Commercial Growth and Dense Retail Footprint Anchor Wide-Moat AutoZone's Aftermarket Edge

We believe AutoZone’s strategy of leveraging its dominant do-it-yourself (DIY) retail core to fund aggressive expansion into the commercial do-it-for-me (DIFM) segment has been highly effective. Its roughly 7,700 locations across the US, Mexico, and Brazil serve as both retail storefronts and localized fulfillment hubs. In our view, its network of over 150 megahubs creates a critical competitive advantage, providing industry-leading parts availability to rapidly deliver hard-to-find components to satellite stores and commercial garages. This localized certainty is critical in a need-it-now industry, effectively insulating the firm from digital disintermediation.