Originally Posted by Lester Lugnut

As mentioned above, Rock Auto is for the home mechanic who can wait, especially if he's planning ahead.

Local shops source local because the part is delivered in an hour or two - if even that long and if there's a problem the local parts supplier will make it right...fast. He's selling the shop many $$$ worth of parts every yr.

Back when, parts mark-up, paid for all or part of the labor in some cases.

And last, but not least, many shops will not warranty their labor against customer-provided parts. You show up with parts from abc-online.com. There's a problem with the part and that is now YOUR problem. If the shop sourced the part, they would deal with it. Their supplier would provide a new one FAST.

In the case of the faulty abc-online.com part, you're going to pay a labor bill - wait for return ship/arrival of new part-then a 2nd labor bill. The shop is not going to eat the labor 'cuz your part was bad. If you want your vehicle back fast, you'll pay the shop for their part and hope Rock Auto refunds your $$$. Could be you'd eat the return costs.

No shops has time for this. Do you bring your own eggs to IHOP?

Originally Posted by Ausumm

Perhaps the shop "adjusts" the price of the labor...
based on whether they are supplying the parts.