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Posted by David Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Monday, July 26, 2010 at 13:25:23 :
In Reply to: O'Reilly's Auto Parts posted by Keith in Washington [24.41.41.111] on Monday, July 26, 2010 at 12:03:29 :
Al's/Schuck's/O'Reilly/Checker/Kragan are/were all just regional brand names of the same company. Back when they were separate they regularly had oil/filter price wars between Schuck's and Al's (the Seattle-area brands) which at least was a good occasion to stock up on the standard stuff. None of them was ever any good for having any actual parts in stock. There's a new sort of Napa store popping up in all the strip malls that's just as bad as the Schucks conglomerate -- I suppose they decided there's a lot of profit in just selling windshield wipers to ladies and bling to 19-year-olds.
In my experience, it's not so much the brand of the store, but the local ownership that matters. Most any auto parts store, if it's the only one in a small town, will be good. They have to supply the local mechanics and farmers and so "we can get that next week" is not an acceptable answer. The local guys will usually sign up with either Napa or PartsPlus, but they make their own decisions about what to stock. I do not believe they are franchised, and they are definitely not company-owned.
By the way, a bit of historical trivia: Al's Auto Supply used to be owned by Paccar (Pacific Car and Foundry, the Piggot family). They acquired it in the 1970s when diversification was all the rage. They also owned a fabric store chain (Pacific Fabrics) at that time. It was during the same period that Boeing diversified into such things as a hydrofoil boat, a monorail system, and an asphalt paving machine. Paccar still owns the Kenworth and Peterbuilt truck lines, and the Carco and Braden winch lines, but they sold Al's to Schucks sometime around 1990.