it done and then gets transferred to another location to make it better and the customers see yet another new manager in place and give up on it… Customers don’t always like new faces to deal with, plus customers will follow employees to other locations…
Sorry to hear about your situation…
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