NAPA is starting to suck

I deal with the local CarQuest. My Dad bought from his Dad. If he doesn't have it, it'll have it by 8am the next day. Then Advance took over CarQuest. My local store can still get what I need, but they make them add an extra "special order" fee. It's cheaper to get the parts off their web site, and a lot of the stuff "can't be delivered to the store" so there goes the extras you pick up while you're there. I talked to my guy and asked him if Advanced realizes it's costing them/him money? He said they know and don't care. If I have to buy online, might as well buy even cheaper from Rock Auto.

Having a huge picture of your car IN EVERY POST YOU make is very distracting even though the car looks nice.

Better that car than your ***-crack!
(Speak of distracting, will you?)

Brown's went 'NAPA' but they KNOW their business.
They've helped me a lot for decades...

Andew Sury said:

Read into this what you will.

I am 30 years into the trade and I have owned my own shop for the last 15 years.

I have NEVER used NAPA as a source for parts. And there are three in my area.

They are not good for me, and certainly not good for my customers.

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Is this you or just some copied internet BS. If this is not your shop this is just that BS.

I saw the NAPA brake rebate. Why people can not read fine print is way beyond me. It pays to shop around. Just know who's apples you are trying to compare to oranges.

Kern Dog said:

Having a huge picture of your car IN EVERY POST YOU make is very distracting even though the car looks nice.

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Not sure why the big red. Either the car is not distracting or it looks like crap. Maybe the poster of the X needs to clear this up.

mopar 3 B said:

Not sure why the big red. Either the car is not distracting or it looks like crap. Maybe the poster of the X needs to clear this up.

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I think that the Green Road Runner looks nice but because it is in the guy's "Signature", the full size photo is at the bottom of every post of his. It is distracting.
It was Dipshit that tagged me with the RED X. He is one of those guys that often has opposing views on almost everything and feels the need to chime in. I can respect a guy with beliefs but his often seem to be bullshit....Just a guy looking to annoy people.
By the way....I just learned a few months ago, to see who gave an alert, click on the word LIST at the right of the bottom of the post next to the Agree/Like/Thanks/Disagree icons.

Kern Dog said:

I think that the Green Road Runner looks nice but because it is in the guy's "Signature", the full size photo is at the bottom of every post of his. It is distracting.
It was Dipshit that tagged me with the RED X. He is one of those guys that often has opposing views on almost everything and feels the need to chime in. I can respect a guy with beliefs but his often seem to be bullshit....Just a guy looking to annoy people.
By the way....I just learned a few months ago, to see who gave an alert, click on the word LIST at the right of the bottom of the post next to the Agree/Like/Thanks/Disagree icons.

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That must be a gold member thing. There is nothing to the right of them with standard membership.

Hmmm, Since I am not so good at this, bear with me:
Look where the word Report is...JUST below that is a blue shaded horizontal area with a Thanks X 1 in it, followed by the word List. CLICK on LIST.

Kern Dog said:

View attachment 772834

Hmmm, Since I am not so good at this, bear with me:
Look where the word Report is...JUST below that is a blue shaded horizontal area with a Thanks X 1 in it, followed by the word List. CLICK on LIST.

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Hmmm, Since I am not so good at this, bear with me:
Look where the word Report is...JUST below that is a blue shaded horizontal area with a Thanks X 1 in it, followed by the word List. CLICK on LIST.

I see it but had to go back to one of my post to see it. Can not see it in anyone else's post. So yes if I get any of the four I can see whom did it but not on anybody else's post.

That's odd. I can see "List" and who clicked on the icons. It makes no difference if I clicked on thanks\like\agree\disagree or not.

Ironbuilt told me how to access the list.

Our Nap-area has only 1 guy that knows his ****, the other counter drones are evenly matched up with the sheep that come in looking for coconut air fresheners..

YY1 said:

I think they are pushing the brake service with that ad.

There have been at least 2 NAPA franchises for sale in my area.

I put a cursory look into one. The franchise fee was only $75,000.
...and you only had to show net worth of 100K.
That's a hell of a lot less than fast food.

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Interesting that there's a franchise fee now - when I opened my store way back in 1991, I had basically a handshake agreement with NAPA and that was about it. There were no franchise fees. I don't think I even gave them a net worth statement - just opened the store with a little over $100k for the inventory - then another $12,500 for the computer system. They will give you an estimate of what they think your store should be making in 5 years, if you have outside sales, a machine shop, delivery, etc.... That figure won't be the same figure they'll be looking at in their office - yours will be much higher - found that out about 5 years into it. One of my manufacturing reps told me that - they had told me in 5 years with outside sales and a machine shop we should be making around $750k. I had neither. Their figures they had were $200k - when I surpassed that after the 1st year they couldn't figure out how I did it - 5 years later, we were in the $500k range and they were really scratching their heads trying to figure out how I was doing that. They never came in and asked me, so I didn't volunteer how we did it. Nothing special about our operation except I paid attention to the inventory and our sales history. We did add a hydraulic hose machine - which is a great profit maker - and we got into heavy truck parts - which averages about 20% profit margin - not enough to pay the bills, but you get some big tickets. You have to have everything in stock though - when they come in, if you have $1200 worth of brake parts and you don't have that one 89 cent lug nut, you don't make the sale. Unlike the average jerk that comes in and ******* about a $5 part, those truckers will write you out a check for $1500 and thank you for having their parts in stock - love those happy customers....
At one time we had more air brake inventory than the warehouse had.

I started out as a NAPA store and then the last year we went independent. There is more money to be made being independent, but you lose a lot of customer service and warehouse support that comes from being a NAPA store and you lose parts availability - no more overnight delivery - and if the independent warehouse doesn't carry a product line you need, you have to find it elsewhere, which can be hard - we lost our main supplier for heavy truck when we went independent and our supplier for hydraulic hose fittings - those we had to get from a different source, which cost more.

Yep independent is hard sometimes. I was able to get Detroit to put 50,000 in parts on in my parts room on consignment. Once a month they would come in take I inventory you paid for w has at you used or lost. Webb brakes and meritor will work with you and Bendix might do some heavy duty brake stuff on consignment. I wish I could find a good independent here so tired of the run around etc. With a independent guy who cares about his service and parts. Return customer service is best. Most of these parts houses don't even care if they sale you the wrong part. As long as the just sale something they're good with that.

The one here in the next town up got bought out the other day. It's empty now. The one in the next town down is attached to a big busy garage. It sucks too but the garage is keeping it alive.

Napa wants to be parts supplier for every garage. Look at body shop around from the sign outside to the paint mixer says Napa paint. Let's not forget how many parts they sell on any given day. $$$$$$ in the pocket. Which is great but how many of you guys buy more on line then from your local parts house.

For my family cars I shop local. For MOPAR I shop here and CL. Sometimes from Summit/ Jegs. etc..

mopar 3 B said:

Is this you or just some copied internet BS. If this is not your shop this is just that BS.

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I assure you I am capable of original thoughts.