Document e5R94ag3r5qRmKE5y0Ew0Nd9e

AUTOMOBILE ACCESSORIES CO., REDDING, CALIFORNIA IT'S OLD, IT'S NEW & IT'S CELEBRATING! Graham, Hupmobile, Kissell, Locomo bile, Moon . . . although these vehicle makes may not sound familiar today, chances are that at one time or another you could have found replacement parts for at least one of these vehicles on the shelves of Automobile Accessories Company in Redding, California. After all, these were all makes of vehicles introduced in 1925 -- and by then, Automobile Accessories had already been in business for two years. Still in business, Automobile Accessories is today owned by Spike and Nancy Boehle and Jerry and Janet Ross, who together own and operate eleven stores in northern California. Sixty years in business as an auto parts store is quite a landmark -- so much so, the Boehles and the Rosses decided that if they were going to officially celebrate Automobile Accessories' 60th anniversary, they were going to have to do it in a big way. Which is exactly what they did, with an extensive expansion and remodeling project followed by a grand re-opening celebration. The Remodeling of an Old Store For years, Automobile Accessories had been housed in two-thirds of a u-shaped building situated on a fairly busy intersec tion; the other third of the building was oc cupied by an appliance store. As their parts business continued to grow, Boehle and Ross realized they were going to have to expand their operation, and recently nego tiated and bought out the appliance store's section of the building. This paved the way for their renovation plans. Prior to the remodeling project, the larger portion of Automobile Accessories' share of the building was out of necessity used to stock the store's considerable inventory. This left only a long, narrow corridor to house the counter and sales area. With about 600 square feet of space and a counter that stretched the length of the cor ridor, not much room was left for effective ly merchandising product. All this changed, however, with the pur chase of the floor space previously used by the appliance store. With the entire building at their disposal, the first thing Boehle and Ross wanted to do was move the counter and sales area into the third wing of the building, giving them approx imately 2100 square feet of space with which to work to merchandise the wide variety of items carried by their store. This added space also provided room for the ad dition of two offices and freed the corridor for stocking additional inventory. 8