Dueling Auto Parts

Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better…

In the Town of Farragut, there are quite a few issues the citizens like to debate these days:

• Red Light Cameras
• Traffic Calming Islands
• Historic Lighting on Campbell Station Road

But one thing you don’t hear much about…dueling auto parts stores.

For a couple years, at the intersection of Kingston Pike and Canton Hollow Road (across from Lovell) Advance Auto Parts has been serving customers of the greater Farragut area. Within the last six months, the good folks at Auto Zone have located JUST east of Canton Hollow.

So, in other words, there are two auto parts stores within about 100 feet of each other. Now, I’m in favor of spark plugs just as much as the next guy, but did we really need TWO stores? Is the inventory of one store radically different than the other? (And couldn’t we have had a Fuddruckers, Zaxby’s or Boston Market instead?).

The issue puts me at odds with myself. On one hand, as a Memphis guy, I tend to favor the hometown store, AutoZone. On the other hand, Advance was here first and they were doing a good job. I always found the staff helpful and friendly.

It’s definitely a conundrum.

I do wonder what the marketing folks at AutoZone were thinking when they decided to build their store so close to Advance:

• There will be a run on wiper blades in Farragut soon, so we need to be there to corner the market.
• The marketing folks at Advance must know SOMETHING so we’ll follow their lead.
• Anything they can do we can do better!

Maybe they just thought the two stores could just share customers.

“Oh, Advance really specializes in motor fluids, so we’ll send you over there. We’re more comfortable selling batteries.”

And how do the folks at Advance look at their new neighbors.

• Uh-oh, we’re in trouble now.
• Let’s split the anti-freeze customers 50/50!
• Who’s AutoZone?

Of course, I guess it shouldn’t surprise me to find auto parts store clusters out here. We already do that in Farragut with banks and quickie marts. We could use a few more auto parts stores before we reach market saturation.

Hey guys, don’t look now, but NAPA is just a few miles up the road…

JG

(Source: youtube.com)

Originally posted 12/28/2011