Just A Car Guy: parts store

Showing posts with label parts store. Show all posts

Saturday, March 15, 2025

the Central Auto Parts store in Virginia, MN, in the 1920s and 1930s. At some point it became S&S Auto Parts. (Thank you Niki!)

Sunday, January 19, 2025

I would bet that Perk's Auto Parts in Plainwell, Michigan is the only one in existence that is housed in an old drive in movie theater.

Perks Auto Parts today. The is the former home of the 131 Drive-In Theatre, south of Plainwell. Before the 131 expressway went in about 1960, this road was the main north- south road on this side of the state.

The drive-in was opened in 1950 by S. Kortes and lasted until 1984. The screen and projection booth remain largely intact.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/157059191540681

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Katherine Polovich has been helping customers with their auto part needs at VJ’s Auto Parts in Biloxi since 1960! (64 years)

May 28 is Edith’s 91st birthday, she has 22 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren!

https://vjsautoparts.com/

https://www.wlox.com/2024/05/09/auto-parts-heart-90-year-old-woman-keeps-husbands-legacy-alive/

https://www.wlbt.com/video/2024/05/09/auto-parts-heart-90-year-old-woman-keeps-husbands-legacy-alive/

Thursday, January 11, 2024

What sets your car parts store apart, and makes them your preferred place?

Pep Boys,

Napa,

Autozone

O'Reillys,

Advance Auto parts

Car Quest

I'll guess those are the national chains available most everywhere.

Why go to one instead of the others, is there any compelling reason? Does one have a gimmic, or a measurable amount of customer service that sets them apart?

I just learned that AutoZone sells brake pads once. After that, you bring in the old ones, and leave with new ones, without any more cost to you. Same thing that put JC Penney out of business with the battery and muffler lifetime guarantee https://www.dailydot.com/news/autozone-brake-pads-warranty-hack/

https://www.camaros.net/threads/lifetime-battery-not-so-according-to-firestone.201648/

Well, it also may have been that in 2012, JC Penney was overinflating prices in order to claim a sale price http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/jc-penney-reintroduces-fake-prices-and-lots-of-coupons-too-of-course/

JCPenney, the iconic department store has not proved as enduring as its battery warranty. It offloaded itsauto service centers to Firestone in 1983, discontinued its catalog in 2009, restructured in 2012, sold its corporate headquarters in 2017 and declared bankruptcy in 2020.

Jim Zeman was born in 1964, bought his first battery from JC Penney strictly because of the lifetime unlimited warranty, and died in 2022.

“I’ve always considered myself a smart consumer, so when I had the opportunity to buy a battery from JCPenney with a lifetime warranty back in 1978, I jumped at it!”

He’d ultimately purchased two of them with lifetime warranties, and showed receipts of the four times he’d exerted the warranties in the 44 years since — in 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2006.

At age 80, he went for one more, in June of 2022... because “the way I look at it, I’m still alive, so the lifetime warranty is still in place.” but instead, he got the runaround

https://madison.com/news/local/ask/sos/sos-not-messing-around-with-lifetime-warranty/article_1fd874fe-e1a8-5802-84b0-a2434e6463fd.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/hzgn2n/the_jcpenney_battery_the_last_battery_your_car/
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/jcpenney-lifetime-battery-in-my-72-fj40.698050/

Thursday, May 30, 2019

I so love photos of old parts stores. Parts stores today just suck, and have nothing interesting. Hell, they probably won't be in business much longer, there simply aren't many people repairing cars anymore.

https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/210902/page/1

Thursday, May 23, 2019

I just love Shorpy.com... they have enormous photos, with terrific focus and detail, and when they show a photo of a dealership parts dept... you get to check out so MUCH! Semmes Motor Co.: 1925

notice above and below the shelves are number in some cases.

so amny cool things on the shelves... batteries, flashlight bulbs, Whiz something, and Top Dressing to make tires black I suppose, or maybe to clean fan belts... and Ditzler brand paint... Tire patch kids from Michelin?

notice the cash register is rung up to "Ford PT" I wonder why... and what are the bottles on the shelf behind it?

from flower vases to jacks... and a lot of spools of ignition wire? And and Harve Stabilizers? Are those shock absorbers?

Above, the Weed brand tire chains, I believe I posted those before, and the Gabriel Snubbers... which I think are the friction shocks

Above is an advertisement for Watson stabilizers... What shock absorbers were called in the friction shock days I think

https://www.shorpy.com/node/5708

I love these old car parts rooms... give me a time machine and I'd just hang around and drool over old parts and tools. Especially if it was a speed shop

from Pinterest all over the place

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Steuart's Ford Dealership, and parts department, Washington DC, 1920

The Steuart Brothers (Guy T. and Lawrence Leonard P.) started their business in 1904. At first they sold ice and coal from a hand-built cart pulled by a rented mule. Eventually, adapting to the times, they opened a garage/warehouse at 141 12th st NE. At their peak the brothers had many businesses (car agencies, motor repair, parts, insurance, truck fleets, tug boats, and fuel storage) employing 690 people.

The warehouse still exists, being transformed into condos in the 1970s and renamed Steuart Square.