Local NAPA Closes

Part Time Pete

Well-known Member
One of our local NAPA stores is very good with agricultural and equipment parts - they actually have a rack of books that they still use. They closed about a month ago, and I think I'm going to miss them. I called another branch looking for a hydraulic filter for a David Brown 880. The young man asked me if that was the part number for the filter I was looking for - I said no, that's the model of the tractor - he say's ok, what brand of tractor is it...
We did eventually find the filter
 
My Napa store used to be great at farm stuff. Brought in a bearing and the fella would run upstairs and bring a new one down, didn't have to look it up a common ag bearing.

He quit, and the new kids just don't have it....... I came home with 2 bearings, after 15 minutes of looking on his screen and hemming and hawing, and find I have 2 similar but different bearings in my bag. Sheez. I suppose I should be happy one was right.....

Paul
 
Now-a-days it pays to look up a part number at home, then order the part online from home. The store will send you an email when your part is in stock and ready to pick up. For a little extra you can have the part shipped to your door instead of to the store.
 
look it up yourself before going,instead blame new kid. see it all time part comes in they have no idea what its off of or where it goes,but want it to be pulled out of the air like magic in 5 minutes. they can't help you if you can not help them. volunteer be on other side of counter for day. YOU WILL CHANGE AFTER ALL it only takes MODEL# and SER# of whatever you work on.
 
It's getting that way with the Deere dealers,,they have young inexperienced counter people making $11per hour, they can't find their their left ear let alone a part..if you don't have your part number with you,, you are out of Luck..
 
Can't understand why I can't go into a parts house and tell them I need the whachamacallit that hooks to that thingamabob on my gizmo and they know what I need. (In my late teens I worked in a repair shop where I had customers just about that bad looking for parts. Wonder how their do it myself project came out)
 
For all the guys tell to look it up then go in with the part number. I did that once with the local O'reilly's. I was told the part numbers on their online were different than the ones in the store so no help. Have not been back since and probably will not go back. I don't darken the local NAPA store with my shadow since I ordered an oil pan, and then they sent it back while i was on the road. Ordered it so it would be there when I got in to put on. Was not told they only hold things for a week. Got one someplace else. Would be no loss if they closed this NAPA.
 
I don't think I was blaming it on anyone - I was just lamenting the closing of a good parts source. With the make and model of the tractor, any of the employees of that store would have been able to look it up and hand me the filter.
 
I would hate to see our NAPA store close. The counter staff is outstanding, and their service is great. I went in Tues. morning for a drive belt on my '95 Polaris 4 wheeler. He said it will be here at 3:00.....it was, & a USA Gates belt.
 
Maybe the store owner is just tired of dealing with incompetent customers and currently available incompetent clerks, as well as incompetent help from NAPA.
 
I don't know the hole story but can make a educated guess on what happen to my local NAPA. The owner got into local politics and let the store run on automatic. The service was BAD getting anything warranted was near impossible napa itself had some to do with warranty issues. If he sold it he did not restock it he thought folks would wait overnight for it but it don't work that way anymore. This town is full of other stores that can get it 90% of the time the same day at a better price.

Napa shut him off Walker Auto parts a large NAPA distributor moved in. The hired a group of old parts men to run the store.
Prices are very good and they have 10 million are more in inventory. I can price match and keep the other stores honest :)
 
our napa isn't too bad family owned but they keep buying up the little single stores so they're getting bigger and bigger. lots of inexperienced staff. not the best for prices.

I often order online as they give a 10% discount but advance auto usually gives 20-25% discounts if you order online. THat's for car parts of course. tractor parts i go in and or call. usually can get what i need . local CaseIH isn't too bad for common stuff like filters and belts but more and more stuff for the old Case 800 are getting harder to find new.

we also have a local (3-5 stores) independent parts store that usually beats everyone not-online prices and carries mostly decent stuff. some name brand and some off brand but still decent quality.
 
A bearing, common old ag bearing, read the number sampled on the edge or measure with the dial gauge he has on the front desk and cross it to whatever brand they stock.

No model numbers, no make needed, just a simple bearing, see here is where I cleaned the grease off to show you the numbers stamped on it. I need two of them.

20 minutes later, I get 2 bearings that are different from each other?

That's my fault?

Now I check before I leave the building, I didn't think a professional parts clerk could mess that up so that day I had to drive back to town to get it sorted out.

Now I understand a lot of funny people come in a store and asks for the impossible, and there could be pages of stories of dumb customers and all very well deserved.

This was -not- one of those cases. I'm not perfect either, but I try to have my ducks in a row when I go for parts.

It shouldn't take 20 minutes for the counter person to cross reference a common ag bearing when I have the part there, it has a number on it, and for gosh sakes how can it be my fault for giving me mismatched bearings?

The old parts guy would measure the bearing, run upstairs, come back with two, open a box and hold them side by side, and it was what was needed every time. I'd be out the door in 5 minutes.

Another day at JD I got the new kid, I needed a bearing and a spacer for an older letter series JD disk. I had the model number, and the old busted cone bearing and the broken spacer.

The kid looked on the computer for 10 minutes, and just supposed they don't handle that stuff any more. I was thanking him for looking.... The fella from out back happens to walk by, look up from his papers, ask what I wanted, I showed him my parts sitting on the counter - he never picked them up he just stepped back 2 isles, reached up and grabbed a cone bearing, set it on the counter, took the p willows out of the spacer sitting on the counter by the next cash registe (made a nice centerpiece on the counter), put it next to the new bearing, and said ring this up for him.

Now I realize there are a lot more parts now than there were years ago, and new kids have to learn somehow and it takes time. And I don't expect thrm to have the entire inventory memorized!

But both Napa and JD got rid of the old guys, and pay chump change to the kid with no training.

It makes for poor experiences. I keep getting told thry can't order what I want, several times I've gone back when an older guy is working and he pulls what I need out of inventory.

I needed a light switch for a 1970s Ford tractor, sat with the 3rd parts fella for 15 minutes, he had to order it. Drive the hour to pick it up a week later, and one of tge other 2 parts people helps me - he wonders what the heck I got? I explain what I was wanting, and he said well this is some odd rotary deal, I don't know why that got ordered for you, but I think what you need is back here, and without any model numbers or anything he brings out a push pull switch from the shelf that they stock that looks like what I need.

Really now, I can see getting me the wrong push-pull switch, but the first fella orders me a rotary switch to replace the deal I needed? When I have a picture of all the numbers and codes on my tractor, plus the old switch with me the first time?

It's not my fault.

Paul

I did have to laugh to myself on the way home, the look on the kids face after he had just said those parts dont seem to be available any more after a long time on the computer screen, and both were in stock within 2 paces of where he was standing.

Just - not my fault!

Paul
 
You are out of line, fella!
Looking up parts is the parts clerk's JOB. That is what he/she was hired to do. If every customer had to look up their own parts and just give the counterman the number to go get one off the shelf, there would be no reason to have anything more than a trained monkey at the counter.
It is simply not reasonable to expect customers to have part numbers of the parts that they need. Model, make, serial number, and year are very helpful. Numbers stamped or etched into an old bearing along with manufacturer should be sufficient to get any bearing for any application.
 
Was in a nearby NAPA store standing in front of the Ag. U joint desplay , did not see what I needed . A parts guy walked up , I asked him for what I needed, His response was: We do not have any U joints for ag machines, While standing rite in front of the desplay. I went elseware and never went back. That store folded in six months. clint
 
Our NAPA store might as well close. The lady with all the part numbers in her head quit.The guy they have now couldn't find a part if you showed it to him. Heard him tell a man that they didn't carry a certain oil filter. They had six on a sales display. I left and wont be back.
 
Pete, which one are you referring to??? There is a real good NAPA in Cooperstown, and a more truck oriented one in Palatine Bridge. Personally, I prefer the Fishers/Federated store in Fort Plain. The manager is a Case guy.
Loren
 
One of the "local" NAPA stores​ around here might as well change it's name to AutoZone. The kid behind the counter needs a model number to find an air freshener.
 
My experience with the 2 local NAPA stores is that they are my last resort. Lazy, don't care, know nothing staff,
Only thing worse than the staff is the owner/manager.
 

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