Advance Auto Parts to close more than 500 stores, 200 independent locations

Car part retailer Advance Auto Parts announced plans to close hundreds of stores across the country.

The company said it is part of a “strategic plan to improve business performance,” The Associated Press reported.

It will shut down 523 corporate stores and four distribution centers. It will also get out of agreements for 204 independently owned locations. The closures are expected to be completed by the middle of 2025.

In all, more than 700 locations are expected to close citing “sluggish consumer demand,” Fox Business said. They also said sales were impacted by hurricanes and the CrowdStrike outage earlier this year, USA Today reported.

The locations of the stores were not announced, the AP reported.

The company is also changing how the stores operate by having a standardized model. It will also ramp up opening new locations.

Some stores and distribution centers will be made into “market hubs,” company officials said.

There were more than 4,780 corporate stores and another 1,125 independent locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and some Caribbean islands, the AP reported.