Pep Boys to close 32 stores, lay off 860

The Arizona Republic ^ | July 31, 2003 | Jason Straziuso - Associated Press

[Willie Green]

CALIFORNIA - El Cerrito, Fairfield, Fremont, Citrus Heights, La Verne, Napa, Pittsburg, South Chula Vista, Vacaville, Van Nuys and Yuba City.

FLORIDA - Clearwater, Fort Lauderdale (Route 7), Melbourne and St. Petersburg (Tyrone Boulevard).

TEXAS - Houston (West Oaks Mall), Houston (Dairy Ashford Road), San Antonio (Commerce Street), Fort Worth (East Lancaster Street) and El Paso (Mesa Street).

[DuncanWaring]

No great loss.

These are the guys who fire military reservists who are called to active duty.

[_Jim]

A 'retailer' - not a manufacturer ...

Cheap parts anyway - the last water pump I bought from them took *two* gaskets to keep from leaking where it mated agaianst the block! Been buying from NAPA ever since ...

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Sounds like they lost some "pep".

[discostu]

Can't happen soon enough. Crappy parts, dullard employees and high prices. Not a path to success. Sorry to see so few of these stores go.

[flashbunny]

Agreed. Remember the story from that time period. Hopefully it had something to do with their downfall.

Would rather go to an autozone, anyway.

[Bahbah]

I am sorry for people losing their jobs, but, that said, I have worked with their management and they are among the most obnoxious, unpleasant people I have encountered. I am sure management has protected itself from its own incompetence, however, so they won't be the ones feeling the pain.

[ColdSteelTalon]

Crappy service and support finally catches up. Sorry for the workers though.

I wonder aloud, When is Kaupfman Tire gonna go out of business. they are even worse.

[bedolido]

They've been advertising here in Boise for the past year or so. We don't have any PepBoys here. Maybe wasting advertisement money is part of it.

[livius]

Yes, I think it's been a failing company for some time.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not surprised to see the Watchung, NJ location on this list. They are located in the new Watchung Square Mall on US-22, which looks like it has some very successful big-box stores. But because it is built into the side of a hill, there is one section with smaller stores on two levels that has a separate parking area and doesn't have great exposure (it faces away from the main parking area with the big stores around it). The first time I ever went there I wondered why anyone would locate a brand-name retail store there -- those store fronts actually look ideal for something like a doctor's office, H&R Block office, etc.

[MonroeDNA]

[sinkspur]

Auto Zone beats 'em to hell here in Texas.

[William Terrell]

They advertise in Birmingham. It doesn't have one either.

[William Terrell]

These are the guys who fire military reservists who are called to active duty.

Their bad business may contributed to their uptightness about that.

[The Coopster]

I know you can't resist posting every single post about "jobs lost", Willie, but what's your point here? Pep Boys did themselves in. You can't play the ol' blame game here. Poor management, higher prices and cheaper (quality) parts than the competition is what did them in.

[discostu]

Willie doesn't believe in poorly run companies during a Bush administration. All job losses are the President's fault, no matter how blind drunk the employee was the day the axe fell.

[Zathras]

I was there last night.
A totally worthless store.

[FlyVet]

Auto Zone beats 'em to hell here in Texas.

Same in AZ. Last month I bought a set of brake shoes at Auto Zone, lifetime warranty and about 5 bucks cheaper than Pep Boys and Pep's weren't lifetime. They don't compete. Checker usually beats them too.

[FreedomPoster]

Autozone and NAPA are superior choices here in ATL, that's for sure.