O’Reilly Auto Parts opens in Tea

O’Reilly Auto Parts opened a new store in Tea Jan. 28.

The new store is located at 920 N. Heritage Parkway in Tea, between Casey’s and Dollar General. The store offers auto parts closer to home for Tea residents. With it in Tea, now residents do not need to visit one of the four Sioux Falls stores.

“They put us here to help alleviate the Sioux Falls stores from a lot of the out of town (people) so they could mainly focus on the in town. We’ll take care of the surrounding area,” said Tyler Appel, store manager.

For example, he has a shop coming to the store from Worthing for parts.

Appel came to the Tea store Jan. 1 after spending four years managing the O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Worthington, Minn. Prior to that, he worked for O’Reilly in Mitchell since 2010.

The Tea store offers a wide variety of inventory from air fresheners to alternators to starters. The store front area is larger than what Appel was used to in Worthington.

Besides coming in to buy parts, customers can order online and pick up the parts in store. Or, they can call in about a part and reserve it for pickup later.

The store is open Mondays through Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store has plans for an open house in April.

Appel said they are good fit for the community with their availability and their customer service.

“We just want to help out,” he said.