Ryan Turner, left, and his dad, Charles Turner, run Turner Auto Parts, a business Charles founded in 1978. It’s located at 370 NE Center St. in Faison. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
On a busy Thursday morning, the counter at Turner Auto Parts in Faison is manned by, from left, D.L. Radcliff, Ryan Turner, Charles Turner, Robbie Futch, and Tim Hill. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Tim Hill, shown here working on the brakes of a Chevy Traverse, is not only an employee of Turner Auto Parts, but he’s also a lifelong friend to Ryan Turner. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Turner Auto Parts, founded in 1978 by Charles Turner, is located at 370 NE Center St. in Faison. In addition to selling parts, the business also sells tires and has a full-service shop, providing oil changes, alignments, and brake jobs. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Turner Auto Parts in Faison is associated with Carquest, and recently erected a new sign showing Carquest’s updated logo. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
It’s tough to get Charles Turner and his son Ryan to admit how hard they work. Charles jokingly claims he spends most of his day “just sitting in a chair,” while Ryan quips, “I walk around with a piece of paper and look busy 98 percent of the time.”
All kidding aside, both men give their all to Turner Auto Parts, the family business that’s been a staple in Faison since 1978. After all, a business doesn’t survive — and even thrive — in a small town for 45 years without a lot of elbow grease on the part of those who own and run it.
Charles founded the auto parts store, located at 370 NE Center St., after working for a similar business in Pink Hill. As is often the case when a parent owns a business, Ryan grew up helping out in the store off and on, but with no plans to ever make it his life’s work. “It was like, I’m not going to do this when I grow up,” he recalls. But by the time he graduated from high school and college, he’d changed his mind, and he’s been working with his dad full-time for 21 years. “It wound up being perfect,” he notes.
Starting a business was not easy, Charles remembers. To get his name out there, he did a bit of advertising, but also spent a lot of time talking to farmers and other potential customers. From the beginning, his motto was “Try to treat everybody like you’d like to be treated,” and that kind of customer service paid off and helped build the business. In fact, Ryan says one of the main things he’s learned from his dad is “how to treat customers.”
One way the Turners go the extra mile for their customers is by trying to locate hard-to-find items, like parts for old tractors, says Tim Hill, who not only works with the Turners, but has been Ryan’s friend since third grade. “A lot of stuff that people can’t get, we try to find it,” he notes.
The Turners offer delivery to customers Monday through Friday, to nearby areas like Mount Olive, Newton Grove, Warsaw and Turkey. They also sell tires and have a full-service shop where they provide services like oil changes, alignments, and brake jobs.
Despite owning his business for almost half a century, Charles Turner seems surprised when the subject of possible retirement is breached. “Retire?” He says the word as though it’s never occurred to him, before adding, “I love what I do. I always have and I always will.”
But when that day does come — when he is “retired” and Ryan is solely in charge — “I’ll still be around here doing something,” Charles promises.
As for Ryan, he has two daughters, Raegen, 13, and Madison, 8. “My youngest daughter likes to come up here and put parts up on Saturday mornings,” he says. “She looks forward to it.” It sounds like it’s not out of the realm of possibility that this father/son business might someday become a father/daughter business.
Turner Auto Parts is open 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Monday-Friday; 7:30 a.m. -12 p.m. Saturday. Call 910-267-0621 for more information, and look for Turner Auto Parts on Facebook.
