How Does Rock Auto Work?

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Sep 18, 2002
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Location
VA
Can anyone explain to me the flow chart of Rock Auto's Distribution of products? I thought they had a system of warehouses around the USA where they shipped orders out of depending on where they were going. How do they get the auto parts in the first place?
 
Rock Auto does not own warehouses. There are companies that stock parts for any buyer. Rock Auto knows who they are, where they are and what they stock. They are totally reliable and super efficient and if not, Rock Auto would not be using them. Warehousing is a big business in the USA.

Here's an example. I bought an air filter. It came from a warehouse in Sugarland , Texas, was sent by van to the Houston airport, flown to the Fedex hub in Memphis, then by Fedex plane to Calgary, then Fedex van to my local town.

Where problems arise is when you buy several selected goods that come from separate warehouses and because of that the shipping charges are higher.
 
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The problem with RockAuto and warehouses is that if your items need to come from 3 warehouses then you pay postage for 3 shipments from 3 warehouses. They have basically made their problem your problem and you pay for their problem.

I always look at Amazon where I get free shipping. But I do end up buying on Rock Auto for many parts.

A few years ago I bought a remanufactured engine for my Jeep from RA.
 
So, Rock Auto is essentially an app. I didn't know that. And the only "potential" issue is if an unscrupulous warehouse supplier gets in undetected.

That's the part that bothers me in that Rock Auto is known for selling at the cheapest price anywhere. Seems that would lend to a greater possibility of unscrupulous warehouses sellers.

I have purchased from Rock Auto so I ain't bashing them.
 
Rock Auto's parts lookup is also not 100% foolproof. There are times where their system doesn't properly account for special option packages that might include slightly different parts (like upgraded rotors, for example). It will provide the replacement part found in most versions of a particular model and engine config, but not always the correct part for your car if you happen to have one of those packages. Just something to be aware of.
 
Just BEWARE of moving sourcing. You can watch the little truck icon to pick parts that come from the same warehouse. Sometimes🦨 the sourcing will change as you fill the cart so they can ding you more shipping. 🤬 YouTube has a few vids that show this. Rock is ok but stunts like this in addition yo those high ship rates tend to be a turnoff.
 
Originally Posted by Gebo
So, Rock Auto is essentially an app. I didn't know that. And the only "potential" issue is if an unscrupulous warehouse supplier gets in undetected.

That's the part that bothers me in that Rock Auto is known for selling at the cheapest price anywhere. Seems that would lend to a greater possibility of unscrupulous warehouses sellers.

I have purchased from Rock Auto so I ain't bashing them.

Yes, RA is essentially an app.

They own no warehouses and have no inventory. They use the same wholesale warehouse suppliers as the Autozones, O'Reilly's, and Advances do. So you assume the exact same supply chain risks as if your bought from one of those retailers.

I like to equate purchasing from RA as being similar to me getting parts at the cost that my corner mechanic pays. The process essentially eliminates the brick and mortar reseller that adds 30%-50%+ to the cost of the product.

The caveat is that you have to be willing to wait for the shipment to arrive.
 
I had a problem where I got the wrong part from RockAuto -- I ordered left and right LCAs and the "right" box contained another left - it was also a different brand than the box. It was probably a return of some kind.

The problem was resolved quickly through the RA online system, though.
 
I think I have had two problems with getting the wrong part from rockauto. Both times I was told to just keep the wrong product. That works.
 
I ordered parts from Rock Auto that twice came from a warehouse just across town from me. The second order contained what at first seemed a nice gift but as I thought it through i realized the box knife was accidentally placed in my box and sent to me. I drove across town and took the knife into the front office and showed them my shipping box and the extra item that came in it. They had a good laugh and thanked me for returning the knife. I bet they had a good time for days teasing this guy for sending me his knife.
 
From my experience, all of my RockAuto orders have been shipped from a Parts Authority warehouse. If you have the Fedex app, it will show the address of where the package is coming from.

Parts Authority is one of the largest aftermarket automotive parts distributors in the US.
 
I did not know Rock Auto pulled from wholesaler warehouses. Their algorithm shows warehouses "A" "B" "C". I thought the tool to try to aglomerate your parts order was pretty clumsy to use. I recently have found they no longer carry some popular Fram XG filters I've been using, requiring me to chop up my repetitive maintenance orders further to regional suppliers also. RA used to be my one stop shop for nearly everything.

I guess that's what you get in a margin-fighting business.
 
If I correctly recall, somewhere in cyber, someone said that received fake NGK spark plus via Rock Auto. To be safe, I ended up buying mine at Advance Auto with a 25% discount coupon from that venue.
 
Rockauto is a website where you order parts from. Not much more to them than that. Rockauto owns no warehouses and stocks no parts. They are a middleman, effectively.
 
I ordered a wheel bearing from rock auto and it came from amazon.On older vehicles most of the time their prices are amazing.I have used numerous business accounts from all the chain parts stores and I have never seen anything cheaper than rock auto.If you are able to plan a head and wait 3-4 days to ship rock auto is great.I bought a rotor and pads for a vibe for 25.00 shipped.
 
Originally Posted by Gebo
And the only "potential" issue is if an unscrupulous warehouse supplier gets in undetected.

That's the part that bothers me in that Rock Auto is known for selling at the cheapest price anywhere. Seems that would lend to a greater possibility of unscrupulous warehouses sellers.

What ? Rockauto partners with wholesalers in order to work together. There will be rules, for both sides, conditions, etc, etc. Before RA would even talk to a supplier, I'm sure they have to have an outstanding reputation already.

They can sell at low costs due to volume. Plain and simple.
 
Originally Posted by The Critic
From my experience, all of my RockAuto orders have been shipped from a Parts Authority warehouse. If you have the Fedex app, it will show the address of where the package is coming from.

Parts Authority is one of the largest aftermarket automotive parts distributors in the US.


Yes, one of my vendors at work, IMC which is part of Parts Authority, is a drop shipper for RA. I had my submissions when the RA quantity on hand for a very specific oil matched the city and quantity of the IMC warehouse, when my rep came he begrudgingly confirmed it. FWIW the IMC online catalog was awesome, but took a steep downhill drop when Parts Authority took over.
 
Anyone with warehouse stock from multiple manufacturers has to deal with suppliers too. RA is just cutting out the middleman, which can make sense when merchants don't need to shuffle parts around from one location to another, or buyers don't need the support of a local brick 'n mortar, nor an immediate local purchase location. As a result, they have removed their primary chance to do quality control while in possession of the product, and increased your burden to return items vs buying local, but you have to love their website, selection, and low prices.

The thing that gets me about their A/B/C warehouses is that sometimes funny things happen. You can have parts from warehouse A for example, and be shopping for more parts from warehouse A so you don't end up paying for shipping from two different locations, but then when you add the new parts from warehouse A to the order, somehow some of the prior parts that were shipping from warehouse A, change to shipping from a different warehouse so you're still stuck with two separate shipping charges. It can be very frustrating when that happens.
 
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A similar analogy to Rockauto is this one.... I'm sure most towns have the small, independent auto parts stores (sometimes with a few locations scattered around). They're often plain-Jane storefronts as their primary focus is selling to repair shops. Ever go to one of those for a part that they didn't have but they tell you "I can have it by this afternoon" ? They get it in a few hours because there's a much larger auto parts wholesaler nearby that's constantly supplying them for regularly stocked parts as well as less-common parts. The analogy is, your local parts store is Rockauto and that parts wholesaler is where Rockauto has items shipped (direct) from.
 
Yeah. What I do is load up the shopping cart with three or more of every part category from the lowest cost, then begin deleting everything possible to minimize warehouses.

Example
2 rotor brands
2 calipers
4 pads
3 hardware kits

Check the warehouse letters in cart
Narrow it down
 
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