I tend to think that it is part a lack of life’s experience for their lack of knowledge and part that we have become a throw-away world.
We older generation had learned much about how things worked by our own family. Weather it was your grandpa showing you how to take a link out of your bike chain, your dad teaching you how to replace the motor brushes for the drier, or your big brother letting you help him replace a wheel bearing. We had everyone teaching us!!!
And there were shop classes in most schools, where you learned a little more.
Now, most motor brushes are sealed and not replaceable, kids can’t ride their bikes far because of the dangers and traffic, and wheel bearings are greased at the factory and sealed.
Now you cannot rebuild most alternators because they just want you to toss the old one out.
I don’t believe in this…pre-greased and sealed stuff. A pump or two of fresh grease into the tie rod ends, U-Joints or ball joints would only make them last longer, but the factory does not want to spend the 50 cents to put a grease zerk in the parts.
But you can go to the grocery store and buy a 1/2 cup of diced onions or celery to save you the exhausting chore of cutting it up yourself. What a lazy bunch we’ve become.
I was with a buddy at a Lowes store and found a rude worker, that really didn’t want to be bothered by our questions on where something was (we were both unfamiliar with the store), so as a last request I asked him where the 4X2s were and he spent the next ten minutes wandering up and down the aisles looking for 4X2s. My way of getting a little justice!!!
I’d have to say local auto parts stores can be own worst enemies in competing with the internet. Years before the internet, because I drove older cars not in the automotive mainstream (Datsun 510, Saab 99, Merkur Xr4Ti) my standard conversation on a Tuesday with my local parts store was “I’m working on X this weekend, please order me a Y and Z from the warehouse, I’ll pick it up Saturday morning.” I couldn’t get the parts I wanted same day. I could get hardware but not the big stuff.
I got used to planning ahead by ordering parts for 2-3 day delivery and anticipating failures. For the unexpected, I planned another way to work. Local stores got better at same day parts delivery but the damage was already done.
For the the most part now,the big chain stores are getting pretty expensive on everything
Now the chains seem to be price gouging for in-stock parts charging lots more than RockAuto or Amazon for the exact same part in a different box. Is this for the convenience? For the professional advice? For the smiling faces? @kmccune has hit on something.
Thirty years ago every parts store in town, 7 as I recall, had people on the counter who knew the parts business well. If I swapped out a TH-350 for a TH-400 there were countermen who didn’t need a book to get the crossover u-joint to make things match. And if I ordered plugs for a Chevrolet V-8 and asked for 2 oil burners no questions were needed. But most countermen wouldn’t want to get involved with diagnosis or recommendations. More and more the McParts stores set the pace as local stores fade away and NAPA must see that they must fall in line or fade. That’s a shame.
The new NAPA store here is an Auto Zone clone and the only man still working in town who can get the right u-joint without looking it up even for an odd miss match part is over 65 and shows up every day at O’Reilly’s like an old work horse who wouldn’t know what to do if he wasn’t working.
@Yosemite, dont you just love the employees that would sooner be somewhere else?Most of our Lowes are social clubs,with a lot of dating going on,I remember a time at wally world when I asked a stocking clerk what aisle stationary was in,after I repeated myself a time or two she was almost in tears,that "wasnt,Her dept"(all she had to say was aisle 7)
The customer has turned from being venerated to an annoyance these days it seems,talk to the manager(so they can have a laugh when you leave-Lowes is not one of my favorite places any more)
There used to be a NAPA store in my little town, ten miles from the “city” of 300,000. It closed 20 years ago. There were two NAPAs in the city. All had good counter help. Now there are none in the city, and the one in my town was only recently replaced by a poorly staffed O’reilly’s between here and the city. I’ve been in there three or four times in a year. I’ve never seen the same help twice. The only NAPAs near here are in even smaller towns 20 miles or so farther out.
The commercial staff at both the O’reilly’s and Autozone near my shop are pretty good, but they answer separate phone lines from the regular counter staff. My favorite is a (literally) mom and pop store between them. In business for about 35 years, they will probably retire with no one in line to take the store over. I know he’s in his early 70s. Not sure about her, but she has to be close. They hurt for business. I use their services when I can, but they’ve stopped doing any machine work, milling cylinder heads and inserting valve guides.
Just a story. There was a parts store downtown that had been in business since at least the 20’s. Sold everything out at least ten years ago. At any rate my barber had something like a 35 Buick and needed a water pump for it and couldn’t find one. Finally ambled the block over to the old parts store and sure enough they had a brand new NOS on the shelf. Price was a little higher now then original for carrying the inventory all those years.
It’s rockauto and Amazon and the like that have made it impossible for the local vendors to attract and keep decent parts professionals. You can’t order your struts online to save $40 and then expect the store in your neighborhood to be able to help you with your $4 piece of brake hardware. If you’re going to buy from Amazon, buy from Amazon. If you’re going to buy locally, buy locally.
You can see how easy it is for anyone online to point and click and order a water pump or struts. Of course the parts stores will do away with their $50,000/year parts pro and stick a young kid with no experience in there for $12/hr. That just makes business sense. They’ve got to reduce costs, and they are already expected to do free code scans, loan out tools, install batteries for free, and a host of other things.
The local auto parts chain has a store near me with 2 of the best indy parts guys I’ve ever known. And the guy on the street will never get to them. They have their own phone lines, private entrance around back, and are hidden from everyone walking into the store. They are too busy providing excellent service to wholesale accounts to deal with people off the street.
No doubt the local businesses can’t compete anymore @asemaster. I ran accross the widow of an old( my age) counterman who had worked for several stores over the years but his last 25 were for a great old guy who visited the widow after her husband’s death and attented the funeral and had her contact an insurance agent. The agent helped her settle all his final medical and funeral expenses and set up an annuity for her that kept her comfortable. The woman wasn’t aware that the store owner had furnished some kind of insurance that included taking care of her. While I had known the store owner for more than 30 years and thought well of him I was amazed that he had made such an effort to take care of his employees. Competing with Rock Auto and Amazon and McParts stores makes it impossible for store owners to treat their employeees well these days.
It's rockauto and Amazon and the like that have made it impossible for the local vendors to attract and keep decent parts professionals.
The ones near me have no problem at all. However I think well over 50% of their sales are to local mechanics. Each of the stores have about 10 trucks to deliver the parts. Sometimes you have to wait a little while - while they are on the phone with a customer (usually a mechanic).
Also the local mechanic gets a %20 discount. The mechanic then raises the price to what it would cost me to buy the part directly.
Where do your local mechanics buy their parts from? How do they get the parts? Delivered or someone goes picks them up. I don’t know of any mechanic who buys from ADAP and like stores. Mainly because they don’t deliver…and usually better quality parts.
Where do your local mechanics buy their parts from? How do they get the parts? Delivered or someone goes picks them up. I don’t know of any mechanic who buys from ADAP and like stores. Mainly because they don’t deliver…and usually better quality parts.
Two of my three main suppliers are wholesale only, meaning the guy on the street has never heard of them and he couldn’t buy from them even if they wanted to. The other one has 2 dedicated wholesale people with their own phone lines, counter, and entrance. Of course if you want my business you will deliver on demand and extend me credit.
Two of my three main suppliers are wholesale only, meaning the guy on the street has never heard of them and he couldn't buy from them even if they wanted to.
When I lived in upstate NY there were a few suppliers like that. There’s one in Manchester NH that I know of…but the smaller towns have to rely on the local parts store.
The other one has 2 dedicated wholesale people with their own phone lines, counter, and entrance.
A couple of the local parts stores have dedicated phone and counter people for the professional mechanic. Not sure about credit…but I know they deliver.
The problem I see in this world is people now seem to care about CHEAP and not much else. Better employees demand better pay. Lots of people will drive around an entire afternoon to save just a few bucks. Ever wonder why there is commonly a Lowes right next to a Home Depot? Yes, people will go back and forth between the two stores comparing the prices and buying the cheapest item from each one. Apparently having the two stores next to each other helps both of them out. People who don’t care about advice much anymore. They just want CHEAP!
I work on computers/electronics and see this all the time. They call and ask “What is the cheapest one you got?” I explain to them what I have but that it won’t do certain things that most people would expect. They then say “Well that is the one I want as it is the cheapest one.” I used to just sell it to them but then I started getting the angry phone calls about how the computer is too slow or won’t do something I clearly explained it wouldn’t do before the sale. I have pretty much eliminated the lower end product lines and focus on custom units and specialized onsite work. The cheapos just aren’t worth the hassle. I do keep a couple older units around because some people require them and their obsolete ports, etc. to run specialized equipment, often in an industrial setting. These people understand what they are getting.
The Black Friday and Wal-Mart crowd buy cheap disposable junk that breaks within a year and is not designed to be easily serviced so is often just trashed. Computers have become disposable units much like a toaster or a coffee pot. As long as people are willing to trade quality for cheap, this is what we are going to get. People won’t pay extra for parts that cost more because the employees are better trained and better paid. They will see the part costs more at NAPA and go across the street to AutoZone. Unfortunately I blame this as much on the customer as I do the company. The company has to adapt to survive.
Auto Zone led the way in cashing in on the disgruntled walk in DIYers at parts stores. There was just too much markup added to the price for cash paying non professional. And of course Auto Zone was able to exagerate that spread by featuring the cheapest product available in the early years. They sold a line of drive belts that weren’t much better than tying a pair of panty hose around the pulleys and BTW, I told Auto Zone’s Tom Hanemann that to his face and he was very unhappy but then he was embarrassingly ignorant of the products he was selling. Mr Hanemann and his yes men jumped back in his XJ-12 and left unhappy but Auto Zone continued to send me a great deal of warranty work. Go figure.
The problem I see in this world is people now seem to care about CHEAP and not much else.
Before Lowes and Home Depot many of the independent lumber yards were selling CHEAP material…but at a higher price. Then Lowes and HD come around selling the same stuff, only much lower price.
The GOOD lumber yards that have stayed around started to sell higher quality parts/lumber. They couldn’t compete with Lowes and HD prices. They do a good business…contractors love them because they don’t have to keep returning lumber/doors/hardware. Cost is a little higher, but well worth it.
Service at Lowes and HD is non existent. They MIGHT have one or two people who are knowledgeable in the whole store. The rest are there to give you wrong answers or bad directions.
When I have had work done based on prearrange contract and wondered why the contractors preferred local lumber companies I have been told that they never need to cull out bad pieces and the material is delivered and set off just as ordered and ready when the workers get there. As they say, time is money and the local yards jump through hoops to take care of their regular customers.
Our shop at work uses napa, I use napa for important parts, and I should consider myself lucky because napa here has a knowledgeable staff, as does autozone. Autozone is walking distance!
I am sure construction contractors and mechanics are willing to pay extra for quality parts that aren’t going to cost them money in warranty claims/lost time. The problem is that that average DIY customer is probably going to just get whatever is cheapest. Some people buy whatever oil is on sale. I am sure this is OK as long as they actually CHANGE the oil. I know people who “save money” by never changing the oil.
Whenever I do a custom computer build for someone, I always get a quality power supply and motherboard. I am now really pushing solid state drives over hard drives because it seems they almost NEVER fail and dramatically outperform traditional drives. Sure, it costs more but is a better unit in the end and the people realize that the extra money they spent was well worth it in the long run. I am not going to cut corners for some cost saving miser and then have them all upset when something doesn’t work.
Whenever I do a custom computer build for someone, I always get a quality power supply and motherboard. I am now really pushing solid state drives over hard drives because it seems they almost NEVER fail and dramatically outperform traditional drives
The standard SS drive you buy for home use is no where near as reliable as a regulard hard drive. Performance is much greater though.
Industrial SS drives we buy are a lot more reliable…but we pay dearly for them.