Advance Auto closing Sterling location

STERLING – After only 2 years in town, Advance Auto Parts, 2930 E. Lincolnway, is closing up shop. Wednesday is its last day.

Messages scrawled across the windows let passersby know that some items are on sale for up to 50 percent off.

The inventory and some of its 10 or so employees are moving to its Clinton, Iowa, location, according to a banner on the building. That store is now Advance's closest location.

The company's second-quarter earnings report for this year shows overall growth, and cites the "ongoing process of store evaluations" to accelerate next year's profit goals.

Fifty of more than 5,000 stores are scheduled for closure, according to the report, but locations are not listed. Calls to the business Thursday were referred to media relations, and were not immediately returned.

Advance Auto Parts was the fifth national auto parts chain to move to the area, joining AutoZone, Carquest, NAPA Auto Parts and O’Reilly Auto Parts.

The 6,500-square-foot Sterling location was one of 200 new Advance Auto Parts stores, spokeswoman Shelly Whitaker said in 2013.

Advance Auto Parts services professional mechanics and customers who work on their own cars. It offered some free services, such as replacing batteries and windshield wiper blades.

The site, between the Fifth Third Bank and East Lincolnway, previously was owned by the mall. Watkins Sterling LLC has owned the building since December 2013.