How does Autozone make a profit on DIYers?

[according2me]

Today I replaced the front pads on my sons 95 Alty. It currently has 201,500 showing on the odometer and this is the 3rd pad replacement using these free pads with a total investment of $16 for the originals. Granted, I usually do buy a can of brake cleaner there when I pickup the replacement pads, but I hardly think this makes for a decent profit margin.

I rarely buy my other maintenance needs there, Walmart just can't be beat on price for routine fluids.

In my internet travels, others count on them for alternators, distributors, axles, etc...for their lifetime warranty.

Just curious on others opinions as to how they can afford to keep their doors open.

[Inspector1]

1. They have a huge margin on markup.

2. They purchase in large quantity's like Walmart.

3. They are reimbursed by manufacturer on warranty items.

Autozone is a very large publicly traded company.. When I was in the parts business in late 90's their stock levels started to fall so they purchased a franchise with over 100 stores on NE Coast to pad their value.... they may still be up to that game....
If your company is losing value just buy out another company to show sales #'s are good.. They really hit Napa hard with DIY.. So the Brain trust a Napa decided to compete with them...Big Mistake..... Napa opened super stores across the nation at 2Mil a pop to draw the Diyer in but their prices were to high and they have since closed several here in the Midwest... They decided that they would downsize their Fleet and Heavy duty inventory and in turn lost a big chunk of that market in doing so.....
Napa is also a publicly traded Co. / Genuine Auto Parts....
I worked for Carquest a Employee owned Co. /General Auto Parts

Autozone has the advantage over the others due to the fact when suppling parts to Diy if its wrong or doesn't fit they just bring back...
If you supply repair shops.... you lookup/deliver part then if it's wrong you do it again and hope you don't lose that customer.
The auto parts industry is notorious for under paying counter people and like they say you get what you pay for!!!

When I was selling MRO/Repair parts I dealt with one of the largest privately help trash companies in the nation.
One day when I was at one of their locations they had a truck in with a roll-off Dumpster FULL of Fram filters/bendix brake parts(rotors/drums/hardware etc) and more going into the landfill the kicker was all the parts were new and still in box??

Autozone had purchased a small Mom & Pop store and trashed all the inventory???

I1:)

[benjamming]

I have often wondered the same thing myself. But they sell a lot of stuff, don't pay the hands squat, and just return all the failed parts to the manufacturer.

[BenjiBoy650]

They survive by charging me $20 for paper cabin air filters that probably cost 25 cents to make :censored:

[according2me]

I1...Good insider point of view. I also imagine a lot of people who buy parts there don't own the vehicle the next time it needs that same part. For us longhaulers, the free parts are like presents under the Christmas tree:)

BB...Please tell me the cabin filters were $20 for 2. What brand did you go with? On a related topic, I use the Fram air intake filter(underhood) from Walmart. They beat Autozone for the same filter by several dollars. Build quality is very good for this aftermarket OEM replacement filter, at least for my model and year application. Indeed, this is about the only product I buy with the orange packaging.

[BenjiBoy650]

Yeah $20 for two, about the same for OEM too I think. Locally only had NAPA filters, which are made by Wix I'm told. I looked at Micron filters but didn't want to pay shipping and I'm very sure the dealers weren't going to give the filter to me for $10 each.