How does anyone end up in the parts business? It’s certainly not a career path that high school guidance counselors tout, nor is it likely to be advertised on matchbook cover trade school ads. Ask any counterperson how they chose their line of work and you’ll probably find that they just drifted into it.
It may have been inevitable for me, though. You see, my family has been involved with automobile repair for as long as automobiles have been around. My grandfather worked on cars with names like Franklin, Locomobile, Studebaker and Packard and after many years of shop ownership he retired from the automotive business and turned to farming. Even so, he never fully gave up the automotive business. He continued on by making parts runs for a local NAPA jobber going from Dover, Del., to Philadelphia to pick up stock. On a few occasions I got to ride with him and my grandmother in the Corvair van fighting for space with the boxes and exhaust pipes. It’s hard not to take an interest in automobiles under those conditions.
And let us not forget my father’s influence –– he was an aviation airframe and power plant mechanic so working on the family car was a matter of pride as well as frugality. So, between my grandfather and father, as well as my uncles and brothers (my older brother Jacques is Aftermarket Business’ technical editor), I was exposed to a wealth of automotive know-how from an early age.
After high school I gave no thought to a career. I just wanted to make enough money to enjoy myself and support my motorcycle habit. During a period of unemployment, I saw a newspaper ad for a delivery driver and decided to apply. It turned out to be with a warehouse distributor that sold foreign car parts direct to dealers and independent garages. Due to my automotive knowledge, as well as someone quitting, I was soon working full time on the counter and have been there almost ever since.
I’ve also done what many other counterpeople have done –– I’ve changed employers several times and even left the parts business altogether. When I left, I took a job in the trucking industry, which gave me a very good knowledge of the heavy-duty market.
I’ve worked in both management and sales capacities but came to the conclusion that the management rewards were not worth the demands on my time so I returned to counter work and will most likely stay here.
So where will the new counterpeople come from? Probably not from the ranks of the delivery drivers. The ones I know seem to be satisfied to be drivers only. And definitely not from school systems that ignore this profession. More than likely, they’ll stumble into this profession just like I did, especially if they have an expensive motorcycle habit to feed. Did I hear someone say, “Vroom”?
