Slumping sales nationwide have jolted an auto parts retailer and prompted the store chain to sketch out plans to slash well over 1,000 jobs in California and more than 100 Bay Area positions.
Advance Auto Parts announced last week that it would close 727 stores and chop an unspecified number of jobs nationwide.
Advance Auto Parts store at 2730 Story Road in San Jose, in a Nov. 2022 image capture. (Google Maps)
Now, the retailer has revealed its job-cutting plans for the Bay Area and California, according to official WARN notices the company sent to the state Employment Development Department.
Advance Auto Parts has disclosed it has decided to slash 1,683 jobs in California, which includes the elimination of 123 jobs in the Bay Area, the WARN notices show.
The automotive parts retailer has decided to close at least 135 stores in California, according to the filings with the state’s labor agency.
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It appears the shutdowns will eliminate all of the company’s retail operations in California.
Advance Auto intends to shut 14 Bay Area stores, the WARN notices show. The company has decided to close about 85 stores in Southern California.
Some store shutdowns are in the Sacramento area and nearby regions of Northern California. Several stores are being closed in the Central Valley, the WARN notices show.
These closures have erupted in the wake of a quest by Advance Auto Parts to expand its footprint. In 2021, Advanced Auto announced plans to lease 109 retail sites where Pep Boys had been operating and then gradually convert those stores to Advanced Auto Parts outlets.
The largest shutdown is occurring in San Bernardino, where Advance Auto Stores is closing a distribution center operating under the Pep Boys name. The closure of this complex will erase 171 jobs.
Advance Auto Parts also is shutting a Carquest distribution center in Bakersfield, a move that will eliminate 66 jobs. Carquest is an Advance Auto brand.
The ominous prospect of the loss of more than 1,600 retail jobs in California arrives on the heels of the disclosure of the grim employment picture in the state.
California lost 5,500 jobs in October, state officials reported recently. The Bay Area added a puny 800 jobs, barely bucking the statewide employment woes. Both the state and California are suffering a dismal slowdown in hiring activity.
Here are the locations of the Bay Area store shutdowns and the number of positions being affected at each site. The sites affected include Advanced Stores Co. retail brands Advance Auto Parts, Carquest Auto Parts and Pep Boys:
— San Leandro, 14847 East 14th Street, 15 job cuts.
— San Jose, 2730 Story Road, 12 layoffs.
— Vallejo, 182 Plaza Drive, 10 staffing reductions.
— Union City, 30085 Industrial Parkway SW, nine job cuts.
— Pleasant Hill, 520 Contra Costa Boulevard, nine layoffs.
— Gilroy, 210 East 10th Street, nine staff cuts.
— San Jose, 3780 Stevens Creek Boulevard, nine jobs lost.
— Hayward, 24005 Clawiter Road, eight layoffs.
— Pleasanton, 7051 Commerce Circle, eight job cuts.
— San Carlos, 1087 Old County Road, eight staffing reductions.
— Sunnyvale, 164 East El Camino Real, seven layoffs.
— San Jose, 400 East Trimble Road, seven job cuts.
— Santa Rosa, 1038 Petaluma Hill Road, six staffing reductions.
— Rohnert Park, 4801 Redwood Drive, six layoffs.
In some cases, the job cuts will occur in February. In other instances, the layoffs will take place in March, the WARN letters show.
Over the one-year period that ended in September, Advanced Auto Parts earned $43.9 million on revenue of $11.91 billion. However, for the three months that ended in September, the company lost $6 million on revenue of $2.15 billion.
