The Pep Boys on Airline Highway is closing its retail store—the last Pep Boys retail store remaining in Louisiana—as the brand shifts focus to auto services.
An official closing date isn’t set for the Baton Rouge store, which will offer only auto service and maintenance in the future, said an employee on Friday afternoon, who asked to remain anonymous. Daily Report confirmed that the other Pep Boys retail locations in the state have already closed, most of them in early March prior to the pandemic.
Company officials did not respond to requests for comment before this afternoon’s deadline, but articles published by other business journals and news organizations across the country confirm that the company has closed several retail stores over the last seven months.
Last October, Pep Boys’ parent company, Icahn Automotive Group LLC, split into two companies: one focused on selling parts and the other on auto service. With the split, Pep Boys’ retail side went under control of Icahn’s new parts company and the auto repair and maintenance side went under control of the service company.
As part of the separation plan, the parts and service businesses would each adjust their store networks and continue to streamline the organizational structure, according to the statement released last October. At the end of a “short,” undefined transition period, the company said, the parts and service businesses would operate as separate companies.
Despite its early success as a car parts retailer, Pep Boys has struggled for years against larger rivals such as AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts and O’Reilly Auto Parts. Locally, O’Reilly Auto Parts has seen tremendous expansion, with some six new locations opened in the Capital Region by local developers Donnie Jarreau and Kent Walker in the last two years.
