Right to Repair

The Parliment will be debating the pending Right to Repair legislation on March 5th, 2009. This is very important to our industry. Please go to www.righttorepair.ca and on the left hand side click "Take Action" and "Contact your MP". Follow the instructions listed and get everyone you know to fill it out too. We need all the support we can get .

Payroll

I will be doing payroll on Wednesday, Feb 25th. Make sure timesheets and vacation/sick days are handed in before then.

are we seeing the DEATH of PAPER CATALOGUE'S ?

The DEATH of PAPER CATALOGUE'S ?? Well - it seems one by one -the suppliers are stopping the general release of paper cat's. And of the many that still release them --some how the cat dept in Toronto CARQUEST never seems to have them. Do not get me wrong -I do not blame Kim ( the sole worker in this unloved dept ) - she gets no co-operations from many others at CQ.

With the new change in doing non-application lines on a more regular basis (managers - see message board for this ) we are looking up the lines - and making sure we have the lines - linked - to our Plaxo multi-user address book.

I have just added the following so we have access to the web sites for -- TRI - TRA - STL - BLB - AGD and maybe a few others - we had missed quite a few --and these are ONLY the lines being updated in Jan.

PLEASE make sure your staff are knowledgeable in looking up web based catalogues -- the death of paper catalogues might not exactly in 2009 -- but it is coming ... soon ....

Tool and Equipment Flyer - part # corrections

You can download from the link -- I have and printed one copy for each store ( copy as required ) the MANY part numbers that are corrected --so If you type in a part # and it doesn't work --see the corrected list.

Over achievers might also take a MASTER copy of the flyer - and mark as your copy (hands off) and manually update the corrections

Tool & Equipment Flyer

OK --skill testing question that we will ASK at the staff meeting on Monday ... what percentage of parts are NEW to the flyer ( that is existing parts but not on last flyer PLUS new lines to CARQUEST )

The facts might surprise you ....

New line - part of WDG -- Uniweld

New 'partial' supplier for WDG --sharing space ( for a temp time ?? since it is for Canada only so far ) with the poor line of welding parts from Dorman -- is Uniweld

Have added data into Plaxo for contact info. Have cat's on the way - wondering how many sku;s they added to the MIF data base ( you know our stance on this --we EXPECT all sku;s to be added to make it easier for special ordering & quoting prices )

Watch for more details. Andrew Rennert is our rep - he will be stopping by in the near future - give him the time and attention this lines deserves. Lets grow our welding business.

new line - MTP

new line of instruments coming soon -- -MTP --click here for their web site--- . This is rep'd by the steinel heat gun person

Note - to J-Con users --we had to manually add the MTP line - it was missing in our system. Once in we will check to see if we have the billing schedule (smile)

These numbers are on page 32 of the new tool & equipment flyer ...
MTP 190-CBI
MTP 414-042
MTP Autokit
MTP CO-180
MTP MT-702
MTP RT-01
MTP TES1326

Poor Pricing AFTER the Sale

I was chatting with Auto Barn staff yesterday on quick visit. It came up on items that AFTER the sale is over -the regular price is WAY TOO HIGH ...

Background: The product manager will set the price fields and the billing schedule manager then takes these and adds or subtracts to make the final price. So with TWO people partially involved in the price setting it can be dis-functional at times. Lucky of us that BOTH people report to Peter McNally and we can get a common sense review ...IF ... we report it.

STEPS:
1) yeh - you know I was going to say this --- make a FEEDBACK report ...this will go thru Raleigh and usual gets to the right person -- but as I mentioned above it steps on TWO area's you can get lost --( hint --so do LOTS )
2) tell me (Greg H) & your store manager
3) make a list - date it and repeat step #2 in 30 days or the next time it happens after a sale ...

At the next staff meeting I will ask you for an example of a poor pricing AFTER the sale -- start watching and thinking ---thank you

Jeep 3.0l diesel oil

The Jeep Grand Cherokee diesels take a 84062 CFI filter which all stores stock. The oil is special, Chrysler spec MS11106 or Mercedes Benz 299.51. Valvoline 505682 covers it as it the same as VW 505.01 spec. They take 9.5 litres so make sure you have stock levels to cover.

Payroll

I will be doing payroll on Tuesday, January 27th. Make sure all time sheets and vacation/sick days are reported before then. I will also need all TD1 forms returned by then as well.

Thanks.

Ecc 53-39610

Look up 2004 caravan blower resistor and pay attention to the links. It is not catalogued properly for manual models but we have put in a patch

REDLINE universal connector

The Redline smoke machine has proven to be very popular ( RED - 95001 ) but a problem has been finding the schrader port ( with the green cap ) that is often time hidden ... How do you find an access point to test the EVAP ( fuel return line ) system ... see attached pdf.

---- click here ------

The sealing gasket # is RED 96-0017 ( not 0017-12 ) and the connecter is RED 95-0011 ...they are in the Toronto warehouse - waiting in total SECRET ... since the process to announce such details is so cumbersome - that no one tries any more --yep - this is an issue on my radar for 2009 --stop the banning of product managers from posting on CQ-link ...

D&T has one of each on order ( can you share with Petes & A Barn for salesmen samples ... )

ps - yeh - a bit pricey - -but when the tech wastes an hour on a problem that he can solve fast --the price gets to be less of an issue...

How many errors can you spot in ONE picture - WALKER

Click on the image to make larger

1) Note --the catalog pages are now scanned -they appear a bit SMALL on my screen but readable - try it --- see the BLUE part # for the cat diagram -that BLUE means it is hyper-linked to the image


2) we are FLUSHING all existing descriptions for WALKER .... we need to find HOW MANY mufflers we had linked that need to be re-added ...we don't want to LINK something that is NOT required --as it DUPLICATES the listing and makes it more complex for our customer ... but if we are missing the proper 18 series muffler -- we need to a) tell one of the Greg's and it will be linked using the @ int he description ...and b) write up a FEEDBACK form to get the missing data into the e-cat. The links to ROL will also go

3) notice the e-cat shows the 35 series clamp --we have asked if we can get the 32 series clamp to show instead. If that is too much of a problem --we can LINK the 35 series to use the 32 series using the @ in description ...

4) I have a NEW cross reference for the lifetime ( series 22 ) muffler to the 18 series muffler-- your manager can get a copy from the new message board by searching 'walker muffler x-ref'

Brake Cleaner - as a FLAME THROWER ??

This link - click here - talks of Princess Auto having to recall Brake Cleaner as the flame from the can exceeds federal limits ... gee -- brake cleaner as a flame thrower ...

Canada Post

There will be a rate change on Monday, January 12th. The rate to mail a standard under 30g letter will be going from $0.52 to $0.54.

Staff Meeting

I will be collecting pig money on Monday night. It's $10 for the year or a $1 a month. I will not be at the February meeting so please try and remember to bring it for Monday.

Thanks.

VIN information

I overheard a couple of times in the last month"check for a sticker under the hood" when a customer did not know engine size of their vehicle. This worked in 1975 but is totally useless in modern vehicles. It is embarrassing seeing a customer in the parking lot looking for a "sticker" that we told him he would find under the hood. The proper way is get the 10th character of the VIN on the door or on the dash. The info is available in our e cat ,Weblink,indentifix and if you must use paper it available from most spark plug cat's. Call me and I will show you if you cannot find on your own. Let's look more professional in 2009.

How do we know what CQ has ?

while we wait ( and wait ) for the non-application e-cat which we are hoping will solve some problems of knowing what CARQUEST has in many lines -- we struggle to know

Case in point - IDR Sheet Metal - a line everyone hates due to the nature of the product - hard to ship - rusts too easily - etc etc

We wondered what was in sub line 1 -the satin coat product. IDR SC4896-22 sells fairly well (note - I added for D&T ) in 2 stores --so we added EVERY PART by changing the stocking depth to 8 in the 3-9 update sub line page --then forcing all parts in NOW using the 8-15 3 'asterisk' 21 that is a secret only for BTM ( computer guys ) ...but who has a day to wait for the overnight update ?? want to get the darn thing solved and get on with life ....

Now - we have both IDR SC4896-22 and SC3672-24 set to stock in Petes & AB ... gee ..there has to be a better way ... howmany more parts are the warehouse HIDING that we could sell..... Joanne ? is there any help ??

Friday, January 2nd

Make sure your end of day status gets changed on Friday or no EOD will run. If you need instructions let me know.

POS

Make sure POS gets run off tonight!!!!