If your local Carquest recently closed its doors — or someone told you it might — it’s completely natural to wonder if the whole brand is finished. The short answer is no, Carquest is not going out of business entirely. But the longer answer is more nuanced, and it’s worth understanding what’s actually going on.
This article walks you through who owns Carquest, why so many stores are closing, what that means for independent locations, and how things differ between the U.S. and Canada. By the end, you’ll have a clear picture of the situation.
Who Owns Carquest and How It Actually Works
Before anything else, it helps to understand what Carquest actually is. Carquest is not a standalone company — it’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Advance Auto Parts. Whatever happens to Advance directly affects Carquest.
Here’s where it gets a little more layered. Not all Carquest stores are owned and run by Advance. Many locations are independently owned — meaning local business owners operate them under the Carquest name through supply and branding agreements with Advance. This distinction matters a lot when you’re trying to make sense of the closures.
A corporate store closing works differently from an independent store closing. Corporate closures are decisions made entirely at Advance’s level. Independent closures often happen because Advance ends a supply agreement or withdraws brand support — leaving the independent owner with few options but to shut down or rebrand.
It’s also worth noting that as recently as 2021, Advance was still growing the Carquest network. They added 29 new independently owned Carquest stores in the Pacific Northwest and even launched a new “Carquest by Advance” store concept. The current retreat comes after a period of genuine expansion.
What Advance Auto Parts Announced in Late 2024
In November 2024, Advance Auto Parts made a big announcement. The company said it would close 523 corporate stores, exit 204 independently owned Carquest locations, and shut down four distribution centers — all by mid-2025.
That’s a large number, and it understandably set off alarm bells. The closures came on the heels of poor quarterly earnings and significant operational losses throughout 2024. Advance was bleeding money, and cutting its store count was a central part of its response.
This is all part of a three-year financial plan designed to reduce the company’s overall footprint, lower costs, and stabilize the business. It’s a serious restructuring — not a going-out-of-business sale.
Even with all those closures, the scale of what remains is worth keeping in mind. As of late 2024, Advance still operated more than 4,780 stores and served around 1,125 independently owned Carquest locations across the U.S., Mexico, and the Caribbean. The cuts are deep, but they are not total.
Closing Stores Is Not the Same as Closing the Brand
This is probably the most important point in the whole article. Hundreds of Carquest and Advance stores are closing — that part is real. But the Carquest brand itself is not being shut down. This is a consolidation, not a liquidation.
Think of it like a bank closing dozens of branches. If your branch disappears, that’s genuinely frustrating. But the bank is still operating — just with a smaller physical footprint. Carquest is in a similar position right now.
As of January 3, 2026, Advance’s own annual report shows the company still serving 809 independently owned Carquest stores across its network. That’s down from earlier numbers, but it’s still a significant presence.
In fact, Advance’s annual report now describes its entire retail operation as a single segment called “Advance Auto Parts/Carquest.” That’s not the language of a company winding down a brand — it’s the language of a company integrating that brand into its core identity.
The Carquest name, trademark, and distribution network continue to exist. What’s changing is how many physical store locations carry that name, and where.
What’s Happening to Independent Carquest Owners
For the independently owned Carquest stores caught up in this, the situation is painful — and it’s important to understand why.
Independent Carquest owners depend on supply agreements and branding relationships with Advance to keep their stores running. When Advance decides to pull out of an arrangement, those owners often have no good options. They can’t easily replace Advance as a supplier overnight, and they can’t keep calling themselves Carquest without the agreement in place.
In Springfield, Missouri, a Carquest franchisee had to close by the end of the year after Advance denied a lease extension and ended key arrangements. The owner made clear this wasn’t his choice — it was a corporate decision made above him, and he had little say in it.
In Arroyo Grande and Santa Maria, California, Carquest stores began liquidating inventory after Advance chose to exit the Western U.S. market following major financial losses. Managers at those stores described receiving word that the closures were part of the larger corporate plan. Customers who saw the liquidation signs understandably assumed the whole brand was done. In reality, Carquest locations in other parts of the country were still open.
Montana saw a similar story. The company that owned Carquest locations across the state was part of a larger chain caught up in the plan to close over 700 stores under Advance’s three-year restructuring. Montana customers lost their local stores not because of anything those local stores did wrong, but because of decisions made at the corporate level.
These owners aren’t choosing to walk away. They’re losing the supply access and brand support that made their businesses work in the first place. That’s a real and serious impact on real people.
What About Carquest in Canada?
If you’re in Canada, the picture looks a bit different. At one point during 2024, Advance was reportedly considering selling its Canadian Carquest operations. That didn’t happen. Advance decided to retain Carquest Canada, and those operations remain part of the company’s ongoing strategy.
So while some U.S. markets — especially parts of the Western U.S. — are losing Carquest locations entirely, Canadian customers are in a more stable position for now. The brand isn’t retreating from Canada the way it is from certain U.S. regions.
This is another reason why “Is Carquest going out of business?” doesn’t have a single yes-or-no answer. It really depends on where you are.
How to Find Out If Your Local Store Is Affected
Advance hasn’t published one comprehensive, publicly available list of every store being closed. Most of the information has come out through local news reports, individual store announcements, and scattered corporate statements. That makes it genuinely difficult for customers to know what’s happening in their area.
Here are a few practical steps you can take:
- Call your local Carquest store directly and ask.
- Check local news sources for your city or county — many closures have been reported at the local level before any official announcement.
- Look at the Advance Auto Parts store locator online to see if your location still appears.
- If your store is closing, ask the staff about the nearest remaining location — some customers are being directed to nearby Advance Auto Parts stores.
If you have warranties or open accounts tied to a closing store, it’s worth asking specifically how those will be handled. In most cases, warranties on parts can be managed through other Advance locations, but it’s smart to confirm that directly rather than assume.
The Bigger Picture
Carquest is going through a rough stretch, and a lot of people — store owners, employees, and loyal customers — are feeling real consequences. That shouldn’t be glossed over. The closures are significant, and for the communities losing their only nearby auto parts store, this is a genuine loss.
But the brand as a whole is still operating. Advance is restructuring, not dissolving. The company is making hard cuts to try to stabilize itself financially, and Carquest remains part of that plan going forward.
If you’re following business news like this closely, Upward Business covers stories about how major companies navigate financial pressure, restructuring, and what it means for everyday consumers and small business owners.
The honest takeaway here is this: if your local Carquest is closing, that’s real and it matters. But it doesn’t mean the Carquest brand is disappearing everywhere. What’s happening is a large company pulling back from certain markets and trimming a footprint that had grown too large to sustain. That’s a very different thing from going out of business — even if it doesn’t feel that way when the store down the street is locking its doors for good.
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