Learn Me: Why I don't want to work at AutoZone.

I worked there from 2001-2006 while I was in college. My store was one of the largest in MA and eventually became a hub store. While I met a lot of cool people while working there, some of which I am still friends with today, the corporate culture and the sheer stupidity and general awfulness of 99% of the customer base poisoned my soul, and I'm still recovering 10 years later. You will see the worst in people when they have a broken car and have no idea how to turn a wrench.

I've had parts thrown at me, I've had death threats, I've had people take a swing at me, and I've seen men beat their wives and kids in the parking lot because they couldn't get cash back on some used part without a box or receipt that they obviously bought somewhere else. I've had people beg me for help with changing a light bulb, and then chew me out because it took too long to do. It's tough not to let stuff like that affect you.

Then, there's the corporate culture. Let's start with the packets. Ever notice that they always have a little packet for everything? Bulb grease, spark plug grease, brake squeal grease, radiator hose grease, etc... it's all basically the same crap. They care more about how many of these packets you sell than actually helping customers. They cost like $0.02 to make and sell for $0.99 each. The district manager (or someone appointed by them) calls every day looking for "packet counts". If you aren't selling enough of these useless profit pouches, you get reprimanded.

When I was there, they also had their own "Autozone Cheer" and made under-performing employees record themselves doing it on a 1970's tape recorder. The tape would get played back in district meetings. That was brutal.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. It's retail work, and it sucks. The company sucks to work for, and the customers are mostly terrible people. The 20% discount was nice, but with places like RockAuto and Advance's online 30% off coupons, I don't miss that at all.

If you are already working at Advance, I see no reason to leave. I used to see a lot of the guys I worked with bouncing around like pinballs between different parts chains, and they told me it was the same everywhere.

It is a retail gig dealing with the general public. The general public IS that stupid, and you're at the intersection of retail and corporate america. And you don't have to be a car enthusiast to work there any more than you have to be a TV or dishwasher enthusiast to work at Best Buy.

I'd say you'll make a lot more money bartending. If you want to pursue the retail parts gig, maybe O'Reilly's or NAPA would be a step up? Maybe not.

If you're in school and need a part time job, you'll make far more $$ at a tipping job. Waiter, bar tender, bar back, etc, etc, etc...

docwyte wrote: If you're in school and need a part time job, you'll make far more $$ at a tipping job. Waiter, bar tender, bar back, etc, etc, etc...

But I enjoy being snarky with customers who think that "all 350s are the same." Or the ones needing parts for their Pontiac Goolie.

The real question (which nobody here can answer most likely) is will I hate my life more working in a rural setting at AutoZone or an Advance a few miles from Detroit proper?

On a serious note, do they really push the project packs that much? Am I held to a Sales Per Hour/shift goal as Advance does? Neither is worth the aggravation. I know the margin on those things is crazy, but I have always directed my customers towards larger tubes of grease/chems/whatever.

The service job is certainly an option, despite my complete lack of experience. Outside of my (now former) career in Healthcare Admin, the only other jobs I've held is Advance and Bicycle Sales/Mechanic.

I work at a rural o'reilly for fun and an employee discount on the weekend. It's actually a lot better than the pep boys I used to work at in Charlotte.

Out here, you get a lot of wtf stuff that makes you think and problem solve. I actually have a reputation for that kind of thing, and get calls all through the week from the store with weird E36 M3 no one can figure out. We don't have the corporate push on the part timers, but it is there in the "have you recommended and sold related products?"

I also get guys coming in on the weekend asking for the elky Guy, when I don't drive it. It's pretty cool to be that guy in the rural areas.

Usually the people suck less as well.

I used to work for a franchised NAPA. I really enjoyed it; it was mostly well-established commercial accounts with very little walk-in traffic, and most of those walk-ins were people who had already tried the other box stores with no avail, especially on Saturdays. Generally, the walk-in folk suck, but I always enjoyed the challenge of finding some extremely esoteric part to help a customer in a bind. My discount was awesome, 10% above cost. Of course, the autozone in our town sucks. I'm rambling of course, as none of this helps you, but uh, I guess look for a napa?

Mazda787b wrote:

docwyte wrote: If you're in school and need a part time job, you'll make far more $$ at a tipping job. Waiter, bar tender, bar back, etc, etc, etc...

But I enjoy being snarky with customers who think that "all 350s are the same." Or the ones needing parts for their Pontiac Goolie. The real question (which nobody here can answer most likely) is will I hate my life more working in a rural setting at AutoZone or an Advance a few miles from Detroit proper? On a serious note, do they really push the project packs that much? Am I held to a Sales Per Hour/shift goal as Advance does? Neither is worth the aggravation. I know the margin on those things is crazy, but I have always directed my customers towards larger tubes of grease/chems/whatever. The service job is certainly an option, despite my complete lack of experience. Outside of my (now former) career in Healthcare Admin, the only other jobs I've held is Advance and Bicycle Sales/Mechanic.

Ok, did you ever figure out what a Pontiac goolie is?

While we're here, does anybody else that's worked retail parts find the 1996-1999 Ford Taurus extremely annoying?

All Taurus. Ford and their damn 48 different types of the same part that don't interchange.

Dusterbd13 wrote: All Taurus. Ford and their damn 48 different types of the same part that don't interchange.

"So, you need a DPFE for a Taurus? Pull up a chair, we're going to be at this for a while..."

Id rather look for a smaller local store. I worked for a while at a local chain called US1 when I was in college. They were easy going, no little packets of anything. You still got some pita customers but you weren't expected to make all their problems go away.

I never really encountered issues with the Taurus and its ilk, though the few times I did, it was usually with bizarre wording, like Ford using tierods on the rear of the original Escape.

No, the issue I encountered almost always involved Korean cars from the early to mid 2000s. NAPA seemed to not have a handle on parts for them; we almost never had them in stock, and usually had to request them from the west coast.

Mazda787b wrote: ...The real question (which nobody here can answer most likely) is will I hate my life more working in a rural setting at AutoZone or an Advance a few miles from Detroit proper?

I grew up in SoCal and know how shallow and superficial many here are*. When we'd take summer vacations to the Midwest, I was blown away by how down to earth and friendly people are out there. I know you were partially kidding but I'm not, given the choice I'd take a rural job just for the quality of people you deal with.

*As a teen, I remember thinking that regardless who I married, she wouldn't be from SoCal, and no she wasn't.

Chadeux wrote: While we're here, does anybody else that's worked retail parts find the 1996-1999 Ford Taurus extremely annoying?

I remember one day I decided to start a "Taurus Tally" to count how many peopel requested parts for these miserymobiles. During my shift, and I didn't keep count while I was on lunch for an hour, we had 26.

26!!!

Out of those 26, around 20 needed a new EGR valve, regardless of engine choice.

SilverFleet wrote: Out of those 26, around 20 needed a new EGR valve, regardless of engine choice.

And if you know fords, they don't need an egr valve, the rubber hoses that carry hot exhaust gas have failed and the dpfe trips an egr code because it doesn't see the pressure difference. Poorly executed system.

In reply to Ranger50:

Usually, that's the case. But try explaining that to 20+ customers a day who don't want to listen... you get the idea. "Just gimme the damn part, kid!"