Will Texas Be Affected By Closure Of 700+ Auto Stores?

Since the 2020 pandemic, the retail and restaurant industry has undergone a seismic shift. It is becoming increasingly difficult for traditional brick-and-mortar stores to compete with and survive against online businesses.

Here in East Texas, we have seen our fair share of closures from local businesses to national chains exiting and leaving a lot of empty retail space behind in the Piney Woods. Just this week we reported that furniture retailer American Freight, with stores in Tyler, Longview, Lufkin, and Texarkana, is holding a going-out-of-business sale.

There doesn't seem to be a business sector that is safe from this shift. It was announced Thursday that a major retailer would be implementing a new 'strategic plan' for their business which would affect more than 700 hundred of its stores and thousands of employees.

Advanced Auto Parts Set To Close 700+ Stores Nationwide

Advanced Auto Parts announced to its investors that they would begin to reduce the company's footprint across the US by making the following changes to their business plan: (Market Watch)

• closing approximately 500 corporate-owned stores
• exit franchise deals with approximately 200 franchised-owned stores
• close 4 distribution centers

The closures would affect more than 700 stores nationwide. The company currently operates more than 5000 stores in the US and Canada. (CNN) Advanced Auto Parts has been around for nearly a century with its first location opening in 1929. The auto parts store has a high concentration of stores in the eastern third of the US.

It is not known at this time what stores are going to be affected, but with a number in excess of 700, it will most likely affect some Texas stores. When that announcement is made about specific store closures, we'll post it here.