NAPA store

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barbee6043

barbee6043

barbee 6043
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not trying to "push" anything, but I was in darn nice Napa store in mid size mo
town today... refreshing to se something other than the usual O reilly
store stuff!!!
they actually had wiper refills for my original early wiper arms. just an overall good selection of so many things.
maybe I should get out more!!!
 
I try to frequent NAPA over O'reilly's. However O'reilly's is a little closer though. The only close parts store to me are O'Reilly's, CarQuest and NAPA is the furthest away.
 
barbee6043 said:
not trying to "push" anything, but I was in darn nice Napa store in mid size mo
town today... refreshing to se something other than the usual O reilly
store stuff!!!
they actually had wiper refills for my original early wiper arms. just an overall good selection of so many things.
maybe I should get out more!!![/QUOT
Was a parts manager of one,for two years. A little more money for product, usually gets you ,a real parts guy. Was a commercial mgr.at a Auto zone,spent more time at the retail counter, helping non automotive new hires. O' Riellys is slightly better,not much.
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nothingbutdarts said:
I try to frequent NAPA over O'reilly's. However O'reilly's is a little closer though. The only close parts store to me are O'Reilly's, CarQuest and NAPA is the furthest away.
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i'm like you, live in the sticks... o reilly is 12 mi, closest napa is 35 ( one way)...
and most times I order from Rock, they will send at least 1 wrong part.....or the have to ship from 3 different locations!!! LOL
I know, the answer is to have only 1 car, that's done. change the oil twice a year, and sit home on my a-- and watch reruns of NCIS!???? LOL
 
barbee6043 said:
not trying to "push" anything, but I was in darn nice Napa store in mid size mo
town today... refreshing to se something other than the usual O reilly
store stuff!!!
they actually had wiper refills for my original early wiper arms. just an overall good selection of so many things.
maybe I should get out more!!!
Click to expand...

The difference between independents and corporate owned. An independent gets to chose his inventory whereas corporate owned we have to go pretty much by corporate inventory with an ability to adjust from there.

Yeah, it can be a pain in the *** for us to get refill blades, but we can usually have 'em that same afternoon or the next morning out of one of the HUBs. (I'm speaking Advance, since I'm a manager there.) Since we'll sell 1000 wiper blades vs one refill blade you can see why we stock like that and since most newer vehicle have gone to a beam style blade...
 
I was hunting a couple of new alternators. I did do well at 2 small town indepenents today,,, $37. instead of the $57-67 deal. asked bout warranty. he ( owner), and entire labor force, there , said, " ah I don't worry bout how long for warranties. if it ever fails bring it back and i'll give ya another one!!"
I admit i'm always looking for " the best part at the best price for that part",
 
The NAPA store near me is independent with real cool guys to deal with plus they have a good machine shop also.
 
j-miller said:
The NAPA store near me is independent with real cool guys to deal with plus they have a good machine shop also.
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That parts store with a machine shop in the back seems to be an extinct business these days. The last one near me like that went out of business several years ago - that machine shop was sure handy to get drums turned or bearings pressed etc.
 
I had a parts guy that was fantastic, and he really knew his sh**.
The independent store he worked in went out of business about 6 months agao and I was pretty bummed about him losing his job and not having him around to bounce things off him about cars.

A few days ago I wanted to pick up some shoes for my car and Autozone had the wrong size but swore they were for my car (my post about 9 or 10)

I went to Napa online and reserved the right shoes, and when I went to pick them up there he was. :)

Wooo Hooo

We have Napa, Autozone and O reillys all in a 100 yard area here about 2 miles away.
 
My local NAPA here must treat their employes well.
Because a lot of those guys have been there for over 25 years.
It is really nice when you walk in the door and 90% of the people know me by name.
An added bonus is there is also a NAPA warehouse close, so most of the time you can have your parts fast.
 
The downside to NAPA is that they charge freight for anything they don't have local, which I don't think the other stores do. I was looking for a canister purge valve this last weekend, and the part I picked out wasn't local so I would have had to pay freight from somewhere to get it in. The parts guy spent 15 minutes going through all of the valves to find one local. The price was probably about the same as the other with shipping, but I was able to pick it up the next day, and it was nice of the guy to run through all of those parts for me.
 
maybe 10 years ago i had a little import
some sort of mitsubishi with a 1.4 liter engine in it
the tranny had gone out and i decided to replace the clutch while i had it all apart
i ordered a clutch through napa and slapped it in
about 9 months later im driving and all of a sudden there is a big CLUNK
pulled everything back apart to find that the center section of the clutch (the part with the springs in it) had sheared itself loose from the rest of the friction plate section
there were 5 or 6 rivets in there and they had all sheared off

i tried to return it to napa because it was still under thier 12 month warranty and clearly it was a manufacturing defect
no dice
i tried the store i had origenally bought it at and a larger (corporately owned) one, both of which tried to feed me the same line: that the motor was putting out too much power
(keep in mind this was a 1.4 liter 12 valve motor, i doubt it put out 75 HP at the crank)

and that was the last time i set foot in a napa store
 
diymirage said:
maybe 10 years ago i had a little import
some sort of mitsubishi with a 1.4 liter engine in it
the tranny had gone out and i decided to replace the clutch while i had it all apart
i ordered a clutch through napa and slapped it in
about 9 months later im driving and all of a sudden there is a big CLUNK
pulled everything back apart to find that the center section of the clutch (the part with the springs in it) had sheared itself loose from the rest of the friction plate section
there were 5 or 6 rivets in there and they had all sheared off

i tried to return it to napa because it was still under thier 12 month warranty and clearly it was a manufacturing defect
no dice
i tried the store i had origenally bought it at and a larger (corporately owned) one, both of which tried to feed me the same line: that the motor was putting out too much power
(keep in mind this was a 1.4 liter 12 valve motor, i doubt it put out 75 HP at the crank)

and that was the last time i set foot in a napa store
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Maybe it was the installation. :)
I'm kidding ya.

You would think they would warantee it just once at least, but I have never had a problem with them at all.
 
Now that I have found a place to dump my waste oil I no longer need Shmucks or whatever they are called. With the discount my buddy gives me from NAPA the discount places are more pricey than NAPA is for me....
 
NukeBass said:
The downside to NAPA is that they charge freight for anything they don't have local, which I don't think the other stores do. I was looking for a canister purge valve this last weekend, and the part I picked out wasn't local so I would have had to pay freight from somewhere to get it in. The parts guy spent 15 minutes going through all of the valves to find one local. The price was probably about the same as the other with shipping, but I was able to pick it up the next day, and it was nice of the guy to run through all of those parts for me.
Click to expand...

If you don't need the part ASAP NAPA does not charge for shipping....at least the one I deal with....
 
I looked for a wiper refill at Autozone, nadda. Available only online. Wiper blades are something you usually need NOW, like oil. I ended up buying my complete wipers at ...COSTCO! They had a huge Goodyear display of them, 6.99 each! That was 30% cheaper than the cheapest at Autozone. It was the one time I actually didnt need them NOW but I knew they were bad from hitting the washer and just watching them smear the water. Rock has refills for $1.99 but they charge $6 to ship them....:-(
 
I know of a lot of guys who stay loyal to NAPA for the "car guy feel" of it.

I will tell you that I know of a lot of shops in my area who won't go to NAPA as first call. The guys who own them absolutely will not honor warranties on any warranty part unless you spend so much money with them each month or if you're buddies. Once you stop warrantying parts for your commercial customers, you're pretty much done selling to commercial accounts.

A lot of commercial shops don't do business with them because of this. The stores here are still open because the heavy DIY'ers think it's a "professional" store where all the shops do business. It couldn't be further from the truth.

I'm not saying this to say all NAPA's are that way. When the NAPA here was under the previous ownership they would bend over backwards for customer service. The new owner? He's a good guy, but unless you're a buddy he won't deal with you. A lot of his shops pay retail price and only his poker buddies get a break, even though parts sales account for 50% of their business.

On the flip side of that we have a member here who works for NAPA in another area and is a good friend of mine. Most of the business he has is to commercial shops. His stores will go to bat for their commercial customers. It all comes down to ownership.
 
My NAPA is about a half mile away and is a regional warehouse. Plus about every 2 to 3 months they send me a couple coupons spend $15 or more get $15 off - spend $20 or more get $10 off!
 
OK, I want those blade refill part NUMBER !!! PLEASE. wanta file them for future next early A.
A very old NAPA store WITH a machine shop is still in Belle Vernon PA. They have no less that 5 counter guys and they are very busy.Every one knows what you are asking for. I shop when I'm back there.
 
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