Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Smaller parts retailers clash with big chains

Surviving in the automotive parts retail jungle alongside such mammoths as AutoZone Inc. and Wal-Mart Corp. isn't easy, local independent auto parts retailers say, but they're able to compete by carving out their own niches and offering customers unique products and services.

"The big retailers focus on the popular parts," Gary Garberg, president of Meyers Auto Parts, said. Meyers Auto Parts is an import auto parts retailer that has four locations in the Las Vegas Valley.

He said Meyers Auto Parts offers parts customers can't find at the larger retailers.

"We start where they stop," Garberg said, adding that smaller retailers face less employee turnover and therefore are able to offer more knowledgeable service.

The issue was a topic of an educational seminar at the weeklong SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show, which ended today in Las Vegas.

Independent retailers can thrive alongside retail giants, Debbie Allen, a motivational speaker, said during a Thursday afternoon seminar.

She said independent retailers need to offer unique products, consistently good service and need to "shamelessly" self-promote their businesses.

But a coalition of 160 independent automotive retailers and warehouse distributors are saying that is not enough. The group filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in New York against several large automotive retailers and manufacturers alleging the retailers are dictating prices and forcing the manufacturers to sell at prices that are lower than the manufacturers' costs.

The plaintiffs allege such practices give the large retailers an unfair competitive edge that is driving them out of business.

"You can't survive when your competitor is paying less," Carl Person, a New York attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said.

The defendants include Wal-Mart, AutoZone and Chief Auto Parts Inc., which was bought by AutoZone in 1999 for $280 million. Chief Auto Parts had 22 stores in the Southern Nevada area when the sale was announced in 1998; those stores have since been converted to AutoZone stores.

Wal-Mart and AutoZone representatives both said the same plaintiffs had sued them before.

"I would point out to you that this is by and large the same group that sued AutoZone over some similar issues a couple of years ago and lost that lawsuit in a jury trial a couple of years ago," Ray Pohlman, an AutoZone spokesman said.

Gus Whitcomb, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said his company hasn't yet been served with the suit.

"But I can tell you if we are named in it we will vigorously defend ourselves against what are some pretty inflammatory statements," Whitcomb said.

Person said a wide range of retailers and even the manufacturers hope he wins the lawsuit.

"The manufacturers are financing their own destruction, but they don't know what to do about it. It's (the lawsuit) going to put the genie of globalization back into the bottle. Globalization is no more than the failure of the government to enforce the nation's antitrust laws," Person said.

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