Kmart opens Quick Lube bays in 53 stores - K Mart Corp., Quick Lube Express automobile lubricating service

Discount Store News, Oct 19, 1992

TROY, Mich. -- After closing hundreds of auto service centers over the past several years, Kmart is re-emphasizing auto service by jumping into the quick lube fray.

On Oct. 1, it opened 53 Quick Lube Express bays in Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich., and Upper Ohio stores that operate auto service centers. By next spring, Kmart is shooting for a total of 750 Quick Lube Express bays, promising 15-minute service for lube, oil change, filter and 18-point check of such items as brake and antifreeze fluids.

For the Quick Lube Express, Kmart has dedicated one of six service bays in each store exclusively to quick lube service. Stores such as Southfield, Mich., just completed a two-week traing session for those who will work in quick lube.

To kick off the operation, Kmart is offering an introductory price of $13.97 for the service, including Texaco's line 3 motor oil, in bulk, and a Purolator filter. That is $5 less than what will be the everyday price, $18.97. Texaco is the exclusive supplier of bulk oil and grease for all Kmart centers, and a banner over each bay promotes the Texaco brand name.

If customers wish to choose another brand of canned oil, the price is $3 more, or $16.97, on an introductory basis and $21.97 every day.

By comparison, Jiffy Lube in the New Jersey market recently cut its price to $25.99 from $29.99. The Wal-Mart HyperMart USA in Arlington, Texas, charges, $17.88 for Pennzoil bulk oil and a Fram filter and $19.88 if customers chose a brand of canned oil.

The average price around the nation for a quick lube using bulk oil is $21 to $22, said Larry Northup, executive director of the Convenient Automative Services Institute, Baltimore. The institute represents 2,600 of the nation's 4,500 quick lube shops operating in chains such as Jiffy Lube, Minit Lube, owned by Quaker State, and Valvoline's Instant Oil Change.

Including service stations car dealerships and other repair shops that have added quick lube to their offerings, the nation now has 9,000 to 10,000 quick lube outlets, Northup estimated.

The quick lube field has become saturated in some markets, Northup said, and Kmart's entry means more competition for shops that offer only quick lube.

Kmart's move into quick lube indicates a recommitment to auto service, said Ed Kaufman, a marketing consultant to the automative aftermarket. Second only to gasoline sales, "quick lube is a way to build traffic and identity," Kaufman said.

"It's a way a chain can differentiate itself by the way it advertises quick lube and the services it offers," Kaufman said. "Everyday is going after it."

As Kmart remodels existing stores and opens new units, it continues to whittle down the number of stores that offer auto service. As of Oct. 1, the number of centers stood at 975, or 40.6%, of 2.401 units. That contrasts with a 1980s high of about 1,600 service centers when the chain operated less than 2,000 a spokeswoman said.

And here and there a select number of new stores will feature auto service, including the new flagship, Auburn Hills, Mich., store, which opens Nov. 19.

Under chairman Joe Antonini, who came from the apparel side of the business, Kmart began de-emphasizing auto service by forcing each center to justify its existence by showing that its return on investment could compete with other merchandise catergories. Kmart closed the centers that couldn't and switched their space to other uses.

Iaddition to the investment of at least $250,000 per center for the usual car service equipment, including hoists, wheel balancers and grease guns, environmental requirements are increasing the outlays for equipment to recycle Freon air conditioner gas and antifreeze.

Hiring, training and retaining qualified mechanics adds to the complexity of auto service operations.