I Sold TVs for 40 Years. Here’s What Really Happened to Western Auto

🛒 Everything I learned in 40 years on the selling side of the counter, in plain words. 📘 BUY IT ONCE - get it here: https://askvincentthomas.com If you grew up in a small town, there was a store with a red circle-arrow sign where your dad bought tires, your family bought the TV, and you picked out your first bike, maybe on layaway, a couple of dollars at a time. Then one day the sign came down, and nobody ever told you why. I'm Vince Thomas. I sold televisions and appliances for 40 years, and for 30 of them, out in the small towns, the store I kept running into was Western Auto. This is what really happened to it. In this video: • How five dollars of postage stamps in 1909 became about 4,500 stores • Why most Western Autos were never owned by Western Auto at all • The loan company that bought it in 1961, and what it really wanted • What Sears did after buying it, and the small-town stores Sears built to replace it • The letter that cut off the last 304 dealers • The few stores that never took the sign down, and the giant sign over Kansas City that just came back on No gimmicks here. Just the stories of the store owners I knew, the facts behind them, and what a salesman saw from the other side of the counter. Tell me the year, the town, and what you bought at your Western Auto. I go through every comment. Chapters: 0:00 The bike my father put on layaway 3:12 Five dollars of stamps 4:55 Thousands of stores Western Auto didn't own 6:02 Clem's Western Auto in Hamburg 7:11 The fine print on a protection plan 8:35 The guide I put all of this in 9:23 The recipe box and the loan company 11:55 Christmas Eve, four dollars short 13:22 A buyout firm, then Sears 14:08 What Sears really wanted 15:38 The day the tires disappeared 17:14 Advance Auto Parts takes over 20:53 The bike in the rafters 22:37 The letter that ended it 26:06 The stores that kept the sign 27:21 The sign over Kansas City 29:29 What really happened to Western Auto 30:56 What I found in my father's tackle box Watch more: I Sold TVs for 40 Years. Here's What Really Happened to Zenith and RCA    • I Sold TVs for 40 Years. Here's What Reall...   $733 Million in Sales. Then Two Guys Closed Every Store on Purpose    • $733 Million in Sales. Then Two Guys Close...   $720 Million in Sales. Then Korvettes Closed for Good on Christmas Eve    • $720 Million in Sales. Then Korvettes Clos...   #WesternAuto #WesternFlyer #RetailHistory #Nostalgia #SmallTownAmerica