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?
Originally posted by @Oflewpz-osb. Good overview of what happened since CQ took over.