Western Auto stores

[passatdoc]

With respect to today's Picture Of The Day (Western Auto Stores' Wizard line of appliances)....I grew up in SoCal and never ever saw a Western Auto store. Was I in the wrong part of the country? I grew up mainly with Pep Boys and Kragen auto parts stores in my area. Also, I never saw an auto parts store here that sold appliances or bicycles (Western Flyers). Did Western Auto perhaps function as a sort of Sears or general store in more rural parts of the country?

 

[DADoES]

 

Western Auto was common around here, all the small towns had them.  The one here is still operating, carries and services Whirlpool/Maytag/KA ... and bicycles, lawn mowers, TVs, power generators ... and even a Whirlpool Polara range that has been on display for years.

 

[joeekaitis]

I believe we had one in San Bernardino, CA.

 

[joeekaitis]

Oh, and in Fontana on Foothill Blvd. a/k/a Historic Route 66.

 

[whirlcool]

They had quite a few in the Chicago area in the 50's and up to the mid 60's.
Most of them were smallish stores, kind of like a tire store would be today. In the "showroom" they had tires and appliances and televisions.

 

[58limited]

All of the ones here were bought out and only carry auto parts, They are now "Parts America" stores. When I first moved here 12 years ago, there was a Western Auto store, hardware and appliances only, that is now a mom and pop store of a different name. I have a 30-30 Western Auto deer rifle that I bought mainly because it is a Western Auto labeled rifle. It was actually made by Marlin for Western Auto.

 

[mixfinder]

Cammilus Flower

A very gentrified old Southern monied family owned the Western Auto store in our town. Exxie Tupper was an institution, the sales clerk who always helped you. One day Exxie was crossing the street and Mary Hargrove hit her with a 54 Ford Ranch wagon. It was always hard to believe Camilus really took much interest in the merchandise. He had race horses, drove a Cadillac and the rugs and furniture in their house were over the top.

 

[gansky1]

"He had race horses, drove a Cadillac and the rugs and furniture in their house were over the top."

 

And they had Lady Kenmores in the laundry room? 

 

We had a few Western Auto stores around here but Gambles seemed to be  more popular in the rural areas and small towns. 

 

[tomturbomatic]

Well,

Did Mary Hargrove have good aim? Was she successful in her mission? Don't stop mid-story!

We had Western Auto Stores, as described, a combination tire, auto parts and appliance store, with bicycles, in Georgia.

We also had Economy Auto Stores, similar set up but with Philco and Maytag appliances. Ours was right next to the Kroger's so while mom shopped, I would go in there. The salesmen at the back would leave me alone while I inhaled gasket vapors from the Philco front loaders and Duomatics. For quite a while, they had a Maytag HOH dryer with a Lucite cabinet tumbling clothes in the window with a red neon light to simulate the circular heating element. When the store was dark, it was really neat.

 

[franksdad]

We had Western Auto stores all around South Carolina.  I went to high school with the son of the guy who owned our local Western Auto.  It was a very small store.  They carried a great selection of tires, a few lawnmowers, an occasional washer or fridge, some hunting and camping equipment,  but most things you had to order.My dad and I bought tires, 2 window air conditioners, several small radios, a couple of lawnmowers, some tools, and some small appliances there.  My first sleeping bag was a "Wenzel" sleeping bag my dad bought me at WA.   I still have the Wizard Citation shot of steam iron I bought from WA in 1974.  When Mr. Taylor, the owner, "crossed Jordan" back in 1982 the store closed and has been several things since.  Pep Boys showed up around here in the mid-90's.  Around 1992 Sears bought out many of the local Western Auto Stores and set up tire and hardware only stores.  These were quickly gobbled up by Auto Zone.  The last Western Auto anywhere near where I live was in Pickens, SC.  It remained opened as a Western Auto Associate Store until 2005 when Walgreen's bought the corner lot where it sat for decades to build a Walgreen's Store.  By the time the WA in Pickens closed they carried Whirlpool appliances exclusively.  I don't know if Wizard Citation appliances were still being manufactured at this time.  I never sat foot in that store but one of my co-workers bought his appliances there.  I always enjoyed dealing with Western Auto and I miss them.  I always loved when the new Western Auto catalogues came out each season.  I would sit for hours looking thru their catalogues.  You could order almost anything you wanted (except clothing) from WA.  Good times. Good memories.     Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Santa Clause brought me a 26" Western Flyer bicycle in 1965.  It was a good bike.      

 

[cornutt]

All of the "traditional" Western Auto stores in north and central Alabama had closed by 1980, as far as I know. There was a brief revival of the brand here in the early '90s; those were strictly auto parts stores. They became Parts American and shortly after that, they all closed.

 

[gmmcnair]

Western Auto Stores

They were very common in the 1970's through the early 80's in southern Oregon. I think the last one to close was the Myrtle Creek store in the early 90s. By then they had Magic Chef appliances. I think it's a True Value now.

 

[appnut]

When I moved here January 1986, not only aws there a Western Auto Store, but there was also a big Western Auto distribution center on the interstate which goes right through town.  The distribution center was here longer than the store.  I never went in it.  the store closed around 1990 and the distribution center sometime after that. 

 

[arbilab]

Fascinating. I love histories of iconic corporations, though the ends of the stories are always much less than glorious.

 

[mixfinder]

Bull's Eye

The Hargroves had just moved to town from Texas and as such were "outsiders"  I remember people yelling at Mary to get out of the car and help.  She said she wasn't moving until the policeman saw that her foot was on the brake and it was against the floorboard.  Whatever the catastrophic brake failure Mary was sure to prove her instints and driving were not the cause.  Exxie recovered being plastering herself to the grill while her legs rode under the car bumper until the Ranch Wagon finally came to a stop.  Years later I talked to Exxie about it when she called me to repair her Model G and her daughter's model 11.  In high school, I met Mary Hargroves cutting asparagus to help pay for her oldest son's college.  Both women remained resolute in their belief the other was at fault. Exxie is long gone and Mary is crazier than a loon but in her day she taught me how to make Southern Fried Chicken that is double dipped.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Western Auto and Otasco were two very popular stores in our area.  Much like Sear's but more friendly.  Our family used to buy all our durable goods at Western Auto.  Tires, Batteries, TVs, Lawn mowers, Stoves, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Bicycles. You could get it all at Western Auto.

 

[dirtybuck]

There were two Western Auto locations in El Paso when I was a kid. One was downtown, and the other at a shopping center named Basset Center (both WA and the shopping center opened in 1962). The WA sat on the south east side of the center with a Safeway and Bassett Center Bank right next to it. A few years later, the Fox Basset movie theater joined that area across the street.

I too remember the mailed catalogs that were found in our mailbox announcing special sales and promotions. But, of course, the best one was always the Christmas catalog. One Christmas Eve (I believe in '63) a picture was taken over at the shopping center with my brother and I showing Santa page after page of the things we wanted for Christmas from the WA toy dept.

The one item that is the "stand out" item for me was the crank mechanism to maneuver the pedals on my bike. I remember it was in the upper 5 dollar realm, and with much begging and pleading, my dad finally caved and bought it for me.

Alas, all good things have to come to an end. The WA, Safeway and bank were closed down in the mid-80's and boarded up for a few years until a new developer came in to establish a strip center. The bulldozers came in and away they went. Along with the demise of the other three buildings, the Fox theater was also closed down and boarded up and eventually torn down in '88. It was replaced with an Office Depot.

Trivia question! Who remembers Western Auto's main competition during the time they were in business (hint..it's a color)?

 

[yogitunes]

We had a Western Auto......

but also had BF Goodrich/Goodyear which also sold appliances...where Mom got her V12 GE

Economy Auto...auto parts only

Agway.....sold appliances too

Does anyone remember Dee's appliances and TV's?

 

[franksdad]

but also had BF Goodrich/Goodyear which also sold appliances

Carolina Goodyear Stores here in Upstate SC also sold GE appliances and televisions up until the mid-80's.    

 

[nurdlinger]

There was a Western Auto store in the Belmont Shopping Center at 8-Mile and Conant in Detroit when I was a kid in the 50s. It was the only store that had a catalog that I could reach on my bicycle, so that led to a lot of studying and checking stuff out in the store. I always assumed there were others in the area, but I don't really know whether or not any others existed. I bought dozens of bicycle tires and tubes, plus other parts like fenders from that store.

 

[hydralique]

"Who remembers Western Auto's main competition during the time they were in business (hint..it's a color)?"


White's Auto Parts, or something very similar. Western Auto always seemed a bit bigger and better, rather like Sears-Roebuck vs. Montgomery Ward albeit on a much smaller scale!

 

[passatdoc]

Of course, maybe there WERE Western Auto stores in SoCal, I just don't remember seeing any. Perhaps it simply reflects my parents' preferences (for auto parts, mainly my father's preferences) which tilted toward the Pep Boys. I also remember Kragen stores as a kid and until very recently---they were acquired a few years ago by O'Reilly Auto Parts, a company I'd never heard of until now.

The other issue is that sometimes we bought auto supplies (oil, washer fluid, etc.) at stores with a more generalized merchandise line: K-Mart, Target, etc.

 

[whirlcool]

O'Reilly auto parts is a big chain. They tend to gobble up smaller chains and add them to their own. They bought out Hi-Lo auto parts in Houston.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

O'Reilly bought out our Murray's Auto Parts chain in most of the South-East Michigan-area...

I, too, have never heard of Western Auto, either, other than in CONSUMER REPORTS, of which the product would be branded "Wizard" or "Citation", or "Wizard-Citation", and in the event of a featured product being a washer or dryer, don't recall seeing more than a black & white photo of anything more than an agitator, a tub or a drum...!

The chain never existed near me, or I haven't been in any areas 'round the US where they did exist, short of maybe seeing a shot of one in a movie, most likely depicted in the 1950's, an era I missed-out on existing in...

-- Dave

 

[passatdoc]

who built Wizard appliances

I am assuming that Western Auto didn't build their own appliances and that a major manufacturer built Wizard appliances for WA, in the same way that Sears had appliances built under their Kenmore label. Correct?

 

[dirtybuck]

A Few Responses

Hydralique...Yes, the answer was White's, but they were known as a (if I remember correctly) "auto and home center". I'll NEVER forget the POS edger my dad brought from them in the early 60's. The blasted thing NEVER worked from day 1. I think it was an "all sales final" buy, and they refused to refund his money. Needless to say he wouldn't conduct business with them unless it was absolutely, positively necessary (and I still don't think it happened).

Franksdad...There was a Goodyear roughly 2 blocks from where we lived. This was in El Paso in the early 70's. The building seemed to almost occur overnight with the way they rushed on it. A neighborhood pool sat on this lot. Barely after the pool closed down for the season in 1970, it was drained and a few items removed from the site. Not even a week went by with the bulldozers and construction crew coming in and tearing it up to start building the store. If memory serves, I seem to remember them selling some GE appliances.

Passatdoc...From numerous pics I've seen of the Wizard washers, it appears that Borg-Warner (Norge) was the manufacturer for Western Auto (just like they made Montgomery Ward Signature washers).

Whirlcool...O'Reilly's is based out of Springfield. Their corporate offices are here along with the distribution center. I received a recent "shock" a few weeks ago while looking at a few things in El Paso on Google Street Map. There was a little "mention" that a business was an O'Reilly's on one side of the street. I sat back and thought WHAT? Turns out that they had bought out the Checker Auto Parts establishments.

 

[beekeyknee]

Corporate Headquarters

Western Auto's corporate headquarters were in Kansas City on Grand Ave. , just north of the railroad tracks. When the company went out of business, the new owners wanted to tear down the giant electric sign on top of the building. The people of KC put up such a fuss that they agreed to keep and maintain the sign. It's very bright and you can see it from some distance away. It faces southwest, toward Union Station and the Liberty Memorial.