Pep Boys Closing 33 Stores

[dArKeR]

Pep Boys closed 33 stores and laid off 860 employees Thursday in a restructuring the company said will save $11 million annually.

About 700 store employees lost their jobs because of the 33 closings - about 5 percent of Pep Boys' 629 stores. Another 160 corporate employees were laid off to streamline the management structure, the company said.

The restructuring is the first major initiative under chief executive Lawrence Stevenson, who was appointed in May.

Stevenson said the low-traffic stores being closed either had misjudged the market or saw their customer base move away. Pep Boys employs about 22,000, about 6,000 below its peak.

"Nobody enjoys doing what we're going to be doing today, and clearly not the employees involved, but it's necessary for us to go the next step and return to profitability and growth," Stevenson said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/01/national/main566168.shtml

1. I knew Bush was telling us the truth when he said the recovery was here, 2.6 years ago!
2. Stevenson, what's your salary and bonuses?

http://www.geocities.com/darkerxdarker

[bmbmd]

1. Something that is significant about this

Is that the self-help auto parts business is relatively recession proof. In fact, the harder times are, the more likely car-owners are to hold on to what they have, do their own maintenence and repair, and patronize stores like Pep Boys. They also offer cut rate tires, batteries, things like that. I guess a lot of old car owners are parking their buggies and taking the bus.

[joshcryer]

4. AutoZone is providing better services, from my experience.

It's a shame, I know, but I think this is more related to just how the business world works than the economy. Though obviously the economy does play a part here.

I agree, though, that auto-parts stores are relatively recession proof. I just think Pep Boys had it coming for a long time.

[Atlant]

11. Seconded...

We have stores from most of the major chains nearby, along with
a few independent and smaller auto parts places. I've found
Pep Boys to be a disappointment, often not having common parts,
not being able to turn brake rotors correctly true, etc.

I went to Auto Zone for the last big repair job and found it
a much more pleasant experience. This is a shame, because Pep
Boys is practically within walking distance from my house
and Auto Zone is down at the "mall traffic hell" end of town.

Atlant

[BiggJawn]

2. Pep Boys was always an exercise in frustration.

In the past 10 years I have owned 2 vehicles, a 1971 VW kombi and a 1984 Ford Tempo. Now I have a 2002 Ranger that's still Ford's problem if it breaks.

"Poop Boys" NEVER had any parts to fit either of these beaters. Not even oil filters!
Their prices were not competitive to anyone but NAPA (hell the DEALER could beat NAPA's prices!) places like Autozone, autoworks, etc. ate their lunch daily.

I'm not surprised they're in trouble.

[joshcryer]

5. Totally agreed.

Pep Boys sucked. AutoZone probably won't even get much of a direct boost from this, since wherever there is an AutoZone, you aren't going to find a Pep Boys.

[Junkdrawer]

7. I bought four medium priced tires from these guys and they disintegrated..

in less than a year. And because of a class-action suit, all I could get (IF I went through a lengthy complaint process and won) was a few more of the same bad, dangerous tires. I went to an established tire retailer and bought four new name-brand tires.

I've never bought a thing from them since.

[truth2power]

9. I went to Pep Boys once...

swore I'd never go there again. They kept finding additional things that needed fixing. I felt very manipulated. They didn't seem to know what they were doing, and I ended up paying out a lot of money. Unnecessarily, IMO.

I've found Auto Zone to be most helpful.

[gratuitous]

3. That Bush economic juggernaut keeps churning along, doesn't it?

Just think of the entrepreneurial might and vigor being unleashed on the economy as 860 former Pep Boys employees flood the market! And with $11 million in savings from those layoffs and closings, Pep Boys will surely . . . uhhhhhhhhhhh, open more stores and hire more people!!

Another sterling example of the Bush economic genious!

[realFedUp]

6. Going to be "Pepe Boys"

moving to Mexico?

Now this is one for the Tonight Show.

[Mari333]

8. Bring It On!!

Recession, Depression, JOBLOSSness

http://www.costofwar.com/




"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953

[OrdinaryTa]

10. High Margin Stuff Isn't Selling

Pep Boys probably kept its low-performing stores going because of non-essential stuff that customers would buy when they had money to throw around. It costs very little to manufacture oversized dice to hang from the rear-view mirror, and retailers got used to the big mark-ups. Nobody buys that stuff anymore. Cars have become very serious.

[hotphlash]

12. jobs and growth jobs and growth jobs and growth jobs and growth

jobs and growth jobs and growth jobs and growth jobs and growth...

[CO Liberal]

13. Next Step - Lay Off Manny

Moe and Jack will have to assume his duties.......

[talkinghand]

14. I just went to Pep Boys a couple of weeks ago...

I needed a tire. I walked in, and stood by the counter. The people guy on the other side just stared at me. I thought, "That's weird! Why doesn't he HELP me?"

After a minute or so I realized I was on the REGISTER side. The door I'd come in put you where the employees stand. There were no employees around. I sheepishly went to the other side, and the guy who had been staring, another customer remarked that HE'D made the same mistake!

There was a tired-looking family sitting in the waiting room; no extra chairs. Another customer came in. And another. Still no employee.

Finally, a very harried-looking, inexperienced-seeming female manager came hustling in from the shop. She juggled papers around, trying to get one guy straightened out. There was a STACK of forms, very complicated, and something was wrong.

The guy who'd come in last must have been there before -- he knew the routine. He butted in and demanded his paperwork NOW so he could go over it while she battled with us little people. It really made me mad when she helped him next.

So I walked out. I'd gone in there because they had run tire ads that week. They spent all that money on advertising to get me in, and then their mismanagement ran me back out. I went and bought a used tire where I always go for 20 bucks.

I've gotten parts there a bunch of times, but it's not real convenient unless I happen to be downtown. And I know I've gotten service there in the past. They seemed undermanned this time, and the management was sadly lacking.

I blamed it on being evening; maybe the competent people worked during the day?

Reading this gives me pause.

[KG]

15. don't ya hate it when a company goes downhill coz upper mngt sucks?

heck, everyone one on this thread has a horror story.

the big-wigs always blame some other source - it's never the fault of the policies and practices of company leadership. heck they gots their golden umberella what the fuck do they care?