There’s a shopping center not far from where I live that used to have a Hollywood Video. Yeah, remember those? Anyway, since basically the entire media rental industry has died, the property was naturally vacated. I never gave much thought to what would eventually replace it, but I passed by it recently, and saw that it was replaced by an Advance Auto Parts.
This perplexed me, because within a five-mile radius from this particular Advance Auto Parts is literally two more Advance Auto Parts stores. Increase the radius by another five miles, and I can identify three more Advance Auto Parts. Literally, within a ten-mile radius lies five Advance Auto Parts stores (that I am aware of).
I have a hard time believing that the proper saturation point of automotive needs is a two mile radius per store; this isn’t Sim City, where heat maps can show the necessity for auto parts, and I have a hard time believing that people need auto parts this badly to where there are five Advance Auto Parts within a ten-mile radius.