Auto Parts Business

[schamp]

Sidney J., Good point. I currently have a 6.5 turbo diesel sitting on a stand replacing heads. Only thing I got local was bottom hose and they had to order that. Ebay has hurt the parts store business as well. I am going friday to listen. Pauls (Seahawk) comment about a Auto Zone moving into his area could easily happen here. Might not be a Auto Zone but same deal with a O'Reilys. The more I look into it the more I think I would need a signing bonus. Spencer

[porsche4life]

I mean one way to combat that would be to try to have lots of stock... There is a small time store in town that I would buy more parts from if they had anything in stock... but the dont... Oh and they aren't open very late...


Oh ya plan on being open past 5 on Saturday....

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

What is your plan to combat the growing online business? I buy more than 80% of my parts online... Only reason I go deal with the morons at Oriellys is in an emergency... And then they usually don't have what I want....

I'm surprised this thread hasn't been deleted!

[Racerbvd]

Like I said, I do have a bit of experience in this area, including working in the small town part( we covered, from central FL, though SC. including many small towns in rural GA) and you need to know if it is a protected terrortory, how far you can sell, how close the next town is, repair shops there, any car lots, other City contracts (You have one, that can be very good as well, we had City & school in a few towns) what debt you are buying, who owes money that you will have to collect. You will need to learn about cores for brake shoes, water pumps ect. Do you have any back ground in the parts biz?? Even in a small town there is room to build and more people will be fixing instead of replacing cars. If you were close enough I would gladly meet with you & see if I could help you.. PM me for my number if you have any questions on Fri that I might be able to help you with...

We still need some back ground info on the store, like is that $100K of parts paid for..

[Racerbvd]

how did the meeting go????

[schamp]

I had a good meeting with two of the napa guys. Lots of store should do this, or store could do x. Nothing about what the existing store has done for the past year or past two years. Current location will not be available for a new store. They really didn't have much to say when I mentioned several of the things the pelican brain trust came up with. If I were to get involved I would need a couple of partners, not because of the money but the time required to run the thing. The best fit for this location is to be a addition to an existing napa jobber. I will update at it goes along. Thanks pelicans.

[RWebb]

sounds like they are trying to hook a fish