Look, Kids! Big Ben...Parliament!

Do we really need 4 auto parts stores within 10 miles on the same road?  

Well, if your car breaks down, how far do you really want to walk to get to an auto parts store?  This actually seems a little sparse if you look at it that way.  

So, most of you know by now that I work as an engineer.  Many people misunderstand what this means.  They think I can build anything, understand all things mechanical, and can fix anything that happens to break.  Most of this is not true.  I'm only mildly competent at building things (ask me how my circular tchotchke stand is coming together), I have a rudimentary understanding of machines, and can fix a number of things that I would consider slightly above average.  These things are not what engineering is all about.  That said, one of the things that I roughly never fix by myself is my car.  

I know how to take the wheels off, to change a tire or whatnot, I can find and fill a majority of the consumable fluids, I can take the wiper blades off, and I'm pretty sure I've changed a headlight, but that's about it.  Because of this, I have precious little use for auto parts stores.  I'm not the target market for them.

So, the fact that there is an auto parts store within a mile of my house is all but lost on me.  I've bought things there, to be sure...some cleaning products, the aforementioned wiper blades, and a new battery when the one I had died (they installed it for me...but I probably could have done that myself if need be).  But overall, my shadow does not spend an awful lot of time darkening the door of that particular location.  This is not because the location is inconvenient.  

It was announced not long ago that a segment of land not far from my house was going to be developed for business.  Often, this is a very exciting time, as some new store or restaurant will be joining the local economy and offering me new places to buy stuff and/or have dinner.  It was significantly less exciting when it was announced that the businesses that would be setting up shop in that locale were going to be a franchise location of a chain of low-priced buffet style restaurants (which we'll refer to, for strictly Blag purposes as "Aurelian Paddock"), and an auto parts store.  Seriously?  It's less than two miles from the existing auto parts store.  

Less than 8 miles in the other direction from the original auto parts store, on the exact same road as the aforementioned auto parts stores, there is an auto parts store.  We are now entering overkill country.  

All that having been said...I was driving along this particular stretch of road (In between the two southernmost auto parts stores) and I passed a plaza that I have passed many times.  A dance club at the end of the plaza was closed and demolished a couple years ago, and has been a dirt patch ever since, but recently had started to see some construction-type action.  This time around, I saw a "Coming Soon" sign, telling me what exciting new business opportunity was being added to the location.  And guess what is about to be coming to the site!  

An auto parts store.  

There you have it.  Within 10 miles on a single stretch of road in the Greater Jeremy Area, there will soon be no fewer than 4 auto parts stores...and I'm pretty sure at least two of them are from the same chain.  

In case you're wondering, this is, in fact, the same stretch of road that has no fewer than 6 (and I think it's actually 8 now) Doughnut Franchises in roughly the same distance.