ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Advance Auto Parts is a car part supplier for customers, as well as mechanics, to purchase vehicle supplies at wholesale. The company recently announced its plan to close more than 500 stores and shed another 200 independent locations by the middle of next year.
The company says it’s part of a “strategic plan to improve business,” after its third quarter showed a loss of $6 million on revenue of $2.15 billion. Specific locations, and the number of employees impacted, have not been released, but mechanics across New York state could be affected.
However, local mechanics across the country could be looking for a new place to shop for their car parts.
“Very rarely do we see any kind of price go down,” Andrew Resch, the owner of Resch Auto Service Inc., said. “I can’t bring any to mind off the top of my head. It isn’t like a steep climbable cliff. Just gradually, over the course of years.”
Supply chain issues, timely international sales, and inflations have all recently threatened the auto repair industry. Resch took over his family’s garage in January, but his grandfather started the business in the 1950s. Resch says he’s been working at the garage on and off since he was in middle school. He says rising costs have been difficult, but he wants to ensure customers have a rate they can afford.
“I haven’t done any adjusting for what inflation does to the numbers in general,” Resch said. “Year over year our revenue was up. But because prices go up, revenue does too. I wish to be able to provide services for customers so that they can continue to afford services. I also need to be able to pay my employees a living wage. That’s very important to me. My profitability is only important to me in so that we can stay operational because we don’t have a bunch of shareholders demanding constant growth. I am willing to sacrifice that kind of thing to provide the community service.”
One of Resch’s technicians, Jeff Rodgers, has been in the industry for 27 years. He’s been an employee at Resch’s Auto Services for about the past 10 years.
“I’ve been playing around with cars and stuff before I was able to drive,” Rodgers said. “So I don’t count that or so as part of my requisition, but I’ve been doing it for a long time. [I] started off with bicycles and taking stuff like that apart. And then once you start to learn how to take stuff apart and put it back together, it turns into a passion, and then you realize, hey, this is could be kind of lucrative. I can do this for a living. My passion is cars. I like cleaning them. I like driving them. I like fixing them.”
He’s seen a little bit of everything, and wasn’t surprised when he heard Advanced Auto Parts is expecting closures.
“There was so many different parts places out there that have come and gone and we’ve used basically every single one of them,” he admitted.
Advance Auto says closures are a strategy to cut costs as the car industry continues to get more expensive. In its announcement on Thursday, the company noted goals like an “acceleration in pace of new store openings” and adopting a standardized operating model. And it pointed to supply-chain consolidation plans, noting that it expected to incur costs related to converting certain stores and distribution centers into “market hubs.”
“It’s going to hurt, but there’s a lot of places like Amazon,” Rodgers said. “Yeah, they’re very, very good at making sure that you can get a product, you know, just you just got to know what you’re buying and go through a reputable place and go and do all your research and make sure that what you’re buying is correct.”
He, too, says he purchases parts from websites like Amazon or eBay, but says he prefers the in-store experience for guaranteed service.
“[For] my personal cars, I shop on eBay because I can wait,” Rodgers said. “You know, if I need something, I can wait a little while, and it’s a lot. It’s a lot cheaper than going to a brick-and-mortar store. I like being able to go walk into a store and talk to somebody on one. That way if you have a problem, you go back and talk to that same person. They can figure out the problem and get it done right.”
Having worked on cars as soon as he and his friends were able to drive, he agrees the rising cost of parts is hard to accept.
“On parts and labor, it’s amazing how much everything has gone up, in a couple, well, 20 years is not a couple of years, but two decades? It goes up a lot. Sometimes you kind of sticker-shock. You, holy cow! That’s actually that much now?“ he laughed, “Everything’s going to go up, but you want to go at the store because they got to keep the lights on too. So I’m a big advocate for trying to keep things local, but not everybody has everything you need, unfortunately.”
“In the in the auto parts or auto repair side, the most important thing that an individual can do is work with local shops,” Resch agreed.
Parts from overseas have also posed a challenge at times, but, fortunately, not as frequently for technicians at Resch’s Auto Service.
“They’re not a Chevrolet or Honda or Dodge? Yeah, those ones, they’re very particular,” Rodgers said. “They are hard to find parts for, but a lot of the major manufacturers, they’re married in with another company. So you’ll have one company that makes one part for two different vehicles because they share the same engine or transmission. But we get we get pretty lucky where we don’t run into that too much.”
Advance Auto Parts closures are just another obstacle the team will have to work around, but Resch’s Auto Service says they’re more concerned for the customers in crisis if their car breaks down and they don’t have a location close to bring their vehicle in for repairs.
“Their retail customers might not have another auto parts store close by,” Resch said. “If your car is down, it’s better to have one that is real close, as opposed to having to go across the city or figure out how to get there.”
Resch’s Auto Service says they’ve already adapted in the past to shopping for its parts locally and it will continue to while they wait to hear which Advance Auto locations will be closing. Advance Auto has declined to comment further.
“I think it’ll hurt a little bit, but I don’t think it’s going to really crush the market,” Rodgers said.
He also says his friends in the industry are not concerned for job security, as the field is always looking for skilled workers.
“The best part is when you’re done with it and you know it’s going down the road safely,” Rodgers smiled.