I have heard for close to 6 months that Advanced Auto Parts bought Discount Auto Parts, they have changed some of their lines that they carry, changed aisles around, ect, I understand that in January of 2003 that they will change the name we all see at the stores to Advanced.
I was up in Georgia a few years back and noticed that what we have in Florida as AUTOZONE" is called ADVANCED, so it looks to me like these AUTOZONE/ADVANCED folks are going to have the market cornered here in Florida, it not in some other states as well?????
Today, I went to have some rotors turned at DISCOUNT and was told they no longer do it, and offered no explanation as to why, so I went to AUTOZONE and got the same reply.
What the heck are these folks thinking???? can't sell pads w/o at least offering a machineing service.
I went next door to Tire Kingdom, a guy there did my rotors for $5 each under the table. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

In another lifetime, many moons ago, I worked part time at the local Autozone. I turned more rotors than I could count. I recently hauled a pair in to cut (I know the manager pretty well, yet, and she let's me do it myself for free if they're slow and I buy pads in there) and the lathe was gone! I asked her where it was at and she said the corporate decision was made to round up the lathes and get out of the drum and rotor turning business. Apparently, they had a problem with too many poorly or untrained employees ruining customers rotors and drums and then having to eat brand new ones. That coupled with the high maintenance cost of the tooling prompted the decision. I expect that would be the same reasoning at Advance. Incidently, Autozone and Advance stores are very similar in store appearance and merchandise, but they are two separate companies doing business in direct competition with each other. I worked for both of them. We have an Autozone, Advance, and a Pep Boys all within a half mile of each other here.

 

I don't yet know the changes the store's made, but our local Discount just replaced their sign with Advanced here (Jackson, MS). So the change is underway.

 

The same thing happened in my town, so my buddy bought a brake lathe and learned how to use it. Within a few weeks all the parts stores were bringing him work, Napa, Checker, etc. He stayed busy and the store managers told him they didn't want to bother with employee down-time (away from the parts counter) and like someone already said, customer complaints. It was amazing how many flywheels and brake drums he cut in a day, a man can stay busy. He was going to go full time, just sit in his garage and cut drums, but then his woman suddenly left him high and dry for a cop, end of story.

 

The way i was told is discount bought out advance/autozone they will still use some of the advance or autozone stores but will be controlled by discount. It's all a bunch of B.S.:-X23

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 20-May-02 AT 06:43 PM (EST)]To further muddy the waters, I recently learned that Checker, Kragen, JC Whitney and others are affiliate 'partners' with the online website Parts America. This common inventory and pricing arrangement can be misleading.

For example, the Checker online price for a Taurus rack & pinion is much less expensive ($105) than the store price ($225), so I ordered one online. Unfortunately (i.e. stupidly)I ordered the wrong model. The online price for the correct model was $115, but when returning the one in error to the store for credit, I found the store price for the correct unit to be only $70.00! (Yes, same brand in both cases, both were remanufactured units).

So, in essence, these stores have the appearance of an online inventory but still maintain a separate pricing structure for their in store merchandise. Until this occurred, I always was under the assumption that online and in store prices were the same. Not so. Pays to do a little research, especially on high ticket items.

AutoZone, at this writing, does or did, maintain their own online site and their store prices were consistent with the online price. Previous posters above indicate this may soon change.

From a business standpoint, sharing one national wholesaler would significantly reduce expense tied up in inventory as well as website costs. The more the national chains consolidate their inventory the less likely significant price disparity will be found. With little competition, prices sure won't be going down.

 

Yes, Parts America did merge all those others, and set up a very good website, In my state there is a 50% difference in the internet price over the store price. Their ordering system works great too, providing good record-quality receipts. The problem we have is the PEOPLE that work the counter when you go to pick up the parts you ordered. They don't know how to use the computer, screw up orders, and are very reluctant to wait on people. It's like a game they play, "who can avoid the customer the longest." I've even seen one female worker break down into tears because she couldn't find a water pump for me. {It was right there on the counter} I think the bosses hire their girlfriends and whoever they can find for cheap, cause they darn sure aren't professional in their work. I gave them many chances to improve, but so far, they impress me as a bunch of clowns that will lose money for the company.

 

All the garages and serious auto repairers around here avoid the advance store. its widely known their counter-people aren't car-people, and most can't look up a part on the computer, much less find it in the stockroom. i know, for their sake, this can be difficult (as I am a counterperson myself)... Advance is more of a walk-in, look around, impulse type buying place. alot of the people who come into our carquest know what they want, or have some idea. Theres an old rule-of-thumb about Advance, if its pakaged by another outside company, its probably ok, but if its Advance, or has any affect on the way your vehicle operates, don't get it.