Advance Auto already closing CA stores?

[ClownLoach]

I noticed that the Winchester Rd. And Jefferson Ave Advance Auto Parts has abruptly closed with no notice or liquidation sale. I haven't seen any other closures yet but I would imagine there will be more. This closure is one of the busiest intersections in Temecula but that could also be a contributing factor to it closing, it was a bad location.

These stores did not appear to have caught on or have any traffic. I had heard that they were struggling since taking over the retail side of Pep Boys in California. They seemed to have really botched the conversion with stores that sat empty for over a year, allowing their customers to migrate to competitors like AutoZone and O'Reilly. Worse, since they didn't retain many Pep Boys employees most of their people were new and lacked experience or ability to answer questions. When I go to O'Reilly or AutoZone they usually have more knowledgeable employees. They really didn't seem to have anything better or different from the competition, and reduced the size of the former Pep Boys sales floors dramatically so there were less choices of accessories, detailing supplies and so forth. I would imagine they also have lost their main source of business which is sales to repair shops, it isn't like the shops that used Pep Boys part delivery could sit around waiting for them to reopen as Advance... They would have moved on to AutoZone or O"Reilly who both have fleets of delivery vehicles at every store and receive deliveries 7 days a week. I'm sure every walk in dollar is matched by ten delivery to pro dollars.

Anyone else see any Advance stores suddenly go lights out in California?

[storewanderer]

This is not unusual for them.

The closest they ever got to Reno was out in Winnemucca which I assumed was linked to stores in Idaho or Utah (I don't even know if they operate there). There was an old Carquest (Advance supports those) dealer, then the store was converted into an Advance (corporate store) then the store was converted BACK to Carquest (again a dealer store). Then it closed or supposedly relocated elsewhere in town off the main road. It appears to still be open today as Carquest in a far worse location.

They do still have a store in Elko, that was also a Carquest conversion, and is still Advance today.

[ClownLoach]

This is not unusual for them.

The closest they ever got to Reno was out in Winnemucca which I assumed was linked to stores in Idaho or Utah (I don't even know if they operate there). There was an old Carquest (Advance supports those) dealer, then the store was converted into an Advance (corporate store) then the store was converted BACK to Carquest (again a dealer store). Then it closed or supposedly relocated elsewhere in town off the main road. It appears to still be open today as Carquest in a far worse location.

They do still have a store in Elko, that was also a Carquest conversion, and is still Advance today.

Yeah their Financials are blood red. Wall Street is extremely pessimistic about them and basically says that AutoZone and O'Reilly are top performing companies so any problems Advance is having are self inflicted.

They are trying to cover for the California expansion in their commentary but it is obvious to anyone who looks at the Financials by quarter that taking over the Pep Boys locations here has been a monumental failure. As soon as they opened the losses widen substantially. These stores sat closed for at least a year or more each with "Advance Auto coming soon" banners which is just criminal mismanagement. They were closed long enough to lose every remaining customer Pep Boys had on their parts side, and we know those had been dwindling for years. Anecdotal review of Reddit and other comments indicate that other chains that have taken over Pep Boys parts stores in other states, some of which are independents, were able to keep the doors open and convert. Somewhere I read there is a dealer that is running one and hadn't even signed the parts store, customers didn't realize it wasn't affiliated with Pep Boys repair shop next door until they got their receipt. That sounds better than these long closures. The stores don't look like any serious remodeling investment was put in from a physical plant perspective, new gondolas and that's it, they could have done that in a week not a year.

I wonder if they will pull out of California or sell the business here to someone else, because 120-ish stores attached to lame Pep Boys shops is not enough to gain any significant share against the hundreds and hundreds of O'Reilly and AutoZone stores that have a stranglehold on the professional market and service every independent shop. The average customer is likely to drive past multiple AutoZone and O'Reilly locations before they hit one Advance in CA. and AutoZone especially keeps adding shops, they've opened two more full new builds in the last two years here. They would need to add several hundred more stores to California to compete and I think that they can't afford it with the massive quarterly losses they're taking.

[storewanderer]

Their website seems to think that store is open?

https://stores.advanceautoparts.com/ca/ ... chester-rd

But when I go try to do a store pick up order there, pretty much everything I tried to order is out of stock... I did eventually find an item that was in stock. They are ready to collect my payment and say it will be ready in 30 minutes (of store opening I guess).

[ClownLoach]

Their website seems to think that store is open?

https://stores.advanceautoparts.com/ca/ ... chester-rd

But when I go try to do a store pick up order there, pretty much everything I tried to order is out of stock... I did eventually find an item that was in stock. They are ready to collect my payment and say it will be ready in 30 minutes (of store opening I guess).

The one that closed is by Jefferson. 41630 Winchester.

[Super S]

Advance has been operating oddly in WA & OR also. Locally, an Advance store (converted from Carquest)closed, and about a year or two later, local chain Baxter Auto Parts became affiliated with Carquest but retains the Baxter name. Some areas, such as Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR now have Advance and Baxter in the same markets. They seemed to be phasing out the Carquest name for a while, but now it seems like they are trying to revive it.

The way that vehicles are quickly changing, and leaving less able to be done by DIY types, the stores that are not establishing a solid base of repair shop customers are going to fall by the wayside. I have been seeing this with some of the remaining Mom & Pop types of stores, many have added delivery to focus on commercial sales, while others continue to shrink and reduce hours.

I do think that some of the chains like AutoZone and O'Reilly are over-stored and won't be surprised if we start seeing those two struggle in about 10-15 years as the supply of older vehicles starts drying up and they start losing DIY business.

[storewanderer]

Their website seems to think that store is open?

https://stores.advanceautoparts.com/ca/ ... chester-rd

But when I go try to do a store pick up order there, pretty much everything I tried to order is out of stock... I did eventually find an item that was in stock. They are ready to collect my payment and say it will be ready in 30 minutes (of store opening I guess).

The one that closed is by Jefferson. 41630 Winchester.

SmartSelect_20240427_070005_Chrome.jpg

So that's not a Pep Boys unit? That's a former Car Quest (dealer)?

When did that get branded Advance?

This seems like a similar situation to what I described in Winnemucca.

[Alpha8472]

There are about 8 Advance Auto Parts in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are very spread out.

I don't see them as being very busy.

There are even fewer Carquest locations with about 4 in the San Francisco Bay Area. There used to be one near me, but it recently became O'Reilly.

[ClownLoach]

Their website seems to think that store is open?

https://stores.advanceautoparts.com/ca/ ... chester-rd

But when I go try to do a store pick up order there, pretty much everything I tried to order is out of stock... I did eventually find an item that was in stock. They are ready to collect my payment and say it will be ready in 30 minutes (of store opening I guess).

The one that closed is by Jefferson. 41630 Winchester.

SmartSelect_20240427_070005_Chrome.jpg

So that's not a Pep Boys unit? That's a former Car Quest (dealer)?

When did that get branded Advance?

This seems like a similar situation to what I described in Winnemucca.

Must have happened before I got here, and that would be before they got most of these Pep Boys units converted.

[storewanderer]

Must have happened before I got here, and that would be before they got most of these Pep Boys units converted.

I thought the Reno Car Quest (Rock Blvd.) had Advance branding for a brief time period around 2018-2019 range, but either I imagined it or it never did.

So I wonder how long this closed store actually had Advance branding.

I think the general lack of expansion effort in CA beyond the Pep Boys sites speaks volumes. It doesn't feel like they are taking the CA market seriously to me. They needed to expand further beyond the Pep Boys sites, quickly. There is plenty of available real estate and hundreds more 99 Only/Rite Aid/Walgreens vacancies coming/already available.