Local business changes hands after 50 years

After 50 years of owning and operating Gramco/NAPA Auto Parts in Graham, Derrell Smith sold the business and the new owner took over at the beginning of October. Smith will continue to stay on working in a different capacity for the business he has always loved.

Smith was born and raised in Graham and in high school worked for the same auto parts store where his father worked, Service Parts. His dad became the manager of the store and after the passing of the owners planned to open his own store.

“He talked me and (my wife) Isabel (Smith) into moving to Graham to help him just get started,” he said. “...Isabel fell in love with the town and the town has fallen in love with Isabel and she’s everywhere. I just think it was just something that was meant to be for us to be here. I was one of the lucky ones to get to move back home.”

Smith and his father started the automotive parts business at the same time in 1974, with planning and location scouting occurring in fall 1973. His love for the business came from working in the previous auto parts store with his father.

“I had worked for him and my mom in the same store... all through high school. That’s all I ever did,” he said. “I always liked this business. I like the people in it and the people around it.”

The business was known as Gramco Auto Parts before being franchised with NAPA Auto Parts. The business is now known as Gramco/NAPA Auto Parts.

He said through his 50 years of owning and operating the business he has come to know and be known by many in the community.

“All his local customers know about our family and what’s going on in our family,” Isabel Smith said. “Darrell, in turn, knows everything that’s going on in their lives health-wise (and) family-wise.”

The store was originally located at 509 Fourth St. and was sold to the Philip Karper with Young County Title Company in March 2014. Eight months after selling the former property it was involved in a structure fire which destroyed the building.

“He redid the building and then it’s just tragic that they had a fire. I miss that building. I had been there for 30-something years,” he said. “So now when I go to (the) Middleton (Hotel in the same location) and sit down at a table, I always make sure that I sit where my mom’s desk was.”

Smith said what has changed in Graham in 50 years is that it is much more active despite the population remaining relatively the same. He said despite there being many more opportunities within the city, the layout has changed.

“All of the square was all made up of mom and pop (stores). During this whole process, I got to thinking about the ones that were here whenever we were here. There’s really a lot of people from Graham that were my age that came back about that same time and started their business and they’re still in business,” he said. “...There was a good influx of people my age that moved back and then that brought with it the growth of people moving in through the oil (business). There was a lot more activity in the oil business as far as drilling and everything back in the 70s than there has been in a long time.”

He said along with changes in the community, there have been changes in the automotive industry. He said there are many auto parts that are not used anymore and it has been an adjustment for the business.

“It’s really been a challenge from the 90s up. That’s whenever the computers got involved in it,” he said. “Back in the 80s they changed into the fuel injection stuff and carburetors went away, but that wasn’t really all that much of a change because it worked. The fuel injection part works so there weren’t really that many things that went wrong that used to go wrong. ...Vehicles are more complicated. They’re harder to work on now than they were. People just don’t work on their own stuff much. You really take it to a garage and get fixed where they’re trained to do it. But that’s okay too.”

One thing that has never been a concern for Smith was finding reliable employees and he said he was always fortunate to have excellent staff. Along with having good staff, he said the community has always been there for the business throughout the years.

“The people in Graham have been so good to us that I just can’t say enough,” he said. “They supported us whenever they didn’t have to.”

He said a combination of things led to him selling the store after 50 years. He said health concerns which he got over and having more time for his family were some of the main things pushing him to find a new owner.

“It wasn’t the business that I was wanting to get away from, but I realized that I was cheating myself in not being able to see all my grandkids' football games, my grandkids' baseball games, because they all live in the metroplex and one of them lives in San Antonio,” he said. “I knew that I was missing that and so it was just perfect timing.”

NAPA connected him with Mahlan LeBlanc, who owns 25 other stores including some in Odessa, Abilene, Weatherford and Mineral Wells, and the two took off immediately.

“From the time we sat down together, we hit it off and liked each other and I felt like he was somebody that I could trust to make this store into something better. And so that’s why I’ve decided that I wouldn’t look anymore to try to find somebody else,” he said. “There were other people that were interested in it and I think they probably would have done a good job too. But he and I just liked each other.”

LeBlanc took over the store Saturday, Oct. 1, but Smith said he will stay on as long as they will take him.

“I told him that I’d stay for six months. But I’m open to staying on longer if it helps the store,” he said. “I’m going to be here for however long that they feel like that I’m an asset to the store. I’ll stay on a part-time basis because, again, I like the people and like the business.”

One thing that remains the same for Smith is that working at the store for 50 years has never been a negative experience.

“I’m kind of lucky because I’ve never really woken up in the morning and dreaded going to work,” he said. “It was always ‘What am I going to do today?’ And it’s always been fun.”