Today, I just got a re-education in the cost of parts from my local NAPA store in El Cajon, CA. I needed some wheel bearings and grease seals, so off I went to my NAPA store. Let me describe their pricing on just one bearing, a 30206.
My receipt showed a list price of $33.49 each, and a net price of $22.77 each. Wow, bearings have gone up since I last bought some! After I got home, I decided to check the NAPA web site to see what other stuff was going to cost me. When I looked at:
Another part of the order, a pair of seals, had to be ordered "from the national level." A week later, I went in to pick up the seals. Did I say that they also charged me $7.87 for "freight" for shipping the seals? That seems a bit high, just to move two little boxes along with their normal flow of parts. After all, they didn't ship it to me, just to their store.
Anyway, I asked the counter guys about the difference between the store and the web site cost. One of them had a nice fast comeback; he said "This isn't NAPA, this is County Auto Parts." I said that the 75-foot wide sign on the store front said NAPA, but yeah, I had seen the little 6-foot sign, down low at the corner, and that did say County Auto Parts. But still, should their pricing be a whopping +60% over the web site pricing? That got a good round of laughter from the counter guys.
Well guys, I was at the start of buying maybe $1500 of mechanical bits and pieces on a resto project. But with your pricing, I'd be paying $2400. Looks like you'll have a few less invoices to write. You guys still laughing?
Ed