Pick Your Part octopus cuts off Hayward tentacle
By Eric Kurhi
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 6:15 pm in Alameda County, Business, General, Hayward, Odds & Ends, Transportation.
There’s one less auto recycler around after Pick Your Part closed its NorCal scrap yards, including the one at the end of W. Winton Road. Sure, there are plenty of other such recyclers in the industrial areas near the shoreline, but I have fond memories of the octopus yard as the site of great bounty: Cheap parts for a 1966 Volvo 1800S back in the mid ’90s.
Even then, good specimens were a rare find in a scrap yard, and after an exhaustive search, PYP proved to be a veritable treasure chest of old Swedish iron.
Not sure why they closed — the guy at the PYP number confirmed that both Hayward and Milpitas branches are gone, but had no idea why. Seems like an auto recycler would do well during a recession. Will look into it.
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October 22nd, 2009 at 10:11 am
Perhaps profitability is impaired by costs of disposal of contaminants. Then too, computerized inventories of autos having acceptable remaing parts makes trans-shipmenmt from or visits to locations where taxes and environmental regulations are a bit more relaxed to say nothing of sales taxes which affect ‘true cost’ to part seekers.;
We could go on to discuss reduced price of scrap metal etc. etc.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I’m sure the hassles of running a facility like that in California are nearly unbearable.
The Hayward yard’s been shrinking and getting less useful for the past three years or so.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
PYP used to be a PRIVATE owned chain of junkyards. Around mid 2009, they sold out to LKQ Corp which is a huge public owned salvaged and after market auto parts company. LKQ already has a few used and after market parts stores located in and around the bay area and found it to be more feasable to shut down the self serve junkyards that once competed with their sales. LKQ still has their self serve PYP yards running in SoCal since they are still bringing in high profits. The word has it that some of the SoCal yards may also meet their demise due to environmental issues and public nuisance.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:35 pm
This sucks. Pick your Part was cheaper than Pick-N-Pull and had better inventory
October 11th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
What actually happened is PYP was sold to LKQ. LKQ and Pick n Pull traded some yards and sales operations that previously competed against each other. So Pick n Pull got the Norcal yards of PYP. Guess what no more competition, parts prices have gone up and they probably pay less for their cars. Oh yeah and they laid of close to a hundred employees, most of which had been there for many many years.
October 31st, 2010 at 7:30 pm
yes and i was one of them!
October 31st, 2010 at 7:33 pm
been there for 5 years was the car buyer and tow truck driver … i loved this company till lkq came around everything changed alot then one by one we was all bein let go some ppl been working there for 20 yrs ..
November 9th, 2010 at 11:41 am
u right john i also was one of them r u john car buyer of hayward or milpitas ?
February 13th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Pick your Part was a good yard and I had gone there since the early 1980′s. Really sorry to see it go. Now that pick N Pull has no competition, their prices have climbed and it’s really not worth going there because you can get many reman. parts from retail stores with a warranty and they cost less. Pick N Pull also does not allow yard to yard transfers anymore. Before if I could not find it in Oakland I could go down to the Fremont yard show my hand stamp and go thru the gate without paying again. Pick N Pull you suck for your high prices and having good people put out of work at Pull your Part. Hope the EPA gets you all in the end – just a matter of time.
February 15th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Don’t we have a mayor, city council and chamber of commerce that are supposed to actually do something about things like businesses closing? Hayward is becoming a wasteland. Even the DMV pulled out. Reopening that office would be a good start, because the other DMVs are not very close.