by Sally Simonson

Created on: March 09, 2009   Last Updated: March 23, 2009

In 1921, four Navy buddies pooled together $800 to open a single auto parts supply store in Philadelphia. This venture would go on to become the multi-billion dollar nationwide retails and service chain that is known as Pep Boys today. With over 560 stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the Company has come a long way from its humble beginnings.

Pep Boys Manny Moe & Jack (

NYSE: PBY is a full-service automotive aftermarket chain. In 1921, Emanuel (Manny) Rosenfeld, Maurice L. (Moe) Strauss, and W. Graham (Jack) Jackson opened the first "Pep Auto Supplies" store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They took the original name from a product carried in the store, called "Pep Valve Grinding Compound."

A neighborhood cop may have led to the name change "Pep Boys." As the story goes, every time he stopped a car that didn't have an oil wick burning, he would tell the driver to go see "the boys down at Pep." The "Manny, Moe and Jack" portion of the name was added after Manny and Moe visited California and saw a dress shop called "Minnie, Maude and Mabel's." Manny and Moe's visit to California also started a new market for the company. Manny's brother Murray Rosenfeld opened the West Coast operation in 1933 and Pep Boys began to grow on both sides of the country. The company reached about 159 stores around 1986

Pep Boys currently has 563 stores and over 6,000 service bays in 36 states of the US and Puerto Rico. Along with its vehicle repair and maintenance capabilities, the company also serves the commercial auto parts delivery market and is one of the leading sellers of replacement tires in the United States. Pep Boys is America's leading automotive aftermarket retail and service chain, with billions of dollars in aftermarket sales. To support this demand, Pep Boys currently has five DCs (Distribution Centers) located throughout the U.S. These DCs are located in: New York; Atlanta, Georgia, Dallas, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and San Bernardino, California.

For many years, the icon of the three Pep Boys portrayed one of them with a cigar in his mouth. During the 1990s, the cigar was removed.On his television show, Jack Benny famous violin is discovered to be from The Pep Boys. In a Halloween Special of The Simpsons, all of Springfield ad icons came alive (as a consequence of Homer's robbing the giant "Lardlad"a parody of Bob's Big Boy one of his donuts), wreaking havoc all over the city. A cartoon of old Manny, Moe and Jack ones (here called the "Zip Boys") wasn't the

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