Chamberlain Auto Parts officially opened June 1 at 2223 10th St. in Baker City.

Derek and Claire Chamberlain, who bought the Carquest Auto Parts store from Joan and Douglas Hills of Baker City, own two other auto parts shops, in Vale and Ontario.

“My family’s third generation dairy farmers and I grew up in Vale, so farming is what we know,” Derek Chamberlain said. “So those are the types of towns we wanted to be in versus going the other direction.”

Chamberlain Auto Parts, also known as CAPS, is more than just an auto parts store, which is why the Chamberlains are not operating solely under the Carquest name. CAPS is also a Cub Cadet and Toro lawn equipment dealer.

The Hills, meanwhile, continue to operate their auto repair shop at 800 Campbell St., the former site of Carquest auto parts.

The Chamberlains live in Vale, and Derek said he travels to the Baker City shop about twice a week to talk to customers, set up accounts and do whatever else needs to be done. The shop also employs workers with previous experience at NAPA and O’Reilly’s auto parts stores.

Derek Chamberlain said he started talking with the Hillses just over a year ago when he found out they were interested in selling their business.

He met with the couple in a Baker City coffee shop, where they hashed out the details and began the process of changing hands.

Chamberlain then spent the next six to eight months searching for a building and employees to run the business before the original scheduled opening date of April 1, 2021.

Like many other things, COVID-19 threw a wrench in that plan as work crews had to quarantine throughout the opening process, and parts and equipment suppliers faced nationwide shortages. Even now, Chamberlain still does not have all the inventory he was hoping to have by the time CAPS opened.

“We’re still having issues,” he said. “We still haven’t gotten stuff that we ordered in March in anticipation of opening in April. So that’s why there’s only eight or nine lawnmowers out there; because of the pandemic, we just don’t have them yet.”

CAPS has kept the same phone number as the previous location — 541-523-6366 — which has helped with making sure customers show up to the right place. Chamberlain said he still needs to work on signage because sometimes people get confused when they pull into the parking lot. He hopes to connect with the community through a cookout he is planning for mid-July, pending approval from the Baker County Health Department.

“People can walk through and we can kind of show them what we have,” Chamberlain said. “Normally, we’d like to do it in April, May or later in September, but we want to make sure that we can do it as soon as possible so that people know we’re here.”