It’s been updated to - No American Parts Available.That's a shame, NAPA used to be the standard of quality/availability back in the 60s and 70s
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It’s been updated to - No American Parts Available.That's a shame, NAPA used to be the standard of quality/availability back in the 60s and 70s
When I had my shop, I dealt primarily with two parts houses near me. One was an independent place that had been there forever. The other was a huge NAPA warehouse. When the guy would say, "let me check stock on that" - it was usually followed with "yeah I've got 1,653 of them" or some other ridiculous (but true) number. I found myself there frequently because the indie guys weren't physically large enough to have everything under one roof, but I'd check with them first anyway (they also made hydraulic hoses, so I was there a lot for that, too.)NAPA stands for Not Any Parts Available.
This is a true story: I tried selling parts one summer to take a break from shop work.
The closest parts house we have is O'Reilly (~16 miles), when I go in they ask me what year truck, I say "88 but that doesn't matter"
Yea, it was great when a customer came in and needed help deciphering what they actually needed. Being from the shop atmosphere, I helped a lot with that. Some of the shop owners were jerks and even some of the walk ins. This was before they got smart and started doing the commercial counter.Hello movievet,
Looks like we are traveling down parallel paths through life. A few years ago I did the same thing
at a local chain parts store. On the mend from getting so sick from the burn pits in the sandbox, I
was just looking for a little spending money from a no-stress gig. Took a position delivering parts
on the double to local commercial customers.
It was perfect. All the shop owners were pleasantly surprised that I had a clue, so when the parts
that were ordered didn't match the busted bits they needed to replace, I could get on the phone
with the commercial mgr and drill down to the correct answer in the fewest possible words. Or
even chit-chat a bit about how they troubleshot to a particular part -- they seemed to enjoy
sharing how they went about their craft.
It was like being the off-season Santa Claus, especially with the mom & pop shops. Felt better than
it paid, but after working on high stress fighter jets, this was a pure lark by comparison. The
motorhead version of working on a better than average foodie truck -- smiles all around. :0)
****
Of course all good things must come to an end. Because I passed all the required training & word had
gotten out that I had a clue under the hood, the store mgr kept pressuring me to work with the
public at the counter. Watching what transpired at the counter made that opportunity look
pretty unappetizing.
Funny, but what finally forced my hand was O'Reilly's opening their first store in the area (NY was
the last state that they entered) and when they started hiring we lost 5 coworkers in a single day.
In the ensuring chaos, they offered me a non-trivial bump to work at the counter. So trying to be
a team player, I started dealing with John Q. Public. Although it was a lot of fun to provide unexpected
technical assistance to unsuspecting customers that helped them out of a jam, in no time the bad actors
removed all of the joy from the job.
People who navigate through life with pure emotion and no knowledge twisting up every transaction with
so much drama and vitriol. A sense of entitlement that allowed them to do anything they could to try to
force a company to unfairly subsidize their cost of mobility without a trace of guilt?
Nope. Not for me. Even a little bit.
I had a couple of transactions nearly identical to yours, and I also walked away. Funny how you end up
learning some of the biggest lessons in life in unplanned moments.
Bottom line? Makes me appreciate how folks interact with each other in here all the more.
:0)
Cheers --
Yup! Went through that with our '90 square body Burb, and with both '99 Burbs. Multiple times.....Try owning a 99 or 2000 GMT400. It's easier to tell them it's a 98, lest they bring you GMT800 parts.