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« on: July 10, 2018, 04:11:54 PM »
I thought about making a post on this topic and I'm glad someone did. I recently picked up an early 80's Mustang project that will be my son's first car. I want him to learn as much about his car as possible so I'm making him do all of the work including going in the store and getting whatever part is needed. I have watched him ask for very simple items and the guy or girl at the counter has no clue even if he asks for a certain part number, like mentioned above. Which doesn't help when you have someone that's willing and trying to learn. I used to work at an Autozone part time and I quickly learned that once you see it from the other side you realize the big chain stores are retail stores before they are auto part stores. Notice all of the fluff that has made it's way into these businesses. During my run at Autozone we sold electric skateboards! Only a few of my coworkers worked on their own vehicles. Of that few, most did not know what they were doing. 2 or 3 of had us a decent automotive background so we were the go to guys. The scary ones are the ones that think they know what they're doing and steer customers into buying parts they don't need. I live about 30 minutes from one of Summit's retail(there's that word again) locations and it's no different there than any other chain store. I recently was told a Holley carburetor didn't need an accelerator pump because it wasn't in the master rebuild kit because it said it had everything needed to rebuild the carburetor. I even showed him on their website a picture that showed all of the parts that were supposed to be in the kit. After pulling a second kit from the shelf the counter guy realized the pump was simply missing from the first kit that was pulled. Most of the people in these positions are there because they needed a job not because they have a passion any thing automotive. You wouldn't expect to learn how to cook a good steak from the guy at the local fast food restaurant would you? Most of the stores here used to have at least few guys that knew what they were doing but now almost all of the mom and pop stores are gone and the only choice is the big chain stores that may have one person that you want to do business with and he/she only works on Wednesdays from 12:00-1:00. I know, a bit of an exaggeration but not too from the way it feels when you walk through the door of one these places.