Parts Store Inexperience

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¢.