Carquest name disappearing?

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Super S
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Carquest name disappearing?

Post by Super S »

My local Carquest store is in the process of converting to an Advance Auto Parts store. I am curious, since Advance now owns the Carquest name, if they are planning to eventually phase out the Carquest name, or to keep both formats. For what it's worth, Carquest has struggled here the past few years, and several of the independent auto parts stores in the area have closed as competition from larger chains has arrived.

I have never been overly impressed by Carquest as they always seemed like a much less successful version of a NAPA store.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by BillyGr »

Super S wrote:My local Carquest store is in the process of converting to an Advance Auto Parts store. I am curious, since Advance now owns the Carquest name, if they are planning to eventually phase out the Carquest name, or to keep both formats. For what it's worth, Carquest has struggled here the past few years, and several of the independent auto parts stores in the area have closed as competition from larger chains has arrived.

I have never been overly impressed by Carquest as they always seemed like a much less successful version of a NAPA store.
The one Carquest I know of here is an independently owned store (like a franchise), so perhaps the store there the franchisee just wanted to sell out and Advance bought the location so thus would now use their name?
That has happened with other types of stores where they have one name for owned stores and a different for franchises.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by Super S »

I am not clear if the local store mentioned was a franchise or if it was company owned. It seems like Carquest has a mix of company owned and franchise stores. The Advance name does not have a strong presence here at this point, but with O'Reilly and Auto Zone rapidly expanding, it made me wonder what Advance is planning. NAPA has a variety of franchise owners here, with both a mix of multiple location franchises and some that are one store only, mainly in smaller towns. Some stores are well-run, others not so much.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by Super S »

For what it's worth, I have been hearing ads for new Advance locations in the Portland area, one other former Carquest that I know of in Vancouver on Highway 99 was mentioned as a new location in the commercial. So it seems that there are a few more conversions taking place.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by Super S »

And today I heard Carquest ads on the same radio station, so it appears that only some stores are being converted.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by SamSpade »

The CarQuest on Powell Blvd. is now Advance and my radio station continues to run advertisements about "grand openings" of Advance stores so I think all the Portland, Ore. area stores are converting over to the corporate banner. Since they place a lot of radio advertising nationally, like competitor O'Reilly, it makes sense to carry one banner.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote:The CarQuest on Powell Blvd. is now Advance and my radio station continues to run advertisements about "grand openings" of Advance stores so I think all the Portland, Ore. area stores are converting over to the corporate banner. Since they place a lot of radio advertising nationally, like competitor O'Reilly, it makes sense to carry one banner.
Here it is several months later, and I am still hearing commercials for Carquest on Portland radio stations, so I am assuming that there are still a handful that have not been converted, possibly franchise operations.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by Super S »

The Advance Auto Parts store which prompted this thread, in Longview, WA, is now in the process of quietly closing. On the outside all that indicates this are a handful of 50% off signs.

I think this location has struggled for years even under Carquest. The store never seemed to be very busy.

Our local newspaper has been doing a terrible job reporting when businesses close, but I think they show a bias toward those who advertise heavily with them. It would be nice though to have a little insight on why businesses close.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by storewanderer »

I wonder are these locations still Carquest franchise operations and the ones that converted to the Advance banner corporate operations? There is a Carquest in Reno with pretty short hours in an industrial area but there is no Advance nearby.

We've been getting radio and TV commercials for Advance for years in this market.
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Re: Carquest name disappearing?

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: May 14th, 2019, 8:12 pm I wonder are these locations still Carquest franchise operations and the ones that converted to the Advance banner corporate operations? There is a Carquest in Reno with pretty short hours in an industrial area but there is no Advance nearby.

We've been getting radio and TV commercials for Advance for years in this market.
It is my understanding that all of the stores that were converted to Advance were corporate owned. However, a handful of Carquest locations still exist. There is one still open in St. Helens, Oregon, and a handful scattered around the Portland area.
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