MOBILE, Ala. — Rows of radiators. Aisles of alternators. Towers of turbochargers. Enough brake discs and calipers to stop a runaway continent. And up front, Azalea Trail Maids.
Auto parts stores aren’t the natural habitat of Trail Maids in full regalia, but their presence at a Thursday ribbon-cutting illustrated that Mobile’s newest Advance Auto Parts store is not your run-of-the-mill antifreeze dispensary.
Four Times the Usual Size
For one thing, it’s gigantic. District Manager Rob Faggard said the store occupies roughly 27,000 square feet, compared with the usual 7,000 square feet.
For another, it occupies prime real estate in the Pinebrook Shopping Center on Airport Boulevard, the city’s biggest and busiest commercial thoroughfare.
The Trader Joe’s of It All
The location once housed a Whole Foods supermarket. Faggard said he’s well aware that plans to open the store have caused some consternation among online naysayers.
When the Whole Foods opened in September 2015, it was a big deal. Sandy Stimpson, then mayor, said at the ribbon-cutting that “It changes the perception of Mobile. We have a Whole Foods; we are no longer the city of perpetual potential, we are on the move.”
The Whole Foods closed in spring 2022. Some have held out hope that the location would eventually house something similarly aspirational — a Trader Joe’s, maybe. To some, an auto parts store was a bit of a letdown.
Faggard said he’s had a few conversations along those lines over the last year. His answer is that this store will be an asset to patrons in the immediate area and to the entire region.
On the local side, there’s no other auto parts store nearby, and there’s a large residential population.
“What we’ve noticed as we’ve been setting up, is people just randomly stopping, walking in, going, ‘Hey, I need to get –’ and we’re like, ‘We don’t have a register yet.’ So just being in this central area is going to draw a lot of those customers in,” Faggard said.
“Then what we’re going to distribute out the back, is going to take care of customers all in the local areas. I want a Trader Joe’s too. But I think Trader Joe’s needs to be in a little smaller building.”
What’s Behind the Counter
Here’s the thing: when you walk into this massive, supermarket-sized business, you realize the customer-facing part of it is pretty small. You can browse hand tools or grab a gallon of motor oil just as you would at any Advance.
That public-facing area is surrounded by what seems like acres of warehouse space filled with towering rows of shelving racks. As Faggard and General Manager Lewis Holston led a visitor on a tour, a theme quickly emerged: this store holds more of everything, and that benefits everyone from shade-tree mechanics to professionals.
A Market Hub for 70 to 100 Stores
“This store is going to service between 70 and 100 stores all along the Gulf Coast,” Faggard said. It is what the chain terms a market hub. Previously, the closest one was in Montgomery.
“So what that means is, in the past if you needed to order something … it would be overnight to get that part,” he said. “Now these stores in this general area will have same-day opportunity if needed.”
That is the substance of the announcement, and it has little to do with retail. For a repair shop, overnight versus same-day on a part is the difference between a customer’s car occupying a lift for a day and the job closing out that afternoon. Bay time is the constraint independent shops actually operate under.
“The nice thing about having a store like this is a lot of the things that were special order for us before aren’t as special order as they were,” said Holston. “Such as some of these belts, these big double sided track belts, a lot of times we had to special order them overnight. Now we have them in-market. Up in the brakes, things like Motorcraft original equipment pads and rotors, we have those here now. Brembo [brakes], which are used on a lot of the Challengers and Hellcats, we have those here.”
Faggard pointed to a section of shelving holding ignition coils. “When a general store will have maybe one four-foot section, this one here has about 16,” he said.
The Store That Was Already Overloaded
Previously, the closest thing Advance had in the Mobile market was its store at 3923 Government Blvd. It had the most warehouse space of any store in the area, but it was also the chain’s busiest store in the Southeast, or close to it.
“They do more business compared to anybody in Alabama,” said Faggard. “They do way more than anybody in Alabama. There’s a store in central Orlando that does a little bit more business than them. So their challenge has always been, while we used to send stuff out of that store, they sold a bunch too.”
Given the demand, the Government Boulevard store will stay open.
‘A Mini Warehouse Stuck in the Back’
Hub supervisor Jennifer Lambreth said the new location gives her about twice the space to serve other Advance stores.
“We’re basically a mini warehouse stuck in the back of this huge, wonderful location,” she said. “We service 70 stores across the Gulf Coast and been doing it for years and [we’re] looking forward to all this inventory that we have now.”
That part of the operation was set to fire up on Tuesday, Faggard said. On Thursday, shelves were marked with the names of various routes and their pickup schedules. Parts earmarked for specific stores go on the appropriate shelves, as drivers make dozens of runs per day.
Three Businesses Under One Roof
Essentially, the new Advance is three stores in one: Lambreth’s operation serves other Advance stores; up front, there’s the public-facing counter; and there’s an entirely separate counter for commercial customers. The overall staff of 25 to 30 people is divided into teams for each operation.
“The nice thing about this is, it’ll mean for the shops and the people around us that are using our company that they can get the car off the rack quicker and get you back out on the road and make your life a lot easier,” said Holston.
“When you open a new store, it’s always nice when you employ 25, 30 local new people,” said Faggard. “Which has been a big aspiration for us here. You know, we started off with 10 stores here, and this will make 13 now in the Mobile area.”
A Donation to Bishop State
As part of Thursday’s opening celebration, Advance presented a $1,000 donation to Bishop State Community College to support programs that train students for careers as automotive technicians.