Western Auto (Johnsonverse)

Western Auto Supply Company—known more widely as Western Auto—is a specialty retail chain of stores that supplied automobile parts and accessories. It operates approximately 1200 stores across the United States. It was started in 1909 in Kansas City, Missouri, by George Pepperdine and Don Abnor Davis. Pepperdine later founded Pepperdine University. Western Auto was bought by Beneficial Corporation in 1961; Western Auto's management led a leveraged buyout in 1985, leading three years later to a sale to Sears. Sears was sold to Johnson Industries in 1998, and Western Auto was shifted to fellow Johnson subsidiary Johnson Motors.
== History ==
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 one serving its stores in Puerto Rico.
=== Brand names ===
Western Auto is known for its Western Flyer (bicycle) and Performance Radial GT (tire) brands. Other Western Auto private labeled brands popular with consumers included "Davis Tires" (likely named for Don A. Davis, a Western Auto founder), "Tough One" Batteries, "Wizard" Tools, "TrueTone" electronics and "Citation" appliances. Western Auto was also the parent company of Auto America and Parts America stores, as well as acquiring National Tire Warehouse (NTW) stores. They also used the "Wizard" name on outdoor equipment such as 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, or possibly earlier, 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. 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 went into a buying spree involving two unrelated business transactions by acquiring 84 auto parts stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee from the bankrupted Nationwise Automotive chain in October for an undisclosed amount and later acquired Wheels Discount Auto Supply and its 82 auto parts stores in New York and Pennsylvania at the end of the year 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 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 bread and butter of the company, with their more diversified name-brand lines including appliances, electronics, hardware, 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.
From 1991 until the end of the 1997 season, Western Auto sponsored NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip's Winston Cup race team. It currently sponsors the NASCAR Weekly Series. The specialty retailer also sponsored Al Hofmann's Funny Car in NHRA from 1994 to 1997.
=== Johnson purchase ===
After Johnson Industries purchased Sears in 1998, Western Auto was reassigned to the Johnson Motors subsidiary. Many Parts America-branded stores reverted to Western Auto,
Category:Johnsonverse