Amazon to overtake another Industry

[bill25]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/why ... spartanntp


It will be interesting to see the landscape 30 years from now. If Amazon can deliver you anything you want, then there is no use for any Brick and Mortar store...

[kevm14]

You wanted an a/c compressor or an alternator for less? Good luck! Google shopping wasn't ready for prime time, and Amazon Prime didn't provide two-day delivery. Even with a commercial discount, I couldn't come close to matching today's online retail prices.
So I paid through the nose until around 2014. Right around then, Amazon Prime became a serious competitor to those who were willing to wait a couple of days for their parts

Rockauto has been around since...well I don't know. I know I've been using them since at least 2004, possibly earlier. Of course he mentions them later in the article, though I disagree with the idea that after 2014 Rockauto prices dropped like a rock. I don't think that happened.

I vastly prefer the shopping experience at Rockauto to Amazon, though Amazon has improved. I like the way Rockauto lists by year, manufacturer and so on. Completely random example: I just searched for "2005 cadillac STS brake pads" and I got 20 pages of results. Sorry, there aren't 20 pages of brake pad options for my car. I tried a few other methods and they are all bad, even the configurator. Like I said, they are improving, but I don't support getting a P/N from Rockauto and putting it into Amazon. That said, if Rockauto gives you the wrong P/N you wouldn't want to do that. I can't remember if I've ever received the wrong part from them, in 13+ years. That's not a bad record.

I will also say I don't want B&M to go away - I use them occasionally still. Unless I completely replan my life around prime shipping which I think is a little ridiculous. But what happens when I need a part in the middle of a job? Wait 2 days? Please.

[kevm14]

Scaling down and reassessing the B&M market would be fine of course for Napa and all those guys. I don't know how much more sparse I'd want the population of those places though.

[kevm14]

I will say one other thing. Autozone is probably the worst for getting people who know what a car is behind the counter. Advance is better. Napa is probably the best. But I think they are ALL getting worse, and have been getting worse. Which makes Amazon's success that much less surprising.

[kevm14]

The one thing retailers of auto parts are under valuing is automotive knowledge, and ALL the big box retailers are guilty of it. THE most important thing that draws people to a parts store other than the part you need potentially being on the shelf at that moment is the hope you will find someone who can help you figure out what's going on with your car. Auto parts retailers need competitive pricing, but more importantly, they need PEOPLE who KNOW cars, and they need SYSTEMS that are a far better help to those who DON'T know cars than ANY of them currently have today.

If retail auto parts is going to stay around long term, it's going to have to recognize that people with solid automotive trouble shooting skills isn't just a "nice to have", it's a MUST have in order to be able to say they have a value add proposition superior to the online threats.

It's true.

[kevm14]

And this is why a shop is never going to switch to Amazon as a parts supplier:

This is some horse pucky. I own a repair shop. We pride ourselves of one-day turn around. My parts suppliers deliver my parts in 30 minutes or less. If something's not in stock, I'll get it later that day because my suppliers run shuttles to two major cities throughtout the day. Sometimes you get the wrong part, you call them up and the bring the correct one, immediately. You can't do any of that online. I also have a commercial acct., after returns We square up the bill every week. I have humans to directly talk to, when time is money, this is the most efficient. Efficiency keeps costs down and customers happy.

[kevm14]

This is a thing.

You know everyone is saying that Amazon is great. You can get great prices. And if you watch Amazon is getting into everything even grocery delivery. And now auto parts. What is going to happen is that Amazon is going to corner the market on a lot of things that you would buy normally and then when you aren't watching they will jack up the price because you can't get the stuff anywhere else and Amazon gets rich. I like to buy local because it benefits the community and the money stays in the community. You buy online then your money is going elsewhere and the local merchants go out of business. I have seen it many times.

Although I don't know if Walmart has done that, for as many local shops as they've shut down.

[bill25]

I will say one other thing. Autozone is probably the worst for getting people who know what a car is behind the counter. Advance is better. Napa is probably the best. But I think they are ALL getting worse, and have been getting worse. Which makes Amazon's success that much less surprising.

Yeah I agree. It seems like when Amazon gets 1 day delivery down, which would be very easy if they buy one of these places as stated in the article, it would be over for the rest pretty fast. The example was Napa. If Amazon bought Napa, they could deliver the parts from the local Napa to the local mechanic same day. If Napa went to Amazon pricing, the competition is gone. Rockauto is great but can't compete with same day shipping.

[kevm14]

How far off are we for 1 day shipping of stuff that actually weighs something, like most car parts? And I mean like practical 1 day shipping. We've had overnight for decades.

[bill25]

You know everyone is saying that Amazon is great. You can get great prices. And if you watch Amazon is getting into everything even grocery delivery. And now auto parts. What is going to happen is that Amazon is going to corner the market on a lot of things that you would buy normally and then when you aren't watching they will jack up the price because you can't get the stuff anywhere else and Amazon gets rich.

Exactly, that was the whole reason I posted this. I Currently like Amazon, but lack of competition is bad, and they are getting so big, there will be no competition soon. There was a time that companies wouldn't let you sell their product if you didn't have a Brick and Mortar store, that seems to be going away, and it is impossible for them to compete with a company that doesn't need to pay a bunch of salespeople and cashiers. I like stores I can go to to look at what I might be buying. These stores are crazy though... I went to an Autozone on vacation and a quart of Mobile1 5W20 was 10 bucks. Are you serious? I get a 6 quart box from BJ's for like $28 on sale. Granted BJ's is a Brick and Mortar and web business, but I also pay $50 yearly to get those prices, not unlike paying Amazon $100 for free 2 day shipping.