Advance Auto Parts

So, automotive news, even more fun stuff coming out right now. The guys at Advanced Auto Parts are going to be closing over 700 stores and four distribution centers across the United States. Not sure where all of them are at, but we know that every location, all 139 of them in California are going to be shut. So they're pulling out of California and they're changing everyt Now, according to a USA Today report, Advanced Auto Parts plans to close hundreds of stores, four distribution centers, and slash jobs as the sluggish demand for ve Okay, so do you believe that? I mean, I t Yeah, especially storefronts. I can imagine parts of demand is going to be a lot less now. It's a coupling of internet stores that have better prices if you can mine the weight of s You can't really work on them. Yeah, were talking about at breakfast t You were saying, as we're trying to talk loudly over the people at Waffle House, you were saying t Yeah. It got exponentially tougher because just more and more computers. You got to have the right programs to talk to those computers to learn what's wrong with the ve It can tell you everyt And you have to know how to use that $5,000 scanner. That's a big part of it as well. Yeah, I mean, basically you have to be a computer engineer to be able to work on the car because of that. And that's one of the reasons why the deal. I t Yeah, because they're losing, they lost a lot of money on the service center when OBD2 was a standard. Anybody can use it and get all the information you need. So then they started pulling back and trying to make t Didn't you say that there are certain t Yep, 17 and newer dodges require FCA authorization. They might have changed the name on that recently because the Stalantis and Fiat deal. But 17 and newer has a security gateway. So if you plug into somet If you try to program or tune a 17 and newer Dodge Commons, it will have a permanent code logged in that ECM that it has been modified. And they will not warranty anyt Yes, sir. Yep. So that's the biggest problem I think is T You and I, with a couple of pliers and some bailing wire, could make it run again. And a test light. That's about all you need. And I mean, that's, Most guys knew how to grab a set of plug wires and a set of plugs and set the points and put the plugs in it and get it running okay again. Yep. And generally speaking, if you, even if you only knew small block Chevrolets, you could look at a Ford and you could probably figure it out. Yeah. I thought just label your plug wires and take everyt Yeah. The only hellish thing on the fours would be if you, Yeah. Yeah. Just tell them no. You can't. Or Mustang, either way, it doesn't matter. It'still going to take you a long time to do it unless According to a Rudier's report, advanced auto parts executive is told analysts that its quarterly results were also impacted by storm season and the crowd strike outage. Now you took Yeah. I t I mean, was it a problem? Yes. But it was it a two or day? I don't remember how long it was, but if it was even three or four days, that can really be impactful because I'm pretty sure that advanced has over So 5,000 stores are having a crowd strike issue for three or four days. That's a lot of money. They did pretty well last year, a 37% profit line from last year, according to where they're at t And I t And they have stockholders that are sitting there, hewing and crying because they're not making as much money t So you have the problem of you need to pay the people the money that they want as quickly as they want. And that's just my thought process on it. You're trying to get in front of that bus and stop it. Now what is CrowdStrike? If you don't know what we're talking about with CrowdStrike, CrowdStrike is a cybernetic company that offers antivirus endpoint security solutions utilized by many companies and organizations around the world. CrowdStrike also provides threat intelligence and other cyber attack response. Almost made it all the way through there because they started to sound Where they're taking pictures of Joe Rogan. And it looks Yeah, using Joe Rogan's voice. Yeah, I mean, honestly, CrowdStrike kind of had a real bad bollocks there. They got done. And anyt That's why you test updates in the sandbox before releasing them, especially on a Friday. I would not want to be an executive at CrowdStrike. No. I don't want to be the dude that pushed the button to send that update out. No, I mean that, oh man, no, that guy's probably never going to work in the industry again period. He'll be asking people if he wants flies with that. Tupay and a different name. What's your name? Carl. Yeah, it was Bob, but no, it's Carl. Definitely not Bob now. All right, so I mean, that's basically it folks. It's really sad. I mean, and we're making some jokes in here, but there's a lot of people that are going to lose livelihoods, managers, store employees that are going to get eat up by t And that makes me sad. I mean, and it seems to always happen around t It's always right around the holidays. As we're filming t So if you're watc It's happening in 2024 in November. T I found out about it a couple of days ago. And I wonder if that's what's going to happen. It's Their prices are cheaper because they're working out of a warehouse and they're just s And they don't have brick and mortar. There's not the problem of brick and mortar. They don't have to worry about having to deal with 5,000 stores worth of employees. And a lot of them are buying wholesale closeouts. And so they're just stockpiling the wholesale closeouts and running that stuff through there and people are buying those parts. So it really starts boiling down to places If you're working on something I mean, I love advanced auto parts. I use them for a lot of stuff on more modern cars. But don't go in there expecting to get the part for something A lot of times, they just plain don't have it and they can get it for you, but it'll be anywhere from a day to two to three days later. And even some of the later model parts I have found with advanced that they tend to take a little longer to get them. And that's not just advanced. That's any of them. That's any of the other auto parts stores that are out there. I'm not picking on advanced when I say that. It's just getting that way. And yeah, t I mean, a small block forward, what started in 62. Yeah. Ish. And then ran to nineties. Yeah, Generally speaking, a lot of the, a lot of the gaskets are interchangeable. Oh yeah. A lot of the parts are interchangeable, but can't get them. And for instance, I went over, I had a part that I was trying to get in and I had to go to Augusta to get it because they didn't have it at my local store. Sometimes that's not even the case. They have to bring it in from Col And I've noticed in the last few years, And You're talking about a span of automotive that runs from the 19, really the 1950s all the way up today. And they have to have all these parts available for all these different t So it's a little tougher. Well, that's what I wanted to talk about today folks, was just to kind of go over what was going on with advanced. There's going to be a lot of people without work. And So there's a lot of folks who are going to be out of work here in the near future. And I'm really sad about that for those people. Sad about it for advanced auto parts. It's a great company and I've used advanced for a lot of years for car parts. So I hate to see anybody, To me as well, you t Yeah, because advanced was pretty pervasive. I mean, you can find advanced auto parts in a lot of different places. Yeah, especially southeast. Yeah, and the southeast, they're pretty much everywhere. I'm not sure about any other areas, but you can throw a rock and If that was your town's only part store, now you've got to drive an hour, 45 minutes, whatever. Yes. Insert inconvenient time. Whatever is most inconvenient. Yeah, it is really sad. Well, that's it folks. That's the r You guys have a great week and we'll Yeah, he didn't have to do much here and t Kuchu. Kuchu. You are just a peach. Yeah, some kind of peach. Probably not a ripe one.