Depressing ( I pray is totally bogus)...information.. Fox News had on a highly respected and so far (correct forecasting) economist this morning who was saying the market will see a bump later in the year on the upside and then the fall into a full blown depression in 2010. All the shoring up of bail out money for the markets and the economy will fall short. The market would fall to around 3500. Lets hear a hearty welcome and applause for the late 20's / 1930's all over again.
good, this makes my 6+ year boycott somewhat worthwhile. fuck 'em and their shitty service. now i gotta find another place to take my jugs of oil/piss mix though.
Having been in the hot rod parts business for over twenty years, I really have a great appreciation for the mom and pop parts stores. I haven't been in one of the chain stores in years. My local parts guy who gets all of my daily driver business is awesome. He knows most of the parts by memory, remembers the cars I own and gives me a price that makes me happy. Oh, he also happens to run a sprint car, has a few old Mopars and his dad is a good friend of mine too. Never seen that at the chain stores. SUPPORT YOUR LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED STORES!
It wasn't about arguing with anybody or being a prick. I knew exactly what I needed, and asked for that part spacifically. I just became quickly frustrated with the fact that their "idiot proof" computer system is designed to literally "cut out" anyone who might actually know what they are talking about. The part about not being able to sell it to me without my phone number... Now that pissed me off.
Here in Rapid City we just had O'Reilly change over two Checker stores to their name. I liked the Checker as I could parts search online for what I needed (partsamerica.com) and then take it to the store. O'Reilly doesn't have much of the stuff Checker had and in my opinion just sucks for the most part. Checker had good sales periodically on oil I used to take advantage of. Anyone else having that same experience??
Yeah, its loft living now, but memories are alive. Oreilly website still isn't the best, but they have a big network of warehouses and you can get most parts next day.
To year ago Pep boys built two new stores in the area . Neither one was open for 6 months and they closed the doors. An interesting thing was that both places had a pre-existing new building next door that were available for sale or lease and had floor plans almost identical to the new buildings that they put up. Now both places sit empty and will probably remain that way for the forseeable future. A senseless misuse of capitol as far as I'm concerned and most likely a visual aspect of why this country is in the shape it's in. Frank
I work for a auto parts store that most folks here would consider to be the real deal. It's locally owned and we have four stores and a distribution warehouse in the middle. We cater to the local repair shops mostly, but, are open to walk-in traffic also. We are a full line ACdelco and Motorcraft dealer. Plus we have the cheap chinese shit too. We have no chrome gidjets, no wheels, no tires, the only air freshners we have are about 10 little trees. and nobody ever buys them. Here's the break down on older parts. As most of us would agree that a oil pump, carburator, distributor...ect. for a small block Chevy or Ford should be the easiest thing to come by, the truth of the matter is that there isn't much call for it. The small block that we are used to has not been produced for 10 years. example; a guy comes in last week. he needs a fuel pump for a Ford 302. The engine is in a Ford Ranger now, So, I take the number from his fuel pump and back track it. I discover that the engine is out of a 71 Ford van. The only fuel pump I could find in the country was in Texas. (we're in Kentucky). What we sell everyday/allday are Hub bearing assembleys, Gaskets, Sensors, Strut mounting plates, CV axles, Brake pads/rotors and electric fuel pumps. For 95ish and newer cars, we sell parts for as many foriegn cars as we do domestic. I love it when someone comes in for a fuel pump for a 05 BMW, and i tell them, sure, i've got it, it's $679 aftermarket. They just stare at me like a deer in the headlights. We would gladly stock older parts if there was a call for it. There's not. So if a parts store was going to try to cater to "our" crowd, they wouldn't stay in buissiness long. Believe me we don't spend shit compared to repair shops doing regular car repairs/maintenace.
pep boys is a fairly recent to our area maybe 10 years or so. Go there for replacement stuff, get quickly tired of the 20 questions and then having to start over after my counter gur is interupted by a "phone customer". Stoped last week for a wiper blade for the wife's car. Found the one I needed, marked 13.99 on the tag on the rack. Got to the counter only person there, clerk took about 4 minutes checking out a bottle of soda and a candy bar for himself. No ackowledgment, no be right with you no eye contact. The he grabs the wiper scans it and it come up 16.99 on the screen. I say hold on the tag says 13.99, he says well this one must have been miss placed. Call the manager, go back on the rack and see that all the 22 inch blades have been put on the 18 inch peg. Not my fault, I say. He says can't do anything about it, I say good bye, 20 minutes wasted, go to Advance and get the same blade for 13.99. Same thing getting brake hardware for my daughters car, do the look up on linc, check the parts availability at the store near here house, take the part numbers for caliper, pads, and rotor. Same run around and tap dance about car year, color of air freshener, phone number, zip code.... Just burns my ass. But they are all the same. Conspiracy to have all our work done at the dealership.
We have a Pep Boys in our town and across the street from them is a Auto Zone, the guys at the Auto Zone are car guys but the guys over at Pep Boys couldn't even get a job flipping burgers a McDonald's that's why you get idiots working there.
My local NAPA stocks points for 1940's plymoths, Flattie oil filters, carb kits for 2GC Rochesters and brake linings for old Mustangs... on the shelf. What they don't stock their local warehouse will have or he can get it from Minneapolis in one day. Recently many of the dealer-owned stores rebelled against the new DC manager after he eliminated thousands of SKU's from his inventory... all this stuff was for older cars and equipment. They stuck together and got him fired. After the new guy got settled in they had a meeting and told him where the bear shits in the buckwheat and he had better re-instate those old part numbers... he did. I understand what you're saying but these guys don't realize how much biz they are losing to a hooby that's worth billions of sales each year.
Good to see them go if they would of worried about service and customers they would still be around.....They ran out of new catagories to sell and increase comp numbers I knew when I saw cheap 4 wheelers the writing was on the wall. I've been in retail Mgmt for 25 years and one thing you cant miss on is service and hiring the right people.....I went to pep boys in a pinch to buy points NO ONE in the store had a clue including the manager......NAPA is the best no kids working behind the counter and they can get just about any part still being produced next day!!! John
Your preaching to the choir. I sold a guy $125 worth of tune up stuff (cap, rotor, wires ect... today for a 62 galaxie 500 with a 352. had it all in stock except for 1 belt i had in the warehouse. the water pump i had overnited. if you let me know before i close at 5pm, i can have almost anything by 8:30 the next day. The parts you mention have a very broad range of applications. I sold 2 carb kits today also. 1 for a Quadrajet and the other for an 85 Honda of all things. My point was that the sale of these older parts is peanuts compared to the stuff i mentioned before. I don't like it anymore than you do. But, that's how it is. That Napa DM didn't cut those sku's because they were hot sellers. He cut them because they had about 3in's of dust on the box. What he was going to do is return them back to the vendors for credit.( probably mostly Standard, Bendix, and Monroe.) this would make his numbers look better. Everybodys numbers are way down right now and he was fearing for his job, which, he lost anyway....
so do you think there will ever be a Made in America again or is China going to end the world in 2012?
Pep Boys is fine for waxes, oil and kiddie toys. If you need real auto parts you had better know exactly what you want. Get this. I walk in to the local PB and they had changed things around. I ask the kid on the floor where the Permatex was and I got a blank look. I said Permatex, you know, gasket sealer. The kid had no idea what I was talking about. Auto Zone usually has more knowledgeable counter help, but their checkout absolutly sucks the big one. Wait in line to get the part and then wait again to pay. In our store the same guys who are busting their ass to look up and fetch parts, then have to leave customers at the counter to run over and check customers out. Stupid, stupid system NAPA is our best store. The folks there are very young but always willing to help. Even if they cant find it in the computer they still have a rack of parts books and they will even let me look through them to help ID a part. And when we find something obscure they always seem like they appreciated learning something from an old guy
My brother in law twists wrenches in one of the Puget Sound area Pep Boys that is left. He sems to do all right but they closed down a lot of their stores a few years ago including one or two that were open only about six months. l Locally I have a real mom and pop parts house complete with stinky cats and books over the counter. As far as I know they still aren't on line with a computer to check parts and I am not sure they have one. Ask for a part in the morning and if they don't have it it will be there at 2:00 in the afternoon most of the time. And the price is usually friendly. The other locally owned long time parts house is one that I have done business with since I was a teenager or since they opened and it is getting run into the ground by the owners sons who plan to sell out the day after the old man dies. I did get a nos set of Hollywood accessory baby moons there a while back though and still buy a lot of parts from them. The napa doesn't usually have parts for my rigs in stock and their prices are sky high but the little gal behind the counter is cuter then hell. Auto Zone built a new store a year ago and nuff said. Still it is easy to run in and grab oil and a filter and run back out in a couple of minutes and be on the way home.
Yeah, I needed some Royal Purple Synthetic for my F250's transmission & differentials and they were the only outfit in town that had it.
It doesn't matter what kind of store franchise it is, it matters who works there. All those places have the same stuff in them, you just need a store where the guy behind the counter knows what he's talking about, instead of the kid who worked at Burger King 2 weeks ago. Home Depot used to have a really knowledgeable staff working there, plumbers selling plumbing parts and carpenters in the lumber yard. That's what made them so popular. Then Bob Nardelli became CEO and eliminated all of their positions to save money. Now Home Depots are closing down pretty rapidly and the stock is in the toilet.
A couple of months ago I stopped by AutoZone for some points and a couple of other things, as it was more convenient rather than driving through a construction zone to NAPA. I asked at the counter for some points, and the guy told me that they didn't sell them. Well I went to check out, and the guy asked me if I got everything that I came in for. I told him no, that I wanted some breaker points. He yelled to a couple of the counter guys to see if they had points. Both of them said that they didn't know what points were. I shook my head, told them that they were supposed to be an auto parts store, laughed, raised my right hand, and quickly opened and closed my right thumb and index finger to visually show them what points did. At the time, there were about five other guys waiting in line for counter service, all of whom broke up in laughter, while the two guys behind the counter, and the check out clerk quickly turned red.
I'd be nostalgically sorry to see them go, and less competition is never a good thing for the consumer. If I have to have an electrical item RIGHT NOW and I'm willing to pay through the nose for it they have a better selection than most. The counter people are the usual LCD 'what year, model, blah blah blah' but last time they let me hang out in the racks and figure out what rad hose will work, which I always appreciate! It always sucks to see jobs go away.
"Are the big corporations really shocked and surprised by the fact that Americans don't have money to spend on their goods?" "....the America I knew growing up is gone forever, with more Americana to follow it down the Chinese crapper." You're absolutely bang on...unfortunately. Everyone knew that you couldn't ship everything off to China and eliminate middle income families forever before they couldn't afford their products.. But since corporations focus only on quarter by quarter profit, it's not a big concern. They all knew by the time it hit, they would have cashed out. Everyone is blaming the credit crisis solely on the banks, mortgage brokers and reckless borrowing by individuals. Fact is people are making less in real dollars today than they did 15-20 years ago. Couple that with "its all about you, you deserve the best" advertising, people are borrowing to maintain the lifestyle they had and feel they should have. That hasn't changed. Now back on topic. Given the number of jobbers out there, I'm not surprised Pep Boys are having trouble. I usually go to NAPA since they seem to go the extra mile to find stuff for me. I'll be really sad if Sears goes since they are one of few stores that have decent selection and prices around here. Craftsman tools seem to balance cost/quality better than others. Between the effect of the declining middle class, reckless immigration and multiculturalism, the Canada I grew up in is long gone. At least the President can still say "God bless America". Try that here without a national outcry and a possible case in front of the Human Righs Commission for violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
My 51 Ford has a tag on the firewall installed by Sears when the enigne was replaced in 58. Has the bearing size & piston & ring size marked on the tag.
You are correct, I've been saying that for years but people loved those foreign cars, now made in America. Japan wouldn't let our cars in their Country they had such a high tax on them their people couldn't buy them but they flooded our market with their cars. Maybe one day we will be like Cuba trying to keep what we love running. China knows what they are doing even those $1.00 American flags are helping their Country. When our Steel Mills, plus most all of the products we used to make here went over seas so did our way of life. Most of us old guys went to Sears, Wards, J.C.Penney's, 5&10 but not anymore. We don't even own the gas stations anymore. A lot of us grew up working in the small stations. Even the Auto Parts Stores, are being bought out by foreign Companies. Our toll roads are being sold, the lotteries are being sold, who knows what else. We can't make anything in this country except thieves. How can they bring jobs back?
You prolly wernt a radio shack customer either.. every time we went into the place (us ham radio ops went there a lot for components) the assholes in the suits? never figured out how a guy working for minimum wage in a radio shack could afford to wear a weeks worth of different suits? Any hoo.. every fucking time you bought sumpin they wanted your name phone number and some other shit? If you refused to give it to them they would tell you they couldnt sell it to you cause corporate wanted and needed this info... Ha Ha name ...J. Cash... zip( whatever).. phone number BR5449.. Now remember if you want to play the real game at the parts houses for warranty then give em the real shit... if your cheap enuff you can have a car and put one set of brake pads on it for 500k.. Dave
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