A good friend of mine worked in a few auto parts stores over the years. When he started, most of the counter people were very knowledgeable and could usually help you identify parts. Nowadays, many of them have trouble looking up a part number. But definitely not all of them - there are still quite a few car people behind the counter, you just have to look to find them sometimes. The local O'Reillys (closest place to my house) has a few that I will wait to have help me.
Sometimes the customers are just as bad. My friend has a lot of horror stories.
Same thing happened at Radio Shack - only worse. Back in The Good Ole Days, the person behind the counter was usually an electronics buff working mainly for the employee discount. They knew their s**t. Eventually ended up with a bunch of folks who knew nothing about what they were selling.
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