Auto Parts Glant Gears Up To Test Car Care Centers
Western Auto Supply is now the second discount auto parts chain to test the hottest wrinkle in the automotive aftermarket, the car care mall.
Later this month, Western Auto will open its first store in a car care mall operated by Car Harbor in North Richland Hills, a suburb of Fort Worth, Tex.
Typically, the four-acre Car Harbor mall will house a state inspection station and specialty shops for: mufflers, tuneups, glass replacement, auto painting, transmission repair, car rentals, car stereos, quick lubes, Japanese car repair and performance parts. Atypically, it will include a discount auto parts store, a Western Auto unit of 8,800 square feet, including four service bays.
Checker/Schuck's/Kragen in Phoenix, Ariz., became the first discount auto parts chain to test the new concept last fall when it opened a store in a Tucson, Ariz., car care mall and opened another store in a second Tucson mall late last month. "We're trying to get some background in that concept," said Dave Bunch, a real estate specialist for the chain of more than 500 stores.
"It's too soon to tell" how the test is going, he said.
Dallas-based Car Harbor, owned by the same Thompson brothers who just took Southland Corp. private in a $4.7 billion leveraged buyout, is just one of several national and regional chains throwing up car car malls by the dozens around the country.
Indicating the explosive growth of the car care mall industry, Car Harbor plans to build 10 to 12 this year in six different cities that may include Kansas City, St. Louis, Nashville, Tenn., and Phoenix --or any city toward the East Coast with a population of at least a million, said president D.H. Burden. Car Harbor is gearing up for as many as 20 more a year, he added.
Another car care mall operator, Lockwood Commercial Properties, based in St. Louis, expects to have as many as 20 malls either in operation or under construction by the end of 1988, including five in a new market, Indianapolis. It already operates several in St. Louis and several more in Kansas City.
Perhaps 100 car care malls are operating now, Burden estimated, with perhaps 100 more slated for 1988. About 200 car care malls are under development, estimated Ken Stolecki, assistant director of real estate for Western Auto.
"They're a real trend."
Another sign of success: Mall operators are forming a trade group to be called Council of Car Care Centers, said Chuck Laverty, publisher of Automotive Week newsletter.
Burden is bemused that he has failed to land any Chief Auto Parts stores, which the Thompson family also owns through their Southland holdings. The Thompsons are negotiating to sell Chief Auto, along with other assets such as dairies and 1,000 of their 7-Eleven convenience stores in order to pay their $4.7 billion LBO debt.
"Maybe I'll have better luck when they spin off Chief," Burden said.
Although Burden wants an auto parts store for each mall, Western Auto was the first parts chain to sign up, he said. It is taking a "let's see" position on additional malls, he said.
Going into the Car Harbor mall was just a happenstance, said Stolecki of Western Auto. "We were going to go into that market and we'd be there, whether it was in a fashion center or a car care mall," he said. "It's somewhat of a test."
Western Auto got in early enough to design its own store, Stolecki said. The unit will be 8,800 square feet, he said, or smaller than other company-owned stores that range from 10,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet.
In merchandising, the Car Harbor store will feature Western Auto's new national brand tire program, said Bob Suter, merchandise manager for parts, tires and batteries.
Last June, Western Auto began a program to expand its tire offerings beyond private label to about 5,000 sku's of branded tires. They include in-store stocks of Michelin, Pirelli and B. F. Goodrich.
Western Auto customers can also order numerous other brands, such as Denman truck tires and Gislevlid, a Swedish make, from its Tire America subsidiary, Suter said.
Western Auto has converted about half of its 275 U.S. stores to its national brand tire program and will complete the chainwide conversion by this June, Suter said.
Some Western Auto associate stores also have switched to the national brand program and can order special brands.
Besides the Tire America chain acquisition in January 1987, Western Auto made another major move into tires last October by acquiring the 52 stores of the NTW chain for $35 million.
Western Auto is gearing its tire princing to discount store customers, rather than to wholesale club members, Suter said. "We're not going to be the lowest or the highest price."
But where warehouse clubs are cutting into the tire market, Western Auto will adjust prices, Suter said.
Including the Car Harbor store, Western Auto plans to open 50 new stores in 1988.
