Western Auto originally started as a
mail order business for replacement auto parts. The first retail store was established in 1921, and grew quickly as automobiles became increasingly more common. At one point, there were over 1,200 company-owned stores nationwide, usually located in metropolitan areas, and more than 4,000 associate stores (private, franchised, "dealer" locations), usually located in small towns. The associate store program was the first of its type, pioneering the way for modern day franchise operations. The company had five regional distribution centers in the United States, with the
North Carolina center serving stores in Puerto Rico. In addition to the auto parts stores, Western also owned two middle-sized tire store chains, a mobile radio maker called Midland International, and Eva Gabor International Ltd., a wig supplier. (source: LA Times)
Private labelling Western Auto was known for its
private labelled
Western Flyer Bicycle and
Performance Radial GT tire brand. Other Western Auto private-labeled brands included
Davis tires,
Tough One batteries,
TrueTone electronics,
Citation appliances,
Wizard tools, and
Wizard typewriters — the latter as re-branded typewriters manufactured by
Brother Industries of
Nagoya, Japan. Western Auto was also the parent company of
Auto America and
Parts America stores, and acquired
National Tire Warehouse (NTW) stores. They also used the
Wizard name on outdoor equipment including lawn mowers, tillers, outboard engines and boats for a short time, along with automotive parts such as batteries and tires.
Firearm sales Sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, Western Auto started selling
rifles and
shotguns in its catalogues. As with other chains at the time, such as
Sears, Roebuck and Co.,
Montgomery Ward, and
J.C. Penney, Western Auto's
firearms were sold under a proprietary brand name. Often called "store brand" firearms, they were produced by reputable name brand manufacturers, such as
O.F. Mossberg & Sons,
Remington Arms,
Savage Arms,
Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and
High Standard Manufacturing Company. Western Auto firearms sold under the "Revelation" brand name, and were generally models from the brands Savage,
Marlin Firearms, or Mossberg. Other than markings, Revelation models were identical to standard production models. They were the most basic models produced by the various manufacturers, and featured plain birch or walnut stocks. However,
metal bluing remained good and nearly all models were provided with
iron sights and mounting provisions for
scopes. Once valued lower than "name brand" equivalents, store-brand rifles, shotguns, and
revolvers have essentially reached price parity with their more universal counterparts. Firearms were one of many lines added to the store in a
product diversification effort. By the end of the 1950s Western Auto was similar to a Sears store, equipped with a catalog order center. Auto parts comprised a small percentage of the company's sales by the mid-1960s, and had nearly disappeared by the 1970s.
Beneficial In 1961, Western Auto was sold to the
Beneficial Finance Corporation. Beneficial retained ownership until 1985, when the company was purchased in a leveraged buyout led by Western Auto management and
Wesray Capital Corporation.
Streamlining business operations In the early 1980s, in response to the success of
Wal-Mart, Western Auto Retail converted all of the company-owned stores to what it called "FLAG" stores, which sold exclusively automotive parts and accessories. These stores were largely located in more urbanized areas much like their successors today. Western Auto Wholesale strongly urged its associate stores to become at least 50% automotive, but most refused because the customer base of their locations, in "small town America", demanded a wider range of merchandise. This disagreement by the associate stores would later save the company. In February 1986, Western Auto purchased 40 White Stores in Texas from
Canadian Tire for US$24.5 million. In February 1987, Western Auto purchased
Wheeling, West Virginia-based
Tire America. In October of that year, it purchased
Dale City, Virginia-based
National Tire Warehouse.
Sears Roebuck & Co. purchase In 1988,
Sears Roebuck purchased Western Auto from Wesray Capital. In 1995, Western Auto acquired 84 auto parts stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee from the bankrupted Nationwise Automotive chain for an undisclosed amount and later acquired Wheels Discount Auto Supply and its 82 auto parts stores in New York and Pennsylvania from its then owner
Fay's Drug for $37 million. Also during 1995, Sears began to convert the Western Auto stores to the new parts-only Parts America format by eliminating the automotive service bays. By 1998, Sears had almost finished converting the 600 remaining company owned Western Auto stores into Parts America branded stores. By the beginning of 1997, fewer than 850 company-owned stores remained. At that point, the associate stores were the main stores of the company, with their more diversified name-brand lines including appliances, electronics, hardware, typewriters, bicycles, go-karts and outdoor equipment/parts, and their reach into small-town America. Sears removed National Tire Warehouse and Tire America from Western Auto to form a new company called
National Tire and Battery, which Sears kept until 2003. From
1991 until the end of the
1997 season, Western Auto sponsored
NASCAR Hall of Fame driver
Darrell Waltrip's Winston Cup race team. The specialty retailer also sponsored
Al Hofmann's
Funny Car in
NHRA from 1994 to 1997.
Advance Auto Parts merger After weeks of speculation in 1998, merged with 590 U.S.-based Parts America Stores in addition to 40 Western Auto stores in the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Additionally, Sears Roebuck received a cash payment of $175 million USD, while Advance Auto's investors provided a further $70 million USD directly to Advance.
Freeman Spogli & Co. organized an investment fund that was among the group of investors that provided Advance with the $70 million cash infusion. A few of the associate stores converted to Sears Dealer stores. The remainder of the company-owned stores, located primarily in the eastern
United States, were then converted into Advance stores. The remaining associate stores were promised a great and long future in the tradition of Western Auto, a promise that was not kept. Advance gave little support to the associate store operation and as a result most dealers found themselves purchasing 70%+ of their merchandise from other suppliers and simply using the Western Auto name. ==Demise of the Western Auto distribution network==