we have 6 in a 30 mile distance and all in the smallest towns. ive heard their goal is at least one every 20 miles
CK5
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Missed out on the Advanced Auto closures
- Thread starter eodcoduto
- Start date
The pop up dollar stores as well as Walmart are an extraction service to pull value out of a town. It does everything a general store, that could be locally owned and provide people an honest living does, but the money doesn’t stay local. They pay so low that the employees have nowhere else to shop.
Sorry about the soap box, I’ll get off of it.
Sorry about the soap box, I’ll get off of it.
here is my area . and they purchased a old dinner and lot to tear down and do a super store all in the middle of all of these .
I'd heard most of the ones being closed were in the west. We'd had one opened a mile from me about 9mo ago. It's closing along w/ all of the ones here in phx. I was in there a couple of weeks ago and took advantage of the prices. They had a couple of hard parts, along w/ a bunch of consumables that are gone. Couple of tools i'd not had.
Went in the other day and it was pretty picked over.
Talked to the manager and he'd moved out here from AL or GA or something and now has no job. Nice guy, feel bad for him.
Went in the other day and it was pretty picked over.
Talked to the manager and he'd moved out here from AL or GA or something and now has no job. Nice guy, feel bad for him.
Advance has been screwing their managers over for a long time. Once they went public and Taubman was no longer owner, it just became another corporate cash cow.
When I worked there they hired the ex-ceo of Kroger! Talk about crazy, trying to run a parts store like a grocery store during a recession.
I shopped there pretty exclusively for a long time because they took care of their customers. Our old Suburban killed a fuel pump with a lifetime warranty. I didn't have time to fix it so I had a local shop stick one in. Advance refused a refund on a warranty part since the shop put someone else's in.
There were a couple incidents before that that had soured me a good bit, but that was the straw. Now I use mostly Rock Auto for my parts. Save a lot of money and since I'm better than 95% of the parts guys in town, I have to look the parts up myself anyways.
Quality parts guys are a dying breed!
Trying to find a parts guy with actual product knowledge beyond what the computer screen prompts them to say or ask is getting damn difficult.
That’s another thing Home Depot did as well as auto parts companies. A long time ago you could get advice over the counter and in the aisle. Now it’s just super low paid positions that are filled by new brains. No experience. Parts still cost the same with way worse service experience for the customer while the profits are at an all time high.
There is zero incentive to be a good parts guy and there hasn't been for several decades. The pay is terrible, the work is stressful due to the stores being understaffed, and a significant percentage of the customers are rude. offensive, and combative over things that nobody in that store can control.
You can't hardly find any employees (other than cashiers) at my local HD.
That is by design. The system is functioning as intended. You don’t pocket 150 billion by paying employees.
I had to give it up and go industrial maintenance. Couldn't raise a family on 30hrs of $9/hr.
As a former Advance employee as well, it was tough to find good help. We had a good store- I had a good manager and CPP when I got in, and I tried to carry on that mindset when they both left. Unfortunately, i only lasted a little while longer after as corporate just wanted to offer solutions that didn't help and put people in positions they didn't deserve.
I went back to work part time after a while because I needed the money, but having no days off and working for 15 bucks an hour on top of my full time job dealing with their crap wasn't worth it.
There are still places out there that pay decent for the parts department- it's just not at the big retail stores. You either have to get into the dealership life (a whole nother can of worms there) or, in my personal experience, find a private dealership type that caters to an industrial market. I work for a company now that is very specialized and the pay is decent and there is good dealer support.
I moved to service, but even before that it was worth it. Now even more so.
So very true! @tarussell and I both transitioned from retail to a dealership parts dept, the pay was great and the job could be fun but the stress imposed by management and the interdepartmental conflicts were just crazy.
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I was slingin parts for CSK at $6/hr and left making $11/hr as an assistant manager. It was bad, but still better than anything in the restaurant world where all my other work experience was, and there is no way in hell I would ever go back to work in food service.
Wait, you have cashiers at your Home Depot? Ours all went self check and I hate it. 1 or 2 employees overseeing a half dozen checkouts or more. It's so dumb.
I like doing things for myself, but at a hardware store I like the interpersonal interaction for some reason.
I aim for self checkouts as often as possible. To each their own I guess. I'll aim for a human if i've got a baggie full of loose hardware though. self checkout is a PITA for that sort of crap that you have to hand-jam in there.
Typically, on the weekends there are real cashiers but weeknights are self-checkout with 1 person overseeing. Just to say it, there's a Lowe's 1/4 mile further down the road that does not use self-checkout AND employees can be found in the various depts if needed so I usually shop there.
I always try avoid self-checkout at any store, I don't get a discount for doing the work myself. If I'm using a self-checkout it's because I have to (no regular cashiers or there's so few the wait is unreasonably long).
I’m with Poly - I don’t people. I manage for a living so off work I’m anti-social as ****. Me and mine only so if I can avoid fake exchanges with strangers I will.
Also - Lowes.
[rant]
I like them and their products. They give me a 10% discount for being a veteran. Years ago it was just, “I’m a vet”, and maybe show my VA card.
Ten years ago my wife and I got married and we combined our Lowes accounts so she could use my discount. She has a Lowe’s credit card so they combined my account into hers. Worked fine for years but about COVID times they got militant about using our actual account. Suddenly my phone number didn’t work and if I put in my wife’s number it showed her but not me. My driver’s license wouldn’t scan. Then came the issue. My wife and I don’t have the same last name. So you tell that to the one blue or abnormally red haired judgemental old lady at the counter and they would get all worked up about it. Then the feckless, doughy customer service manager comes over and basically says call the 800 number. I lost my temper a few times and made a scene to get the damn discount their corporation agreed I had. When I called their 800 number the customer service people could see me on the account along with my wife and had no idea why it wouldn’t work. Apparently, somewhere between them and the local stores the local stores could only see my wife. Finally, earlier this year the barcode on the back of my Drivers license started working fine and I haven’t had any problems since.
Also - Lowes.
[rant]
I like them and their products. They give me a 10% discount for being a veteran. Years ago it was just, “I’m a vet”, and maybe show my VA card.
Ten years ago my wife and I got married and we combined our Lowes accounts so she could use my discount. She has a Lowe’s credit card so they combined my account into hers. Worked fine for years but about COVID times they got militant about using our actual account. Suddenly my phone number didn’t work and if I put in my wife’s number it showed her but not me. My driver’s license wouldn’t scan. Then came the issue. My wife and I don’t have the same last name. So you tell that to the one blue or abnormally red haired judgemental old lady at the counter and they would get all worked up about it. Then the feckless, doughy customer service manager comes over and basically says call the 800 number. I lost my temper a few times and made a scene to get the damn discount their corporation agreed I had. When I called their 800 number the customer service people could see me on the account along with my wife and had no idea why it wouldn’t work. Apparently, somewhere between them and the local stores the local stores could only see my wife. Finally, earlier this year the barcode on the back of my Drivers license started working fine and I haven’t had any problems since.
I gave Napa a year of my life as a part time key holder, I spent half my time answering questions that the kids asked me because they didn't know.
