OD
Ockie Ditchbank
May 8, 2026
When I began researching the best AutoZone store, the first Yelp item I observed is this store’s customer reviews are being dealt a terrible injustice. This store opened in December of 2024, yet all the less than 5-Star reviews from the previous location are being carried forward to this new AutoZone. This is hardly fair to the talented and dedicated new employees who run the “hub” outlet store.
While I certainly can't speak for customer service issues that happened before 2024, I shopped for several years at their previous location and can only report positive experiences. Many of those original employees are now at the recently opened Old West Highway store at the east end of Apache Junction, while new hires are at the new Central Hub store at Apache Trail and Meridian.
The experiences recalled here about these committed AutoZone employees, helping people install parts on their cars, are all factual. Here’s how they’re pulling it off.
There was a time when small repair shops, gas stations, tire shops and car owners commonly performed repairs on their own or customers' cars. But by the 1990s, the DBB (Detroit’s Big Bullies) drove the 'little guys' out to pasture by making vehicles so complicated and expensive to service, owners and mechanics with average skills could no longer work on them. Gas stations that once sold TBA (tires, batteries and accessories) now sell flat beer, wine, junk food, sodas, stale sandwiches, cold pizza, lottery tickets, warm ice, candy and stale burritos, while over-charged gasoline from "creeping" pumps remains a profitable by-product.
A new trend in the auto service industry is to offset this debilitating imbalance, and here is where AutoZone is blazing the way to greater customer trust. Stimulated by determined efforts on the part of the auto industry to put small shops, gas stations and private owners out of business, AutoZone has stepped in to fill a widening gap between disabled cars and the roadways of America.
Daniel, Judy, Jaden and Tanner are just a few of the employees I consider friends I’ve made since patronizing this store. Their combined experience is above and beyond that of any competitor. They come with a warm, welcoming presence and superior automotive knowledge. Their work – like their attitude – is the tops in the industry.
I cannot recommend this Auto Zone highly enough.