History Memories of being a parts counterman

This makes a lot of sense.
I never questioned the order, since everyone already working there knew it and was happy with it. I remember that NAPA had "Line Numbers" for each parts line and you had to enter that in the sales slip. Made sense for inventory control that was manual then. There was a big tub of inventory cards - one for each part carried and divided into "Line Number" sections. Someone needed to go through all of the day's invoices and subtract the sales, then turn the card over if the part needed to be reordered (there was a minimum on-hand qty column). Next day, all of the turned over cards (easy to spot as one corner was beveled) were pulled and an order generated to the warehouse. Order was phoned in, then someone had to go pick up the parts (usually my job), then check them into stock upon return to the store.

Computers sure have made this process easier!

Ed

 

Some of the brain cells I have left lined up enough for the word "weatherly index" to randomly pop up in my head. haha

This is what I found when I googled it
"Weatherly Index is an orgainizing system. It was my understanding that it was to arrange all the catalogs in a uniform sequence in all parts stores. It makes it easier for parts people go from one store to another without having to learn a new arrangment, also was helpful when replacing old catalogs with new ones"

 

I remember doing that too , 2 digit number , then the 4-6 digit part number , and our order went out once a week ( friday night ) , if it was a "A" item we often would order a extra as saturday we know we would sell 2-3 more of them , our delivery was on monday morning at 10 am . 2 guys got assigned to do the job of depalletizing the parts . and the rules were they were not allowed to work the counter till they finished no matter how busy it got , and it always seamed I got the order that had all the belts in them and would have to check to make sure none of the matched sets came apart in transit .

54 that index must have been for the non chain stores as our store we had a few outside brands , but most of our stuff was local rebuilders/jobber shops and KEm parts which most stores didn't carry they carried (belkamp or Carquest )

and only in Illinios you get the guy who buys a mercury "fish cAR" with the perfume motor s ( chicago public high schools brightest)
( 72 Mercury Capri ( CARPY) with a German Cologne 2-3 liters )
or the other name was turdmobile ( CRAPPY)