Advance Auto Parts reviews

3.1

42% would recommend to a friend

(5,524 total reviews)
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Shane O’Kelly

18% approve of CEO

32% positive business outlook

Advance Auto Parts has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 5,524 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Advance Auto Parts employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

6K reviews
1.0
Aug 17, 2012

IT Professionals Beware!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Compensation in the Roanoke region is top notch

Cons

The CEO team and the IT management group simply do not care about employees. They are (mistakenly) of the opinion that no matter how employees are treated, compensation will keep them from leaving. This company will suffer serious "brain drain" as a result if/when the economy turns around. There is no culture, there is no personality, there is no fun. Potential employees beware: HR will tell you anything to get you in the door - the stark, cold reality is that AAP is terrible place to work, with tremendous amounts of interdepartmental infighting and massive pissing contests on a daily basis. Politics supersede logic, and innovation is not welcome. Additionally, the IT department is stuck in the technological stone-age. IT is the business' beotch, and many (not all) of the department heads on the business side have their heads so far up their asses that it's no wonder the company is struggling financially. I have no vested interest in your well-being as an employee, but if you value your career AND your personal life, heed this advice: Walk away from the job offer. Find a better place to work - it shouldn't be very difficult.

3.0
Mar 31, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

AAP is a stable company with an abundance of facilities, which opens a wide field of advancement opportunity for team members at all levels. AAP seems to genuinely care about team members, training, employee retention, and their compensation levels are competitive for exempt salaried positions. AAP is fairly good about sharing the vision behind corporate level decisions, as well as the "big picture" ideology behind the decision.

Cons

While they share the vision and big picture surrounding ideas, they do not appear to do enough beta testing with chain wide rollouts. The company does not focus on handling individual problems with team members at the origination point of the problem. Instead, they tend to issue chain wide policies that make successful managers feel unappreciated and underestimated. For example, a standardized schedule has been developed for salaried Store Managers that requires an hour lunch, involves working every Friday night and then opening every Saturday morning except for one per month, giving managers every Wednesday off, even if it is their warehouse truck replenishment day, and making anything that even resembles flexibility with scheduling a distant memory. The company frequently makes knee jerk decisions that affect the entire chain. AAP is following Walmart's model of cutting labor expenses to the lowest possible levels. The problem with this approach is that AAP's core merchandise requires customer facing team member interactions. If there are less team members facing customers, stores are going to generate less revenue. Employee bonuses and pay increases are based on achieving sales expectations. IT software and hardware is outdated and needs to be replaced. Upper management has all but eliminated managing markets based on the demographics and characteristics of that market. All too often, decisions are made with only the affect of the entire company in mind. For example, company wide DIY sales may not be dropping, but if DIY is suffering in areas that it used to be strong, and commercial is excelling in another, sales stay stagnant. Not losing focus on what you have earned, while making investments to get something that you haven't, is not something that the company believes in. The company is investing in commercial growth by gutting the DIY sales coverage instead of maintaining DIY staffing levels and actually making an investment in commercial business to ensure future success.

3.0
Oct 12, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Descent co-workers. Good discount. ..............................

Cons

Didn't care about my family issues enough to cut me a break on attendance b.s. Wife broke had to stay home full-time to care for her and baby. Company denied my FMLA request because I was 8 days short of one year anniversary. Then decided to severe ties of employment. What a crock of bull.

Viewing 4 - 6 of 5,524 Reviews

Glassdoor has 5,717 Advance Auto Parts reviews submitted anonymously by Advance Auto Parts employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Advance Auto Parts is right for you.