Here I’ve got at least 2 of each chain about equal distance from me, advance, o’reillys and autozone. The advance & autozone stores never seem very busy either, there might be 2 other customers whenever I go. The o’reillys are always empty. It’s rare to even see a car in the lot any time of day.
I remember 10-20 years ago, I’d always have to wait in line 20 minutes to pick up a part at autozone. Hasn’t been like that in a long time. Too many stores plus it’s easy to just order from rockauto or whatever.
When I lived in Southern Orange county, we had two Pep Boys around. One was horrible and they could only do tires and new batteries, anything else, they would drag their feet. But the one a bit further from me, had a few seasoned mechanics that had closed their own shop because of overhead, insurance, etc. I stumbled upon them once when I had an issue with our Minivan. You could walk back to the repair bays and talk to them and they will let you watch as you worked.