I was just told Oriellys purchased Checker ,Shucks, Kragen and Murray stores for one Billion ,yeah thats serious money. They will probably close a bunch of stores ,will it make it better ,we will see.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/oreilly-to-buy-csk-for-1-billion/ looks like its almost a done deal
What do you mean by 'better'? Parts stores are parts stores. If you've got a good one, GO THERE ALL THE TIME. If not, it sucks to be you. We've all had the lament of walking in the door and getting the old year/make/model question. That's not going to change at Advance/AZone/OReilly/etc. You might get better luck at NAPA, they seem to have retained some semblance of 'car guy' at their locations, at least those I frequent.
Not quite a billion. Each CKS share holder will receive $11 worth of O'Reilly stock plus 1$. With 44 million shares outstanding that is only $44 million dollars in cash the rest is in paper In addition they will assume about $424 million in debt that will be paid with the revenues from the CKs stores that they just bought for $44 million and some pieces of paper Not a bad deal
I remeber going to a Schucks for some basic tune-up parts in Seattle a couple weeks ago. After the condescending I know I'm right attitude I got from the cashier, repeatedly telling me that the parts in her hands were the parts that went on my truck (year make model, who cares if it's a different engine, right?) I walked out. I walked across the street to NAPA. Stood in line for 20 minutes, but when I did get to the counter, I had the right parts in my hands in 3 minutes. Remember the Heinz katchup commercials: "The best things come to those who wait"
Checker ,Shucks, Kragen bought Grand Auto in 2000. I used to work at the warehouse in Oakland. they made the Grand Auto stores into Kragens, but most have closed down since then. those types of stores are good for oil or windshield wipers, but anything behind the counter don't even bother.
I don't understand why anyone would patronize one of the big chain stores. I think most towns have a good ol' parts place a short (or long, still worth the trip) drive away. I even buy my fluids and tune up stuff from Hap's Auto Supply in Long Beach. They have a guy named Ernie there that digs hot rodders and knows where EVERYTHING in the store is. When you walk in the door with a part in your hand, he already seems to know what you'll be needing. But we have to spend all our car money at these places. If you buy your oil and antifreeze at the big chains it won't be long before you won't have the little mom & pop stores to get answers and good help from. Like I always tell the little woman, bigger isn't always better...
With all due respect,I'm sure in California there are parts stores every block. There are a lot of towns in Iowa that you can't even buy a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread. Sometimes the chain store is 6 miles and the Mom and Pop is 36 miles.. The chain store is open on Friday night till 10, the Mom and Pop closes at 5. Ditto on Sunday.
I was told last Friday by my local O'reilly's rep that this was about to happen. It's true. He said this makes O'reilly's nationwide now.
O'REALLY! that will get everyone excited, NOT! IMO not any better than the rest of the chains. Hell, I don't even buy oil and filters from them, Wallyworld is less expensive.
I have probably 100 O'Reilly stores on the books here. I like dealing with the guys and gals there compared to the other chain stores (AutoZone & Advanced) They really seem to have their stuff together. Its still not like selling to someone from NAPA or a mom and pop store but its better than trying to teach Joecounterguy how to sell to his customer.
I don't buy socks from SATAN WalMart. O'Reilly is a decent company to work for, and less ricer than the Zone or Advanced. The family has been pushing to grow the company at any cost. This isn't a surprise.
you are an acception to the rule then... i think it safe to say that Phil's comment was geared towards those of us who have access to a variety of stores. i try to shop mom and pop any chance i get.
A lot of the chains do a decent job in small rural areas, Between Checker and NAPA, I can get everything I need in the way of hard parts from fairly bright countermen. I bought an aluminum jack with jack stands for $80. The exact same combination was "on sale" for $100 at the Checker story in Pacific Beach a week after I bought mine in Durango. The manager of the Checker here said that the CSK/O'Rielly's buying power would position them to beat AutoZone on retail pricing.
HA HA funny thing, O'reallys bought out local chain here. After our first visit we began calling it 'Checker East' as the Checker store was on the west end of town. Couldn't tell the difference between them, same products, same year make model bullshit. I find myself buying more online now, at very least looking up my own parts online and bringing in the actual part # to get what I need.
Our local NAPA has the only machine shop available in this area now. All the other "mom & pop" operations have all but bit the dust! They simply can't compete with all the other "corporate giants" out there. I work part-time delivering parts for one of our three local Advance stores. If they lacked integrity I wouldn't be there. I really can't take issue with Advance's policies or procedures. I'm not real fond of the whole corporate concept nationwide, simply because everything is geared to catering to the shareholders, who, in effect, own the companies. .if you're looking to thank anyone for all this corporate madness, you can thank the late Ronald Reagan & his cohorts for engineering the model for everything we see out there today. It's all profits. plain & simple.
we still have quite a few non-national brand auto part stores here,but the they are building right nearby.i only support the small guy here,i drive past pep boys and advance everytime.the behemoths are ruining this country,try and find a local pharmacy or hardware store owned by someone in your community...good luck
yup! the drawbacks to living where we do..that is till i can drive to town without all the jerk offs in traffic! then i know why i live here! my only choices are AZ or oreillys....there is one in a town down the road... ott's...there are a part of napa, but those guys have parts that you cant find at the big spots...i go there when i can....but like you said....close at 5 fri.....gone till monday morning!
We've got one Napa, which is the closest thing we have to a mom and pop, then the usual chain stores. Napa didn't have the Holley jets I needed for my truck avenger yesterday so I tried going to the rest . . . Year? make? Model? No, this carb never came stock on a car. What did you need? Jets . . . I need a pair of 85s . . . Jets? Ummm . . . All of our carb stuff is over there . . . Next closest town is 80 miles away. When you need a part right away, there is no choice. Unfortunately, sometimes it means waiting a few days and paying for delivery - $10 for a $2 part.
I`m sure OReilly`s is real pissed about that. They would love to be able to NOT sell any oil or other fluids because there is NO profit in it.
Oh GEEZ! You only have one machine shop because Reagan made every business think they should not be a public service and think profit instead...Right. The reason you only have one machine shop is because technology and competition made manufacturers make cars better. Therefore not so many machine shops are needed.... Old cars are fun but the truth is they're really junk. Why else does everyone here try to make them better...Even using new technology to do it? Much to your dismay and contrary to (your?) liberal thinking, Reagan was a champion FOR America, technology, competition, and quality products.
Aw, that is too bad! I can even get my favorite rear view mirror air freshener from WW for less than O'reallys. The reasoning behind going into an auto parts store is to buy auto parts, but after finding out what these chains carry I don't even waste my time or energy. Ordering online for my old timers is the only way I am going to get parts that are right and not questioned. Napa, Big A, Carquest, are the next tier up from the chains and they sometimes can come through. We have a NAPA in our small town and he can order just about anything and has all the books to find the old part numbers. Sure glad they didn't put AZ, O'Rs, AA or one of those other chains in this small town. Bout the only thing this town did right.
Over the years I have found that it is not so much the store but the employees that are the problem. How many times have you called or gone to a counter and told them what vehicle you have. Year, model, engine size then tell them what you want and the first thing they say is " is it a 6 or 8 and the second thing they say is what make is it. They don't pay any attention at all. They don't write anything down. On the other hand if they had written it down or were a good parts person they could find your part very quickly. When you find a parts person that has got his crap together then thats where you need to get your parts from. Chain or not. Just my $0.02
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