Advance Auto parts is closing 700 stores nationwide.
Costs. Plain and simple. I did a water pump on a Ferd Five Hundo last week. MY COST at Napa, $142.00. MY COST at the local joint a block away(Auto Value), $182.00. For a fracking water pump!!!!! The same Gates number at **** Auto dot Cum, $82.00, plus tax and shipping. So, $108 to the door. I've been ordering from there A LOT for the last few months. Part of the shop racket is making a couple on parts. Hard to do with the local joints. And that sucks because I'm a firm believer in shop local.
I have to respectfully disagree. Hang with me for a minute here....
Back when I worked at NAPA (early 90's) we were considered to be "The" go-to for OEM equivalent parts. Heck, even the Big Three dealerships called us up for parts they didn't have in-stock.
But then in the 2,000's somewhere NAPA started picking-up second, "Value" lines, to compete with the likes of O'Reilly's, Car Quest (et al.) for their walk-in business.
That sucked, but it got even worse.
Eventually NAPA (at least locally) started offering a Price Match Guarantee, and what this meant (for us) was that we had to deal with every Tom, Dick, and Harry who thought their AutoZone **** was the same as our Premium stuff. Hard to make money when you have to edju-ma-cate every damn fool who walks through the door and thinks he can turn a wrench.
And you can't argue with the people, as that's a lose/lose proposition.
In my opinion, right now we seem to be in some sort of "death spiral" and/or "race to the bottom" when it comes to auto parts, as a lot of Good People only buy based on price.
And then they come on these forums and ***** about Chinesium parts. (Please note I'm talking about people in-general here, not about anyone specific.)
And I just shake my head at the irony of it all.
I've been meaning to say this somewhere on this site for some time now, and I guess this thread is as good as any: As auto parts consumers, we all got what we deserved, and what (we thought) we wanted.