Trader Joe's adding another Salt Lake City, UT store

[SamSpade]

At first I thought a former Pep Boy's Auto would be too small, but in Utah they cannot sell wine (or hard liquor) or any beers stronger than a certain ABV so that opens up a bit more space. Great parking lot choice (lots of space) and visibility/access for this location.

Unlike most others, this one is not near another grocer or hardware or general merchandise store, though if driving to the store (likely) or using the streetcar (possibly) it is a quick move east or west to more general purpose retail locations.https://locations.traderjoes.com/ut/salt-lake-city/354/
Yes, Trader Joe's is coming to the former Pep Boys

This will take them to 4 in Salt Lake County (affluent neighborhoods, mostly); 1 in Utah County (Orem); none along the northern end of the Wasatch Front yet.

[Brian Lutz]

Sugar House is probably the closest thing SLC has to a "hipster" neighborhood so I imagine Trader Joe's might do well there. I know the store in Draper (State Street and 11400 S) just opened last year and the Cottonwood Heights store (which I think was actually on the larger side for a Trader Joe's) was packed on the couple of occasions I went there. The one concern I'd have about that location is that I've been to the Dee's next to there a couple of times and the parking lot can be quite crowded.

[ClownLoach]

At first I thought a former Pep Boy's Auto would be too small, but in Utah they cannot sell wine (or hard liquor) or any beers stronger than a certain ABV so that opens up a bit more space. Great parking lot choice (lots of space) and visibility/access for this location.

Unlike most others, this one is not near another grocer or hardware or general merchandise store, though if driving to the store (likely) or using the streetcar (possibly) it is a quick move east or west to more general purpose retail locations.https://locations.traderjoes.com/ut/salt-lake-city/354/
Yes, Trader Joe's is coming to the former Pep Boys

This will take them to 4 in Salt Lake County (affluent neighborhoods, mostly); 1 in Utah County (Orem); none along the northern end of the Wasatch Front yet.

Pictures show a full size Pep Boys, not just the auto service only operation they are in places like California where the store has been sold to another operator like Advance. So this is a sizeable store, 30K or more. Way more than Trader Joe's needs. They'll probably sublease some of it out.

[storewanderer]

At first I thought a former Pep Boy's Auto would be too small, but in Utah they cannot sell wine (or hard liquor) or any beers stronger than a certain ABV so that opens up a bit more space. Great parking lot choice (lots of space) and visibility/access for this location.

Unlike most others, this one is not near another grocer or hardware or general merchandise store, though if driving to the store (likely) or using the streetcar (possibly) it is a quick move east or west to more general purpose retail locations.https://locations.traderjoes.com/ut/salt-lake-city/354/
Yes, Trader Joe's is coming to the former Pep Boys

This will take them to 4 in Salt Lake County (affluent neighborhoods, mostly); 1 in Utah County (Orem); none along the northern end of the Wasatch Front yet.

Pictures show a full size Pep Boys, not just the auto service only operation they are in places like California where the store has been sold to another operator like Advance. So this is a sizeable store, 30K or more. Way more than Trader Joe's needs. They'll probably sublease some of it out.

That Pep Boys turned into auto service only about 3 years ago in Salt Lake City.

I don't think there are any more Pep Boys with retail sales floors anymore; they just sold Puerto Rico units which had kept retail sales floors.

They tried to shift some of the stores with retail sales floors to something called Auto Plus which Ichan owned but that went bankrupt last summer. Auto Plus was a distributor and had a store network like Napa but some Pep Boys units got "given" to that division to run the store so there were some corporate Auto Plus units. That move appeared to sink Auto Plus. I did see one of those in a North-ish Dallas Suburb last year that was still operating as Auto Plus. They did not put signs up or anything and kept presenting as if they were a Pep Boys Store, but they were actually Auto Plus.

[jamcool]

Utah now allows regular ABV beer to be sold at grocery stores. Stronger brews and wine are still only available through the state liquor stores.

[ClownLoach]

At first I thought a former Pep Boy's Auto would be too small, but in Utah they cannot sell wine (or hard liquor) or any beers stronger than a certain ABV so that opens up a bit more space. Great parking lot choice (lots of space) and visibility/access for this location.

Unlike most others, this one is not near another grocer or hardware or general merchandise store, though if driving to the store (likely) or using the streetcar (possibly) it is a quick move east or west to more general purpose retail locations.https://locations.traderjoes.com/ut/salt-lake-city/354/
Yes, Trader Joe's is coming to the former Pep Boys

This will take them to 4 in Salt Lake County (affluent neighborhoods, mostly); 1 in Utah County (Orem); none along the northern end of the Wasatch Front yet.

Pictures show a full size Pep Boys, not just the auto service only operation they are in places like California where the store has been sold to another operator like Advance. So this is a sizeable store, 30K or more. Way more than Trader Joe's needs. They'll probably sublease some of it out.

That Pep Boys turned into auto service only about 3 years ago in Salt Lake City.

I don't think there are any more Pep Boys with retail sales floors anymore; they just sold Puerto Rico units which had kept retail sales floors.

They tried to shift some of the stores with retail sales floors to something called Auto Plus which Ichan owned but that went bankrupt last summer. Auto Plus was a distributor and had a store network like Napa but some Pep Boys units got "given" to that division to run the store so there were some corporate Auto Plus units. That move appeared to sink Auto Plus. I did see one of those in a North-ish Dallas Suburb last year that was still operating as Auto Plus. They did not put signs up or anything and kept presenting as if they were a Pep Boys Store, but they were actually Auto Plus.

The Pep Boys service operations are not closing, in fact they keep buying independent Midas and other franchises and converting them to the brand. The retail operation was killed under Carl Icohn. Most of the California stores went to Advance Auto Parts who just split the building in half and took the majority of the building. So this sounds like the space going to Trader Joe's, not the auto center portion. The service division is driven by contract work. Many companies like Amazon have fleet service contracts there. All repairs and maintenance has to be done at Pep Boys. You will see dozens of branded vehicles in their parking lots. I would never do business there but it appears to be the CVS Pharmacy of fleet shops, they are overloaded with fleet work and backlogged at most locations. They are far busier now than when they focused on consumers. And Icohn is so deeply invested in other corporations that he just pivots all their business to Pep Boys to keep growing the fleet business.

From what I've seen the sale of the parts stores in California to Advance Auto has been a disaster. First, Advance took forever to convert the stores after Pep Boys closed. Some took two years to reopen, so customers had already taken their business elsewhere. And many people think Advance Auto is just like the new name for Pep Boys here, the same company because they're in the same building. So the stink attached to the Pep Boys brand has applied itself to Advance Auto. My understanding is Advance Auto was doing well financially before the big California expansion via Pep Boys and now they're struggling.

[storewanderer]

The Pep Boys service operations are not closing, in fact they keep buying independent Midas and other franchises and converting them to the brand. The retail operation was killed under Carl Icohn. Most of the California stores went to Advance Auto Parts who just split the building in half and took the majority of the building. So this sounds like the space going to Trader Joe's, not the auto center portion. The service division is driven by contract work. Many companies like Amazon have fleet service contracts there. All repairs and maintenance has to be done at Pep Boys. You will see dozens of branded vehicles in their parking lots. I would never do business there but it appears to be the CVS Pharmacy of fleet shops, they are overloaded with fleet work and backlogged at most locations. They are far busier now than when they focused on consumers. And Icohn is so deeply invested in other corporations that he just pivots all their business to Pep Boys to keep growing the fleet business.

From what I've seen the sale of the parts stores in California to Advance Auto has been a disaster. First, Advance took forever to convert the stores after Pep Boys closed. Some took two years to reopen, so customers had already taken their business elsewhere. And many people think Advance Auto is just like the new name for Pep Boys here, the same company because they're in the same building. So the stink attached to the Pep Boys brand has applied itself to Advance Auto. My understanding is Advance Auto was doing well financially before the big California expansion via Pep Boys and now they're struggling.

Yes, I am noticing more action at the Pep Boys service bays. They closed a few units from independent chains they took over in this area (one was called Just Brakes or Brake Team or something, may have had a different name when Pep Boys took it over) and are back to just their old two stores with the service bays. One store has a vacant sales floor and the other store eventually got Auto Zone to move into its sales floor.

I was recently pricing out some service and Pep Boys was very favorable on cost, but I wasn't really comfortable using them, so I ended up going elsewhere with a higher cost.

I have heard the same about Advance in California. They were far too slow to reopen, the stores are not stocked particularly well, and their marketing efforts seem to be missing the mark. They did not seem to have regard for doing a fast, seamless conversion on high volume Pep Boys Stores (which there were actually quite a few of in CA) and walked a lot of business with the way they handled things.