Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

jamcool
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Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by jamcool »

I noticed that the local Pep Boys has gone to Tires/Service only, the main auto parts/accessories section is shut down. This is happening nationwide per what I have read in the internet. What will happen to the retail section of these stores-which is 2/3rds of the building? I find it odd because they were bought by Icahn Automotive, which owns Champion and Federal-Mogul among other auto parts brands, and Pep Boys had its origins as an parts/accessories store.
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by storewanderer »

They are still selling parts in Reno and Sparks. The way the buildings are configured and parking lots are configured it would be kind of tough to sublease the retail floor space out to some other use but maybe they will try. Tough to imagine it makes economic sense to pay rent on 18k square feet of sales floor you aren't using...
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by Super S »

I wonder if Pep Boys does much in the way of commercial parts business. This seems to be what is keeping a lot of parts stores afloat...my local NAPA store rarely has more than a couple vehicles in the parking lot at any given time. The retail end often struggles as vehicles get more complex and DIY maintenance is more frequently requiring tools and other things that are beyond the scope of the typical DIY customer. The big chains like Auto Zone and O'Reilly, while they have some commercial business, seem to focus more on accessories in their retail stores.

Pep Boys seems to constantly change direction and often seems lost.
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by storewanderer »

O'Reilly in my area seems to have a pretty big commercial parts business going on. There are a couple locations with a good number of delivery trucks outside.

It is funny as the predecessor to O'Reilly was Kragen who ran small stores but before that they were Grand Auto and Grand Auto did service, etc. just like Pep Boys but at some point the auto service was discontinued (not sure if it was before or after Kragen took over). Grand Auto really liked old Safeway buildings. There were a few newer Grand Auto locations built before Kragen bought them out, and those locations did not include auto service departments.

I don't see any commercial delivery trucks at Pep Boys... so not sure how or if they handle that.
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by Brian Lutz »

Around here, it seems like NAPA has the lion's share of the commercial parts business, and their stores seem to reflect this (the stores are clearly geared more toward shops and professionals than hobbyists.) O'Reilly (formerly Schuck's) and AutoZone seem to do most of the retail business around here with a few scattered Advance Auto Parts stores (although some of these have closed.) Pep Boys never had much presence here (just a couple of their larger retail stores) until recently when they bought out a lot of the Elliott Tire (Goodyear) shops and turned those into Pep Boys Tire and Service locations.
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by Super S »

Brian Lutz wrote: September 8th, 2020, 8:55 pm Around here, it seems like NAPA has the lion's share of the commercial parts business, and their stores seem to reflect this (the stores are clearly geared more toward shops and professionals than hobbyists.) O'Reilly (formerly Schuck's) and AutoZone seem to do most of the retail business around here with a few scattered Advance Auto Parts stores (although some of these have closed.) Pep Boys never had much presence here (just a couple of their larger retail stores) until recently when they bought out a lot of the Elliott Tire (Goodyear) shops and turned those into Pep Boys Tire and Service locations.
NAPA seems to dominate in my area. O'Reilly has some commercial business but is sometimes hard to spot as they have unmarked vehicles. Baxter Auto Parts it seems was once doing commercial business but I think, at least where I live, they have gotten out of the delivery side. There is no Auto Zone in my town and Advance (former Carquest) closed their only store. I also see cars simply marked "Pronto" delivering in my area that I think are a wholesaler of some sort.
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by mbz321 »

It seems to be the way they are headed. I've seen little-to-no advertising for them on the retail side of things as of late. They used to be pretty dominant in the Philadelphia area but both AutoZone and Advance have expanded rapidly in the past several years and seems to have grabbed a lot of their retail parts business. PepBoys has opened a couple locations (in a few cases, taking over an independent repair shop) but they are strictly repair centers only with no retail.
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by storewanderer »

Pep Boys is subleasing the retail space in 109 California locations (I guess that is all of their CA retail store locations?) to Advance Auto Parts.

I haven't noticed Advance has much of a presence in California and 109 stores is not much of a presence either in such a large state.

https://www.moderntiredealer.com/articl ... auto-parts

I guess I just find it odd it is only the California locations impacted. It isn't like Pep Boys is exiting CA since they will continue to run the auto repair bays in these locations.
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by bayford »

Advance Auto Parts has no standalone stores in California. The only other states they have no presence in are Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii. In the meantime, California is one of Pep Boys' best states as far as location count.

https://www.scrapehero.com/store/produc ... n-the-usa/
https://www.scrapehero.com/store/produc ... n-the-usa/
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Re: Pep Boys - out of the parts biz?

Post by storewanderer »

bayford wrote: March 16th, 2021, 5:09 pm Advance Auto Parts has no standalone stores in California. The only other states they have no presence in are Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii. In the meantime, California is one of Pep Boys' best states as far as location count.

https://www.scrapehero.com/store/produc ... n-the-usa/
https://www.scrapehero.com/store/produc ... n-the-usa/
I know Advance owns Carquest which has some locations in CA. Maybe those are franchises? There is a Carquest in Reno, I see. I thought it converted to Advance but it appears it is still (or back to?) Carquest.
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