I would never go into debt to finance a franchise. If you can cash flow it possibly. The whole automotive retail parts sector is cut throat to say the least. You better pile-up some large and loyal customers who will be in the store daily. Finding good employees who are knowledgeable will be a challenge because you wont be able to pay them very well. Some of these counter people live and die by the damn computer screen. They have no idea or background about what or why they are filling in required fields on the monitor. I dont know how NAPA will format your inventory, but if you dont have it and the other store does, you just lost the sale. And I know the whole, "we can have it for you tomorrow" line. Somebody has to be on top of what is critical inventory to have on hand and not what corporate data crunchers say. This very problem also exists in dealership parts departments as well...

Starting inventory is around $450,000 for the store size I would be starting. NAPA business is 75% wholesale. Actual startup cost is around $600K my out of pocket would be the $75-125K. NAPA is not a franchise and has no franchise fees. They guarantee inventory buy back at the current rate. So if you have stale inventory you can just sell it back to NAPA.

I thought they must do mostly wholesale, or else the one in town here would have gone under a long time ago. Are you good at getting those type of clients? I guess thats what you really need to know.

This sounds more like what I was expecting and the wholesale side also makes sense. I would suggest that you primary consideration is to do a lot of due diligene in determining how you might penetrate that market. You will need to know if other parts suppliers tie up customers in contracts or not, as obtaining an account say "Joe's Auto Repair" could not be as easy as you might think especially if the process can be construed as tortuous interference with contractual relations. Then when those contracts come around for renewal you might find that existing suppliers incentivize renewals with various types of offers, so you'll have to be able to compete with that.

In my view that is your biggest challenge and what you need to know - how am I going to obtain wholesale accounts and also retain those accounts?

The NAPA store here is the only one open on sundays. They do a good business for that reason alone. I do think they have good quality if you upgrade to there better line. However the people who just walk in typically shop strictly on price and want it as cheap as possible. If you deliver parts to the mechanics and shops that also helps push product out the door. I dont really care for the big dorky hat on the roof though.

I prefer NAPA over other parts stores. Their parts are good quality and they can get some hard to find stuff too, such as the engine mounts I needed for my '69 Firebird.

If you're the only one in the area, it might be ok.

However, do some research into what it takes to become a vendor (so they can buy from you) to the oilfield companies. Drilling, servicing (Haliburton, CalFrac, FracTech, Nabors Completion). At Nabors Completion & Production Services (formerly Superior Well), it could be a 6mo wait. God only knows how long it takes to get paid...

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Maybe its the one hour of sleep talking, but huh? If he is going into an area where the oilfield is his primary customer base, he'll have to be able to understand what the headaches in them buying from him.


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And re-reading my last, I cant type on 1hr of sleep in the last 32hrs.


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