Western Auto & True Value

[Jmellc]

I grew up in a small town with a Western Auto store. Small store but decent lines of tools, hardware, sporting goods, etc. I bought tool boxes, tools, tackle boxes $ fishing gear there. I saw similar in various other small town WA stores & saw a few in larger towns that mainly sold auto parts. The company killed itself by trying to force its dealers into auto parts only. The owner of our store told me how that all unfolded over time. He left WA & became a True Value dealer. He later retired & sold the store to an employee. She kept it a TV for several years & dropped TV. I heard of several other dealers with same story. I think TV had some kind of shakeup too.

I know the smaller chains have had a lot of competition from the big boxes but it also seems that their executives didn’t know a good thing when they had it.

 

[driftpin]

We had a Western Auto in the village where I was raised but i didn't care for their tools as much as going to Sears Roebuck or to Montgomery Ward.

 

[Robbie B]

I believe we had a Western Auto in either my home town of the town over from us when I was a young kid. I’m 39 so by the time I got old enough to drive we had the usual scumbag auto parts stores around and the Western Auto’s were long gone. I remember the name mostly for them sponsoring Darrel Waltrip’s race car. We still have Ace/True Value’s in some of the surrounding towns.

 

[turbowoodworker]

My first bike was from a WA store. We didn’t shop there at all as the Sears was bigger. Not sure how my dad decided on that particular bike. Maybe a sale?

 

[captaindiode]

Here is some good reading on what happened to Western Auto. Skip to pg. 227 if you only want to read about the circumstances leading to the end of Western Auto. The name of the book is The Last Western Flyer.

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/9225

 

[Jmellc]

We had a Western Auto in the village where I was raised but i didn't care for their tools as much as going to Sears Roebuck or to Montgomery Ward.

We had a Sears & MW in the larger town 10 miles away. Went to Sears some byte rarely ever to NW. Sears did have nearly any tool made. When I moved to the city, I worked in a mall just down from Sears. I bought a lot of tools from them for a time & after I returned to the electrical trade. But it got to the point their stuff wasn’t much good. Screwdriver tips would break it team down in a week, cutters didn’t align properly, etc. I did often buy small control screwdrivers there. They had pieces & sets & they were fairly good.

 

[Jmellc]

Here is some good reading on what happened to Western Auto. Skip to pg. 227 if you only want to read about the circumstances leading to the end of Western Auto. The name of the book is The Last Western Flyer.

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/9225

I’ve read some of that. A good read. Will eventually read it all.

 

[lolaetype]

I was surprised to find that Western Auto stores still exist. Or at least something calling themselves Western Auto does.

https://www.local.com/business/details/clarksville-AR/western-auto-111804212/

 

[chris142]

Does anyone have a western auto spark plug reference book?