Thread regarding Advance Auto Parts Inc. layoffs

...and another dummy.

Exactly why Advance Auto Parts struggles in that segment of the business.

I'm not paid to have a relationship. That my cam's job. I have enough to do with inventory, shoot outs, and keeping people (including employees) from stealing from my store. Add trying to hire people and parking lot services and i'm tapped.

It's a relationship business, try building a better relationship with your customers and you won't loose them when your salesman leaves...

My cam that came from Carquest went to a competitor two weeks ago. Since then he has taken every single commercial customer my store had. I don't have a chance in making any bonus. I'm out as soon as I find something else. Why no effort is made to keep experienced people is beyond me.

AAP said they purchased CQ to learn the commercial business yet as soon as they could start doing it they roiled over everything into the AAP way of doing DIY business!

The differences in the way the two companies went to business were so vast and totally different.

Yet no one in AAP seems to fully understand the dynamics of it.

Two different companies with two totally different ways to go to market with two different groups of customers.

When they leave maybe the K-Mart and Circuit City guys will take charge! Now we're talking leaders!

I heard the carquest guys just got their last payout on their general parts stock. I wonder how many have been hanging on until they got all of their money?

less than 10% of the Roanoke team members moved to Raleigh, even less of the Minneapolis office. CQ had been failing for years. The entire leadership in merchandising and inventory is made of of CQ people.

The same CQ people that could barely keep that business afloat...

The original author of this post really hit the nail on the head for accuracy. The demise of AAP from within is getting close to irreversible from the lack of competent leadership. Too late to clean house and hire or promote. No one wants to work for a failing company.

As a former CQ team member, I'd like to thank everyone at AAP for their contribution pud towards the CQ acquisition. Without their deep pockets I could not enjoy the proceeds from my GPI stock. Life is good with over a million bucks!

How is it possible to NOT blame AAP? It's true a lot of the people from Roanoke did not transfer to Raleigh but a lot of people from Minneapolis did. CQ isn't in charge. Signs have been changed in Raleigh to say Advance. Different board of directors, different CEO, VPs, culture and so on. Have you been to Raleigh to see any of this personally? I have. They are good at saying the right things to drum up excitement then not follow through.

CQ may have been trying to sell itself for years and why not? Capitalize on your work while you can and move on. We should all be so lucky. AAP hires from outside, CQ promoted from within. AAP has a turnover issue, CQ did not. I've never seen more inept, unqualified leadership than with AAP. My former boss had no clue but could talk a big game. Seemed to be how you got a big paycheck with AAP. Talk a big game but no action to support it.

It's funny that you think it's Advance's fault. When the purchase went down, the majority of the people in charge of AAP in Roanoke did not transfer to Raleigh CQ Headquarters. So all the people in Charge, have been CQ people. In the end, any change to how stores work with existing customers will have good and negative effects.

Also CQ had been trying to sell it 07self for years. And the only reason why AAP purchased them, was for Worldpac.

Advance Auto Parts has self inflicted cancer caused by greed, thinking low paid part time employees and high priced junk parts would be the answer to higher profits for the big wigs and shareholders. I hope this company continues to fail to the point of no return. Many good people left or were fired so this companies bottom line would appear better, and this is coming from a former employee who was seeing this all happening. No corporate bail out for this slimy back stabbing company.

I also agree with this 100%. The Sloans ran a family oriented business that you as the employee could plan a career around. If you did well at your job you were looked at when promotions came about. It was nothing to see a GM at a store or DC with 20 plus years with the company under their belt. Then the CQ sale happened.

For DCs their cars and perks were taken away. CQ stores started "merging" with AAP stores which caused a lot of store GMs to leave. Many of the long term DC GMs left as well. I have sense spoken to a couple that I knew well that left and they didn't like the direction they sensed the company going and decided to leave on their own accord. They simply didn't want to see the self imploding destructive path they saw the company heading.

There is no communication in AAP. Turnover is a KNOWN issue by AAP and nothing is done to prevent it. There is no motivation. Incentives and benefits are horrible. There is no promotion prorgression you can plan on as AAP hires a lot of outside workers for mid to higher positions in the company that leave after a couple years. As the original poster said it's a revolving door.

Since I left awhile ago I have realized just how poor the culture, morale, company direction, and focuses by the company really are. AAP has no urgency or desire to fix the issues or they would have by now. It doesn't take this long to fix something that is broken if you have a team higher up that actually want to fix what's broken. Actions speak louder than words and when I was there I saw no action. That was enough for me. If you still work for AAP when will it be enough for you?

You are exactly right. I worked for CARQUEST for 28 years and now working for a bunch that don't even know what commercial is. They think DIY is where the business is. I am just trying to make it a couple of more years to retirement.

Very well written. I was in HR once and an RVP was calling because they had mistakenly hired a person 2 cents over the fixed start rate. He was more worried about getting in trouble than the impact of taking 2 cents away from somebody already paid too low. Not his fault he was a by product of the crappy company culture and cost focus. Best part is our people-if so start treating them like it means something!

I agree with this 100%. I was a customer of CQ long before I came to work for Advance, all professionals, all pro's. The problem with Advance is they do not want to pay pro's, they want minimum wage people selling parts with no knowledge. I am happy to say I am a former GM at this point. I worked for quite a few companies in my long career, never one with no direction as AAP.

Great post - thank you!!!