Why Did Sears Close its Remaining Auto Centers?

[Joe Marconi]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[xrac]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Joe Marconi]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[NATURE]

I was a tech at Sears right after that happened.  Before the scandal they did everything from batteries to motor swaps.  after the scandal all we did was batteries, brakes, suspension and exhaust.  Their training was top notch and there were some good guys there but fear of future legal liabilities caused them to become one dimensional.  At a dealership all of the money is made on the service side so it's possible well run service could have saved Sears in a time when brick and mortars are dying. 

[Joe Marconi]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Transmission Repair]

After selling my shop, I needed something to keep me busy.  In 2016 I applied to be an Auto Center Manager.  The qualification tests were grueling.  Spreadsheets, employee scheduling, merchandising, P&L analysis, and on and on.  I spent a full day online going through the wringer.  In a couple of weeks, they called me in for an interview.  During that call, I was informed my starting salary would be $41,600/yr.  Do what?  Practically be in business for myself for $600/wk. take home pay?  Ridiculous.  I never went in for the interview.  The following year, that particular Sears location in Salt Lake City closed down.  Oh, well!

[Joe Marconi]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Transmission Repair]

Yes they were.  The last Sears location in Utah was at their downtown SLC location and it became a Sears parts depot for Sears and Craftsman.  It soon closed after the one I had applied at closes.

Reminds me of Carl Icahn's automotive holdings.  He bought Aamco, Cottman, Precision Tune, Pep Boys, Auto Plus, Just Brakes, and CAP (Consumer Auto Parts).  I've worked for the first 3 in the past and wasn't impressed.  Aamco used to have 900 locations.  Now they're down to 400.  A very good friend of mine worked for Aamco as their operation manager.  His wife was their general council (lawyer).  I was talking to him yesterday and he said all but 2 people in corporate are working from home and it looks like a ghost town at the corporate office.

Many of Carl Icahn's automotive holdings have gone down in value since he purchased them.  Like you said about Sears, I think he's (they) are out of touch as well.  See https://www.icahnautomotive.com/leadership.html

[xrac]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Transmission Repair]

Here's an ad out of the old Sears catalog.  This was waaay before baby seats and seat belts.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nO9OhyHJVT4hC1LVWx-uN-fLtWhTH-e_/view?usp=sharing

Edited March 13, 2022 by Alex
Embde image

[xrac]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Transmission Repair]

59 minutes ago, xrac said:

Wow that’s a really old ad. 

Yeah, it's a really old ad I ran across years ago and saved it.  For whatever reason, Carl Icahn thought he could build an automotive empire.  Like you said about Sears being out of touch, I think the same thing is happening among Icahn Automotive subordinates who make the management decisions.  Look at it; none of them have any automotive experience.  They are all a bunch of retail customers trying to run what their idea of what an automotive business should be.  Fairy Tales.  One thing for sure, all of his automotive investments are heading south.

[Joe Marconi]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[bantar]

4 hours ago, Transmission Repair said:

Here's an ad out of the old Sears catalog.  This was waaay before baby seats and seat belts.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nO9OhyHJVT4hC1LVWx-uN-fLtWhTH-e_/view?usp=sharing

They didn't have enough space on this little ad to be thorough....   Here's the long form.

"Guards your child as you're busy driving through traffic.  Let's him sit, stand, kneel or sleep without disturbing the driver.  Prevents spills from sudden stops.   Protects him from falling out of the open window.  Heavy web harness attaches to the safety strap that snaps to the car seat frame.   Removes easily.  Also use as a walking harness.  Sturdy enough to use as a belt for instant discipline. For 1 to 10 year olds."  

I remember sleeping on the deck behind the back seat while on long drives.   It was roomy, but no tie downs there.

 

[Transmission Repair]

1 hour ago, bantar said:

They didn't have enough space on this little ad to be thorough....   Here's the long form.

"Guards your child as you're busy driving through traffic.  Let's him sit, stand, kneel or sleep without disturbing the driver.  Prevents spills from sudden stops.   Protects him from falling out of the open window.  Heavy web harness attaches to the safety strap that snaps to the car seat frame.   Removes easily.  Also use as a walking harness.  Sturdy enough to use as a belt for instant discipline. For 1 to 10 year olds."  

I remember sleeping on the deck behind the back seat while on long drives.   It was roomy, but no tie downs there.

 

Thanks, Brian.  You appear to be a great marketer.  I love your location.  Is the car wash I see next door on Google maps part of your operation?  If so, I commend you.  Keep up the great work.  I was born & raised in Houston but at the age of 33 in 1988, I moved to Utah and have been here ever since.  I love it!  Low moisture, no roaches, mosquitoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or other natural disasters.

J. Larry Bloodworth, CMAT and RETIRED!

Draper, (SLC), Utah 84020  [email protected] 

[bantar]

1 hour ago, Transmission Repair said:

Thanks, Brian.  You appear to be a great marketer.  I love your location.  Is the car wash I see next door on Google maps part of your operation?  If so, I commend you.  Keep up the great work. 

Great marketer? LOL, no.  The only thing I'll give myself credit for is recognizing that I don't know what I'm doing regarding marketing and thus embarking on a path of copying what others are doing and have done. Can't go wrong copying success. By chance, I met a Houston based small business marketing company and hired him.   As a startup with little money coming in, it was a difficult decision to decide to move forward, but I knew that we needed to be known.  They say, your marketing piece must be seen 7 times before it's effective (so I copied this too).

Is that CarWash next door mine?  Thank heavens, NO!   The owner recently sold, but before that he was the most-depressed man I knew.  It's hard to make a living at $6/car.  He did zero marketing though.

I too grew up with 100% humidity and found Dallas to be arid and way better.   But our Mountains aren't as impressive as yours.

[Alex]

On 2/21/2022 at 9:47 AM, NATURE said:

I was a tech at Sears right after that happened.  Before the scandal they did everything from batteries to motor swaps.  after the scandal all we did was batteries, brakes, suspension and exhaust.  Their training was top notch and there were some good guys there but fear of future legal liabilities caused them to become one dimensional.  At a dealership all of the money is made on the service side so it's possible well run service could have saved Sears in a time when brick and mortars are dying. 

I was also a tech at Sears at the time this happened. I recall them firing all the service writers one day and the rest of us all went into the office, you either stayed or were fired. It was crazy, but I got to stay. I had recently finished Hunter alignment school with Sears and was doing suspension and alignments all day. I went on and moved to the salesfloor and then into management under STG/Sears Tire Group (separated from the full line stores into its own group). I ran a couple of auto centers up to 2001. It was tires, batteries, brakes, suspension and alignments. Jiffy Lube was doing oil changes in our bays and some other maintenance services. It was never the same after that. In its prime, Sears Auto was a power house. 

[JimO]

I am surprised that Fast Eddie Lampert’s name has not been mentioned. Sears was in bankruptcy and had definite trouble previous to his buyout but he did nothing to correct the problems and instead drove Sears and K-Mart into the ground. Icahn and Pep Boys may be this generations Fast Eddie and Sears.

I have dealt with NAPA and Carquest over the years and both have had their own small issues but they were still OK, focused at supplying parts to us, the automotive professional and not the DIY walk in consumer. In my opinion Carquest lost that focus since it was acquired by Advance. All NAPA locations were changed to Carquest in my area so I have not had dealings with NAPA for over six years and I am only able to comment about Carquest. Vehicles are becoming more complex by the minute, above and beyond the ability of the average weekend warrior yet it seems Advance still tries to cater to that crowd. Their profit margin with a DIY is better than dealing with us but their key DIY customer base is dwindling as technology increases and the back yards for the back yard mechanics disappear. Young people don’t get their hands dirty, they don’t want a house or a yard to maintain. New housing in my area is catering to this new mindset, young people want to live in multi-level large housing units near shopping, restaurants and public transportation. Another problem facing the aftermarket suppliers is the ever decreasing parts that are on today’s vehicle. No more points, condenser, cap, rotor, breather element, gas filer (in many cases), idler arms, pitman arms, control arm bushings..... spark plugs are still here but were replaced every 12K and now last 120K. LED lighting is killing light bulb sales. How many parts are only available from OEM or should only be sourced from OEM due to cost differences or quality differences. Yes, I said COST differences, I routinely see OEM parts are much more affordable (cost & list) than aftermarket Carquest parts (watch yourself on this issue because it could be embarrassing if you sell an aftermarket part for 50% more than an OEM part). Advance is big but so was Sears, they better refocus or the next generation will be comparing Advance to Sears 10 years from now.

[Transmission Repair]

1 hour ago, JimO said:

I am surprised that Fast Eddie Lampert’s name has not been mentioned. Sears was in bankruptcy and had definite trouble previous to his buyout but he did nothing to correct the problems and instead drove Sears and K-Mart into the ground. Icahn and Pep Boys may be this generations Fast Eddie and Sears.

I have dealt with NAPA and Carquest over the years and both have had their own small issues but they were still OK, focused at supplying parts to us, the automotive professional and not the DIY walk in consumer. In my opinion Carquest lost that focus since it was acquired by Advance. All NAPA locations were changed to Carquest in my area so I have not had dealings with NAPA for over six years and I am only able to comment about Carquest. Vehicles are becoming more complex by the minute, above and beyond the ability of the average weekend warrior yet it seems Advance still tries to cater to that crowd. Their profit margin with a DIY is better than dealing with us but their key DIY customer base is dwindling as technology increases and the back yards for the back yard mechanics disappear. Young people don’t get their hands dirty, they don’t want a house or a yard to maintain. New housing in my area is catering to this new mindset, young people want to live in multi-level large housing units near shopping, restaurants and public transportation. Another problem facing the aftermarket suppliers is the ever decreasing parts that are on today’s vehicle. No more points, condenser, cap, rotor, breather element, gas filer (in many cases), idler arms, pitman arms, control arm bushings..... spark plugs are still here but were replaced every 12K and now last 120K. LED lighting is killing light bulb sales. How many parts are only available from OEM or should only be sourced from OEM due to cost differences or quality differences. Yes, I said COST differences, I routinely see OEM parts are much more affordable (cost & list) than aftermarket Carquest parts (watch yourself on this issue because it could be embarrassing if you sell an aftermarket part for 50% more than an OEM part). Advance is big but so was Sears, they better refocus or the next generation will be comparing Advance to Sears 10 years from now.

Well said, Jim.  Those who have read of Eddie Lampert and his shenanigans know how Fast Eddie used Sears and Kmart only to enrich himself, nobody else. 

Many DIY'ers have readily available cheap scanners and often are buying the first error code with a part name on it.  Do you realize how many unneeded oxygen sensors they sell?  Every year they sell hundreds of thousands of unneeded sensors, solenoids, and etc. only because "the scanner said so".  The DIY'er isn't dead, but a proper diagnostic routine is.  I was in the transmission repair industry all my life with a 40-year career.  A lot changed not only in transmissions, but like you indicated, the whole damn car changed.  More and more computers, chips, and and multiple CAN networks.  They last longer with less maintenance.  When I started, vehicles were expected to last only 100K miles.  It was a regular occurrence at our shop to be doing a transmission on a vehicle with less that 50K miles on it.  Good God, vehicles back then only had 5-digit odometers.  Now they have 6-digit odometers and a 300K mile life expectancy.  Just look at the EVs.  Those are million-mile vehicles with little maintenance and connected to the internet of over-the-air (OTA) updates and reprogramming.  They can even buy extra features and options with OTA communication after they already made the original purchase.  But it's often been said that any type of new technology takes 30 years to be widely adopted, I think EVs are just starting on that path.  ICE powered vehicles will only diminish over time, but I doubt if they will ever completely go away.

Additionally there's a lot of shops that can't diagnose; they only do parts swaps.  This created a whole new industry with mobile programming and diagnostics.  While most of what you say is true, I think there will always be DIY'ers, tinkerers, and hot rodders to be served by the auto parts market.  Snake oil-type additives, stop leaks, and fix-alls will always be popular.  Equally true, the wannabe DIY'ers, tinkerers, and hot rodders are slowly going away for just the reasons you mention.  I no longer own a shop or rent the building.  I now take my truck into a shop instead of working on it myself because I'm retired with few tools.  Shifting gears, speaking of retirement...

I retired 7 years ago at the age of 60 and I feel very blessed and lucky.  I personally know of two local (SLC, Utah) transmission shop owners who are in their 80s who can't afford to retire.  They are both active in their business and work way over 40 hours a week.  Now THAT is really very, very sad.  Like many, I spend more time on my PC now that I'm retired.  I often read of various business and technical problems on the automotive and transmission forums of the problems they are experiencing.  I retired before our industry became plagued with parts problems, supply chain issues, and chip shortages.  I only read about those problems, I've never experienced them myself and I often wonder how many are being pushed into early retirement because of all those types of problems. 

While I live the same lifestyle to which I have grown accustom to over the years, I now don't have any monthly notes like I used to.  We have a 2021 RAV4 Hybrid which my wife picked out and really loves.  The owner's manual is 768 pages and the infotainment and navigation manual is 242 pages.  Combined, that's over 1K pages.  Now THAT'S some serious technology training.  There's so many buttons, switches, knobs and software options we feel more like we're flying the space shuttle than driving a Toyota.

We have no car notes, mortgage payments, or monthly CC bills and that has only happened since we retired.  Taxes, insurance, and utilities are the only recurring bills except the ever-growing inflationary weekly food bill.  Who would have ever thought bacon would hit over $8 bucks?  And that's not even for a pound.  They are only 12 ounces nowadays.  While we won't have as much due to inflation, we have enough to withstand it.  It's hard to talk about inflation without going off the rails into politics, so I won't.

Finally, a technical tip if you're still reading my epistle...  I have a hard time reading the small font size in this forum.  If you hit CTRL and +, whatever you're reading will grow in size.  You can hit CTRL and + as many times as you need to get the size you feel comfy with.  Just sayin'...

J. Larry Bloodworth, 801-885-2227 [email protected]