[special-K]

My Napa went downhill with this new manager. First of all, although the policy had been "no checks" for over ten years, the prior manager in charge when that began still accepted my checks and I'm sure the others that had an established relationship. Second, no more discount. I don't buy a lot or often these days, so the new manager has me on full retail. The past 20 years mean nothing to him. Third is I go in for common service parts such as an HEI coil, can only find MSD and Accel performance coils and they'll have to order that. It doesn't take a genius to see buying from my local Napa now has no advantage over buying online where I have no benefit of a long term relationship, their retail price beats my local Napa, and parts are ordered in. I get treated like it's my first time walking in now. There is no longer any personal connection, this bothers me, and it makes me no longer concerned if the store survives any longer. And look back at threads on this very topic and you will see my posts in support of your local parts store and preaching against going online for every nit pickin' thing. That's still me to a degree. I still try. I am now working on establishing a good relationship with the Car Quest store in town. I know they were bought by Advance, so it's really giving business to that giant of brick & mortar as well as internet. In fact, when I look up Car Quest parts online (ahead of going in) it's advance barging their fatass in front of Car Quest. But my Car Quest, which I still think of as Mt Airy Auto Parts from back when it was Big A, is still in the old location down in town on Main St with the same vibe as always and the counter guy already knows my face when I walk in the door. The relationship is there already. I haven't hit him up for a discount yet, might never happen. It's mostly important to me that I continue to have a place to go run for parts in my town and those guys keep their jobs. Years ago, I didn't buy from Napa or Big A or any other chain. I always bought from the independents, same as building materials and hardware... everything. My priority remains, start with the smallest business and work my way up when it comes to searching out what I need. Small businesses what made America great, not the big ones.
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On shipping costs, they continue to go up. But what we are feeling in the rates we receive or have to pay to the smaller businesses is the burden of making up the difference in cost due to the deep discounts given to the larger corporations that rely on shipping. They get "per pallet" pricing and you'd be amazed at how cheap it is. Even little old me, when I looked into setting up a classic GM truck parts business, I would have been paying per pallet. This has been over ten years now, but as I recall it was $69 per pallet. That's as high as can be stacked. Had nothing to do with weight. How many inner fenders could be stacked on a pallet? Fenders? Tailgates? Wheels? These places can charge no shipping due to deep discounted shipping rates and that can be absorbed into the profit on that item due to volume wholesale discount they receive. The shippers are in business to deliver what the big businesses sell and our individual shipments go to supplement that system. It's that go big or stay home thing at work