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