It was raining yesterday, and one of my windshield wipers started to tear. I knew there was an auto parts store near where I was at, so I stopped in. It turned out to be The AutoZone (AZO). One of the employees was outside smoking and talking to another guy. I went in and found the wipers. I am used to auto parts stores having a book, or some other device to tell me which blades I need for my car. Yet here at The Auto Zone there was no book or device that I could see. Two employees were helping customers at the counter, and another was running around, but didn’t seem to be doing anything other than running around. I tried to get someone’s attention, but after a couple minutes, I gave up and left. I continued on my way, and found an Advance Auto Parts (AAP). The store was cleaner, larger, and seemed to have about the same number of customers inside. I found the wipers, and here they had a little electronic device to tell me which wipers to get. I got a couple wipers, and paid for them. The sign near the wipers said free installation. I asked, and the employee happily came out and installed the wipers on my car in the rain. We found that one of the wipers was too large, so he pulled it off, and we went back inside. We found that I had missed that my car takes two different sizes of wipers. We got the right one, he did the exchange, and then came out into the rain again and installed the second wiper. It was a very pleasant experience. I have been reading Beating The Street by Peter Lynch. He talks about buying stocks in companys that he liked after going into the stores. So out of curiousity, I looked up both of these auto parts stores. Both have had great growth over the last five years. Both expect good growth for the next five years. In both of these case Advance Auto Parts has beaten The AutoZone. AutoZone beats Advance Auto on some other numbers. The stock price on Advance Auto Parts has increased at a much quicker rate than AutoZone’s. The forward P/E of Advance Auto predicts a better increase in price than AutoZone. So between the two I would be more likely to invest in Advance Auto Parts than in The AutoZone. Though I only visited a couple stores and was more impressed with one than the other, maybe this is at least a sign of a good company?
utozone pays badly its employees plus losey benefits and follows Walmart in high turnover rates and non-compliance with many ohsa
rules and regulations. however, most people dont care …most americans shop both places and contribute to the guilt factor.
Comment by allen — August 26, 2006 @ 12:49 am
I recently spent 5 and 1/2 years working for AutoZone, and have recently been hired by the new Advance Store in my hometown. After just two weeks of working at Advance I have learned that keep their employees on a much higher standard than AutoZone did. I took a $3.00 an hour pay raise to go work for this company, and I think it was a great choice. AutZone seemed to put the concerns of the shareholders at a much much higher importance than to that of their employees. AutoZone operates about 600 more stores than Advance does, and yet I see Advance out performing AutoZone in the long run, both financially, and in customer service. Their stores are cleaner, (and kept cleaner), their lighting is great, the benefits are so much better at Advance, and their leadership is something that will not be put into question. Which I can not say for AutoZone, and I speak from a stand point of my old region and not company wide. The pay is better at Advance, the benefits are, and the management is. Happier employees translates into more productive employees which then translates into better customer service, and higher sales. Advance will outperform AutoZone all together.
And AutoZone you can think Ex CEO Steve Odland for a horrible work enviroment.
Comment by Robert — September 8, 2006 @ 5:57 pm
i currently work for advance auto parts and with the change over of executive management, we have vision and direction unlike anything I have ever seen in my 5 years.
i anticipate our stock will hit 50 in the next twelve months. i can’t complain about working for aap. yes there are things i would like to see done differently, but overall…we really are headed in the right direction. i congratulate all 30,000+ employees on making this a company with financial and ethical strength!!
Comment by thackery — July 12, 2009 @ 10:00 pm
I work for Autozone as well and I do not see how the company stays afloat relitivly well. They pay nothing, and expect a whole lot more that they are willing to pay.
I have a district manager that is always cussing at us, and then telling us it is against policy to record conversations so he does not get caught. My store meets quotas quiet a bit but it is still just cussing.
If you talk to any autozone workers in my region there is zero moral, no body cares about anything but clocking out. I understand the main pourpose of this company is to make the shareholder money, but it is horriable how I and everyone is treated by corperate managment.
I would not invest in azo just due to their “laws” and how they treat everyone
Comment by Bill jones — September 12, 2009 @ 1:32 pm
I have been working for Auto Zone since June 2009. I would say this is the worst company I have worked for. There have been two district managers since I have been there, both had no “people skills”. They pay nothing and the benefits are garbage. I work here since I can not find a job in my filed when I graduated college.
Comment by Jim Rockford — December 22, 2009 @ 6:17 pm
Auto Zone just plain sucks.
I am 50 yrs old and have worked several jobs in my life and would have to say Auto Zone is the WORST company i have ever worked for. the only ones making a living are management and theynare lazy bunch . The one in newport news on warwick Blvd is sucha bunch of back stabbing loosers, the commercial part talks nice to the customers then talks about them to anyone who will listen, if they are having personell or money problems they gossip about them.
Comment by Alan — January 16, 2010 @ 5:12 pm
Auto Zone just plain sucks.
I am 50 yrs old and have worked several jobs in my life and would have to say Auto Zone is the WORST company i have ever worked for. the only ones making a living are management and they are a lazy bunch .You have to buy the clothes they say you need , they cut your hours whenever the days sales are slow. they are very racist and the minorities and women need to sue for the way they are treated .
The one in newport news Virginia is sucha bunch of back stabbing loosers, the commercial part talks nice to the customers then talks about them to anyone who will listen, if they are having personel or money problems they gossip about them.
Comment by Alan — January 16, 2010 @ 5:17 pm
Now, some 3 years after this article was originally written, we can look at a 5 year chart to see what would have been the better investment. Over the last 5 years, AZO is up 100% while AAP is up only 26%. So much for applying these stocks to Peter Lynch.
Comment by Stock Trading Guy — March 31, 2010 @ 10:27 pm
I currently work for AAP and have been employed for the last 15 years. Advance has much higher standards than Auto Zone. We actually care about our customers and will do whatever it takes to make them happy. It isn’t just about clocking in and out at AAP. It is about helping someone out who more than likely is having a bad day if they find themselves at an auto parts store….I could care less what the stocks say, I wouldn’t work for a company that didn’t care for its employees and hired anyone off the street. If you want good service, there is no question where you should go.
Comment by Kelly — November 21, 2010 @ 8:47 pm
This is long but worth reading….
I have to disagree with the last few posts about AAP. YES they treated the employees better a few yrs ago. This yr, 2011 I have seen a huge difference with regards to raises and their new bonus program for managers across the board to make it more difficult to bonus and they have cut hrs drastically to reduce bottom line costs because their sales are flat this yr. Most of my employees did not receive a raise or if they did the most was .25 which I received in my store as an assistant manager. I have worked in 3 different districts and had to keep asking for my review the last yr. The first 2 yrs I never received a review or a raise. The reviews are mandatory for the manager to do on the employees but rarely is there a sit down. My last manager was still kind of new and gave me a great review.
Moving on benefits are O.K. I’m not sure back then if there was ded. to see a doctor but there is no co-pays. It’s not too bad out of your paycheck but you are going to pay quite a bit to see a doctor @ 30% of the bill.
Vacation is after a yr. Not before.
Sick time is fair.
No personal days.
Only 2 days the store is closed.
P/T’s get no benefits at all, zero.
The company right before I left stopped hiring fulltime associates and was only hiring p/t’s and managers.
They got rid of the OT for assistant managers and they downsized the assts that were in low volume store’s which was myself. About 2 stores in each district was low volume so you can do the math, out of 3500 stores. Some got layed off, some got demoted….very bad morale.
The new assistants are getting paid 11.00 an hr UP TO 40 hrs a week. No more 40 hrs every week. It goes from 32 (benefit reasons) to 40. Right there I knew I had to get out. I was demoted not by performance but because I was in a low volume store and my district manager Phillip Bean in Palm beach county didn’t try too hard to transfer me as he didn’t hire me. I was transferred into his district not by choice. Like a lot of district managers he was terrible and had many double standards including what theft was. Amazing how much the VP’s don’t know about their district managers. Especially Phillip Bean and Jay Howald. I’ve seen a lot of stuff go down and these DM’s do set up employees to fail or don’t interview them for promotion or fire them or demote them for the wrong reasons and hire from the outside for store manager positions. They did me a favor by demoting me and then letting me go. Thanks Phil!!!!! I’m doing a lot better now! BTW they have a high turn over rate so don’t fool yourself with these comments. The company peaked half way through 2010 in sales and started to decline a bit, especially with the retail sector. Their commerical program is very shacky. They don’t have the right people @ the right times in place. In the SE they have a weak VP named Joe G. He has a high turn over rate with his District managers as well. Be careful when you sign on the dotted line. Make sure your rate is strong because DON’T EXPECT RAISES and if you do it’s going to be a dime a yr. It’s true.
Comment by Steve — June 26, 2011 @ 12:43 pm