Advance Auto Parts Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts full-time for less than a year

Pros – Always something to challenge you - so you don't get bored - Wide range of customers makes for a interesting day - but i'm a longtime car guy so i'm right at home in this enviroment.Co workers and in store management are great to work with.

Cons – Advance seems to be uncertain of their direction right now - seems to be shifting more toward number watching rather than servicing the customer - stores are frequently understaffed.I understand the need to control costs in a business - but this a service based business more than a retail business-unlike Walmart and the like,most of our customers need assistance to purchase what they need.

Advice to Senior Management – Ease off the micromanaging and give the manager the authority to manage their stores - we have to make a return to service first for the customer - and training for the employees - if you take care of the customer - and have properly trained employees in the store - the sales numbers will be there .

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Helping out the customers that need your help, it feels good to do something that I find simple that makes a customer's day. I truly respect most of the people I work with, most have the knowledge and skills that help the store thrive and make customers happy.

Cons – Well the pay and the hours are less to be desires. Even if you have the education and credentials you are still treated like a burden because "you didn't put the time in". Some management is a victim of the "retail curse": "Well you've been here long enough, would you like to run the place". The computer systems are awful, I use my smart phone so many times during the day to find thins for customers.

Advice to Senior Management – Acknowledge the people who make a difference at the bottom line, not the people you're friends with.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts part-time for less than a year

Pros – As a mobile parts professional, I get paid to drive around and deliver parts to various commercial customers. I love driving, listening to music, and making new friends with the mechanics and service writers. I get along with all of my coworkers and morale is high. Part time employees are eligible for benefits and employees receive a 20% discount on parts.

Cons – The pay is dismal. $8 an hour with 20 guaranteed hours per week for a part time employee. There's a high turnover rate and no one seems to be able to attain full time status. No bonuses given to drivers, aside from the occasional free lunch. After three months I expected a review and a raise only to be told that our store was skipped this year when it came to raises. "They're given out every March, so we're obviously not getting them this year. And if you get one next year it'll likely only be ten cents or so." I was told to hope for a federal minimum wage increase instead.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – I like helping people find solutions to problems with their car. Company has some of the best parts brands and the ability to get whatever parts my customer needs. I like the people I work with and local division management are easy to work with.

Cons – Reduced payroll make it difficult to staff the store with enough employees. Salaried managers are expected to take up the slack.

Advice to Senior Management – Give stored adequate resources to meet corporate goals and expectations.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts

Pros – Flexibility, laid back management, things get done eventually but it's not a hard job

Cons – Getting written up for stupid things is like going to the principals office, upper management talks to you like your a child, pay is embarrassing. Sales associates are trusted with nothing everything is locked down for manager approval.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees with respect.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts full-time

Pros – AAP is a stable company with an abundance of facilities, which opens a wide field of advancement opportunity for team members at all levels.

AAP seems to genuinely care about team members, training, employee retention, and their compensation levels are competitive for exempt salaried positions.

AAP is fairly good about sharing the vision behind corporate level decisions, as well as the "big picture" ideology behind the decision.

Cons – While they share the vision and big picture surrounding ideas, they do not appear to do enough beta testing with chain wide rollouts.

The company does not focus on handling individual problems with team members at the origination point of the problem. Instead, they tend to issue chain wide policies that make successful managers feel unappreciated and underestimated. For example, a standardized schedule has been developed for salaried Store Managers that requires an hour lunch, involves working every Friday night and then opening every Saturday morning except for one per month, giving managers every Wednesday off, even if it is their warehouse truck replenishment day, and making anything that even resembles flexibility with scheduling a distant memory.

The company frequently makes knee jerk decisions that affect the entire chain.

AAP is following Walmart's model of cutting labor expenses to the lowest possible levels. The problem with this approach is that AAP's core merchandise requires customer facing team member interactions. If there are less team members facing customers, stores are going to generate less revenue. Employee bonuses and pay increases are based on achieving sales expectations.

IT software and hardware is outdated and needs to be replaced.

Upper management has all but eliminated managing markets based on the demographics and characteristics of that market. All too often, decisions are made with only the affect of the entire company in mind. For example, company wide DIY sales may not be dropping, but if DIY is suffering in areas that it used to be strong, and commercial is excelling in another, sales stay stagnant. Not losing focus on what you have earned, while making investments to get something that you haven't, is not something that the company believes in.

The company is investing in commercial growth by gutting the DIY sales coverage instead of maintaining DIY staffing levels and actually making an investment in commercial business to ensure future success.

Advice to Senior Management – My advice to upper management would be to make a couple of decisions. Make a decision on what type of company you want to be associated with. There are two key things that company needs to consider.

The first is:

Do you want to have operationally minded people managing your stores? This tendency to put parts salesmen in management positions, and then try to force them to be operationally efficient, is not a very sustainable practice. At the same time, putting operationally oriented managers into stores and expecting them to make selling parts the main focus of their day will prove to be a bad decision as well. Stores that are operationally sound and put customer centric behaviors into place will generate sales that far exceed expectations, if there is labor to sell the parts.

The second is:

Look at the ratings on this site for Walmart, and then look at the ratings on this site for Costco. There is a pretty distinct difference. If you also look at the public image that each of the companies have: media reports, and year over year comp reports, you also see a difference in performance. Does AAP want to follow the Costco example, or the Walmart example?

I am fairly certain that someone at home office reads these. I say that because shortly before the scheduling template was introduced, it was suggested on this site. We were made aware of the change not even six weeks later. I love working at AAP, I strive to be the best manager that I can be every day I work, and I do not accept not being the best at what I do. I do not enjoy being made to feel as if I can not make a sound business decision at store level. There are days that I feel like tossing my keys across the store and walking out. While those days are very few, it is pretty hard to demotivate me; yet, upper management has been able to push me to that point lately.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Pretty good Pay. and benefits

Cons – Chaos in the workplace at all times

Advice to Senior Management – Every time you get to know and familiarize yourself with one way of doing things corporate comes in and switches everything the opposite way. Don't ever get used to the way of doing things.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Easy job at times pretty good money for what you do. Ability to move up or transfer easily.

Cons – Too many to list sorry

Advice to Senior Management – Stop micro managing me

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Enjoy the industry and company has a good culture. With so many stores and a large corporate office, there are plenty of opportunity for career growth if you want to apply yourself and actively look for something to do

Cons – The company changes direction constantly. One of the big difference between this company and others is the number of times we change major initiatives. We seem to really have the flavor of the month and i think that slows down our execution at times.

Advice to Senior Management – Work in the store more often and stick with consistent strategy and messaging

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Advance Auto Parts part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good benefits, okay pay, incentives to sell but not competitive as in a commission type job. Work isn't terribly labor intensive, and with automotive knowledge, helping customers is a breeze. There's plenty of tools and machinery to perform tasks needed all around the store. They allow you to go above and beyond helping a customer with their vehicle if you feel comfortable and confident doing so. Multi-tasking abilities are a must. Answering phone calls and helping customers while making sure deliveries (if you're also a driver) are being made accurately and on time all at once is something that happens commonly.

Cons – Pay could be better especially for knowledge required to work there.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep doing what you're doing. Be understanding that some days, goals just aren't' gonna be met.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend