Parts Store Inexperience

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doktor_x said:
....... What happened to the days when dudes working parts counters had at least touched a wrench?.......
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These companies care more about an image than actually taking care of a customer these days. I've been working on cars since I was 14 when I bought my first Coronet and worked as a mechanic for a while.....but I can't get a job at any of the local parts stores because I've got long hair, though they'll hire someone who could care less about cars or taking care of people or like one of the local stores a Chevy guy who's totally full of it and gives you a bunch of crap and doesn't want to help you unless you're working on something he likes.
 
Yeah i have had both good and bad.

I was doing a brake job on my Explorer, and was tired of using a Pipe wrench to compress the piston each time i did the brakes.

So i went to the "S" names parts store and asked for a Caliper piston compressor. They told me "all the engine rebuilding equipment is right here"
I told them i was doing a brake job on a Explorer. He looked at me funny, and asked why i needed a engine rebuilding hone for a brake job, just then a old timer came by after hearing our conversation, "This here is what your looking for" YAY.

Another time i went to get some tune up stuff for the Scamp. I went to the "N" named store.
Walked in and there was a girl behind the counter. Bracing myself for the worst, i ask for points, plugs, rotor, cap, wires and ballast resistor for a 71 plymouth scamp with a slant 6.

Her eye lit up and asked a what type of wires and different brands i wanted and after looking at the plugs, they had the 13/16, and mine were the smaller ones.

She even helped me discover that my slant had a different head on it from a Volare, after spending 15 min or so, looking up plug applications. Didnt realize it had a different head on it.

Turns out her family had mopars all her life and it was her nice looking 68 dart convertible out in the parking lot.
 
The manager of our local NAPA store is a woman. She and her husband are both Mopar nuts. They have a yard full of Mopars & won't part out or sell any of them. My kinda' people. Even the owner of our local Chevy dealership (the only new car dealership in town) is a Mopar guy. He has a tubbed B body with a stroked big block! Gotta love it! Nuff said!
 
I was told that a 73 scamp never came with a 360 and that it wouldn't fit so I must be wrong.
Depending on the store I will go in with the part number, go behind the counter, find the part I need, then take it to the register. When the kid says that I can't do that I just tell them that it's faster than waiting for you to figure it out.
 
You have to understand the big chain parts houses make 99% of their revenue from off-the-shelf parts for late model vehicles. They are not catering to people working on old muclecars. So if a pimply-faced kid with a computer can meet the minimum requirement to move stock for the least cost then that's how they're going to do it.

You may find a Napa or some small town place with old guys or people who care every so often, but they are getting pretty rare. Except at our local Napa, where they sponsor a race team and know me, I haven't asked for help at the counter for anything on the old Mopars for the past ten years. Might as well get used to it, cause it ain't gonna get any better.
 
5 min ago I called a local b+b and had to explain what a mopar is. I can understand they might not know what a MOPAR A body is but when I ask for strut rod bushings for a '73 + MOPAR A body K frame please don't ask upper or lower, and don't assume its a charger...:munky2: wow some kids
 
I just went to the local to pick up the shocks I ordered for my brother's 340 Swinger. yeah, I had called a couple of days ago with the PN) She had to ask what they were for before running me up a receipt.
 
68 Sedan said:
I just went to the local to pick up the shocks I ordered for my brother's 340 Swinger. yeah, I had called a couple of days ago with the PN) She had to ask what they were for before running me up a receipt.
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She probably had to document what they were for in their system for the shock warranty.
 
Back in the day most parts guys were retired mechanics or at least knew how to turn a wrench. Today so long as you know how to turn on the computer and scroll through a menu, your hired. It's not really the kids fault but just a sign of how things have changed.
 
I've noticed that Napa and Star Auto Parts tend to have more knowledgeable people working at the counter. In my town Star Auto has this one guy who's an old school mechanic who absolutely enjoys his job. Every single person who comes in with older car parts requests is guaranteed some type of helpful advice regarding installation, how the part works best, and maybe even a story regarding a past experience he had with the car in question.
 
I have had really good luck with Advanced. But they have only been here for 6 months, so give it time... They have some older guys working for them that really know there stuff. I pulled in to the parking lot in the duster right after they opened up & on of the guys was standing outside smoking. As soon as I got out of the car he started hittin' me up about it. (a good thing). "You running a solid cam?" "Does it have the big Chrysler rear end?" Thats cool as hell with me cause I can talk cars all day long & if I would have gone down to the autozone, I would have been just another customer with a crappy old dodge to them! I hate autozone. All the punks there think a civic is a hot car! They have no idea......
 
damnimcooltom said:
She probably had to document what they were for in their system for the shock warranty.
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Not sure about that. The Monroe shocks I bought are, according to her, "the only shocks they sell that do NOT have a warranty on them"
 
mikelbeck said:
I went into Auto Zone last week looking for spark plugs - Autolite 65's. The kid at the counter asked me what car they were for. I said I wasn't sure, he looked at me like I had three heads. I asked him to just look up Autolite 65 and see if they're in there. So he tried, said it wasn't in there. I said try again, he did, still not there. I peeked around to see what he was putting in:

"Autolights sixty5"

I said "try auto lite - ELL EYE TEE EEE". So he did:

"Auto lites sixty5"

I said "try auto lite without the s". Still nothing.

"Take out the space", I said.

Amazingly, he was able to find them. He said "I didn't know we carried any AutoLite stuff". I look at the wall of spark plug wires behind him... That all say "AutoLite".
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when i joined the board, i worked at advance autoparts :)
i tried not to be any of these scenarios you fellas are describing.

as for the parts search. i know advance' system is setup so you could just hit
"65" in the search field and it would bring up anything with that PN, and almost every time you search, the first few things that come up are some type of spark plug.

in the spark plug shelf/drawers, the 65 autolite is one of the first drawers, i can not tell you how many i sold working there, that kid must've been very green still.
 
rabius75 said:
in the spark plug shelf/drawers, the 65 autolite is one of the first drawers, i can not tell you how many i sold working there, that kid must've been very green still.
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Green, and dumb.
 
Just playing the devil's advocate here and I hope I don't piss to many people off but I think about this all the time. Try to see it from the other side of the counter. I'm not sure how you would expect some shiftless kid to know how to or want to find stuff for a car that's almost twenty some-odd years older than he is and has no interest in. I bet if you asked them for Honda or Subaru stuff they'd know exactly what you needed. Unfortunate, yes but mostly true.

These days parts stores are just like any other crappy retail job. Who wants to work in a chain store? Back in the day, I'll bet guys wanted to work in parts stores so they could be 'close to the action'. It's just not like that anymore.

Also, they're trained to use the computerized inventory system and that's usually the breadth of their knowledge. Unless they sought out information on their own, there's really no way for them to have the knowledge of cars and engines that have not been produced for decades. Experienced parts counter guys are a dying breed. Go to a mom and pop place, you'd be much better off. There's likely someone there with knowledge of older cars. I got a whole list of places I'd go before Auto Zone. I love it when they bust out the dusty old parts books and thumb through the pages to find what I'm looking for. Not excusing these dweebs but seriously, what do you expect? Being indignant doesn't really help. They don't know from Mopars or anything else with a carburetor.

I try not to patronize those places too much. I get stuff like cleaning supplies and stuff for quick, general repairs but nothing Mopar-specific or performance related.

Maybe if people went back to the mom and pop places and stopped going to the big box/chain retailers, we'd get better service. Just mt 2¢.
 
rmchrgr said:
Just playing the devil's advocate here and I hope I don't piss to many people off but I think about this all the time. Try to see it from the other side of the counter. I'm not sure how you would expect some shiftless kid to know how to or want to find stuff for a car that's almost twenty some-odd years older than he is and has no interest in. I bet if you asked them for Honda or Subaru stuff they'd know exactly what you needed. Unfortunate, yes but mostly true.

These days parts stores are just like any other crappy retail job. Who wants to work in a chain store? Back in the day, I'll bet guys wanted to work in parts stores so they could be 'close to the action'. It's just not like that anymore.

Also, they're trained to use the computerized inventory system and that's usually the breadth of their knowledge. Unless they sought out information on their own, there's really no way for them to have the knowledge of cars and engines that have not been produced for decades. Experienced parts counter guys are a dying breed. Go to a mom and pop place, you'd be much better off. There's likely someone there with knowledge of older cars. I got a whole list of places I'd go before Auto Zone. I love it when they bust out the dusty old parts books and thumb through the pages to find what I'm looking for. Not excusing these dweebs but seriously, what do you expect? Being indignant doesn't really help. They don't know from Mopars or anything else with a carburetor.

I try not to patronize those places too much. I get stuff like cleaning supplies and stuff for quick, general repairs but nothing Mopar-specific or performance related.

Maybe if people went back to the mom and pop places and stopped going to the big box/chain retailers, we'd get better service. Just mt 2¢.
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Good Points! Thanks for the insight. I think the method used for cataloging parts in these computer systems is fundamentally flawed. The systems key on particular cars rather than dropping down to a more basic level. What I mean is, instead of basing their data organization on a car they would have been better off coming down a level to engine/drive train types, etc. Sunday morning quarterbacking. I'm in total agreement re: mom and pop stores but they're getting rare as hen's teeth around here. They are disappearing just like mom and pop corner markets did post WalMart.
Regards.
 
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