In 1979, Joseph “Pitt” Hyde opened the first Auto Shack auto parts store in Forrest City, Arkansas. By 1984, this retailer store began to gain success and grew, having almost 200 stores. Because of the great success for the company the name was changed to AutoZone and was applied to 390 stores in 1987, allowing the successful progress to stand out on it’s own (Parnell, 20-8, p. 307). Due to the name change, they grew even more reaching “470 stores in 16 states by the end of 1988” (Press, 2000). Having almost 600 stores and going public by 1991, AutoZone’s sales reached one billion dollars by 1992 (Parnell, 2008). AutoZone wanted to better serve their customers in 1994 by upgrading to satellite-based system that was used to “customize store inventory according to local demands and to facilitate communications between store locations” (Press, 2000). Hyde the CEO and chairman of the company was replaced in 1997, and …show more content…
These shops could innovate a way to offer better prices, products, and supply the service on the vehicle, this can gain them more consumers and cause AutoZone’s annual revenue to decrease. Although, AutoZone has been working on a process to befriend some auto repair shops, in this way they can decrease one of the key barriers to consumers adoption (Campbell, 2011). As of right now AutoZone is operating just fine by operating over 3,800 retail auto parts stores within the United States and 100 within Mexico, top one making Advanced Auto’s number two, also leaving their other key competitors on bottom. They are going to continue to compete for the top spot, although AutoZone is known for their internal growth that they are going to continue by opening up 150 to 200 more stores every year (Parnell,