History
JC Whitney began in 1915 as The Warshawsky Company, a scrap metal yard on the South Side of Chicago. The company's founder was Lithuanian immigrant Israel Warshawsky. Throughout World War I, Warshawsky bought failed auto manufacturers and added new parts to his inventory. The Warshawky Company continued to grow, even during the Great Depression. The company closed its Chicago location and opened a new location in LaSalle, Illinois, in 1997.
In 1934, Israel's son Roy joined his father at the company after graduating from the University of Chicago. Roy proposed expanding from the Chicago area with a nationwide catalog and placed an ad in Popular Mechanics for sixty dollars. The ad offered readers a "giant auto parts catalog" for 25¢. Response to the ad was huge.
Roy took charge after his father's death in 1943. He continued to grow the business through World War II, always developing new strategies in response to changing customer needs. Roy retired in 1991.
On June 26, 2002, The Riverside Company acquired JC Whitney. [1] In 2007, The Riverside Company created Whitney Automotive Group, which owned other companies such as CarParts.com, StylinTrucks.com, and AllBikeSupershop.com. On August 17, 2010, JC Whitney (along with the rest of Whitney Automotive Group) was acquired by U.S. Auto Parts (now known as CarParts.com) for $27.5 million. [2]
At the 2023 SEMA show in Las Vegas Nevada, JC Whitney launched a new print magazine which included a small product catalogue section, tying back to their history of being the largest print automotive parts catalogue in the U.S. The content in this magazine is also published digitally at JCWhitney.com.
As part of CarParts.com, JC Whitney products are distributed through six large distribution centers located in La Salle, IL, Peru, IL, Chesapeake, VA, Jacksonville, FL, Grand Prairie, TX and Las Vegas, NV. [3]
Israel Warshawsky arrived in Chicago after fleeing religious persecution in his native Lithuania. In 1915, when Chicago was already a brawling, unruly metropolis of more than 2.5 million souls, automobiles were then all but commonplace. It was nearly as common to see them inert, broken down on Chicago's streets. At some point, Israel Warshawsky got an idea to buy up broken or abandoned cars, strip them of their usable parts, and resell those parts to either repair shops or the body of do-it-yourselfers that then existed. He bought some land at State Street and Archer Avenue, a prime location on the South Side of Chicago, and in 1915, opened The Warshawsky Company, the city's first large-scale auto-salvage operation. [4]
Its growth was sudden and dramatic, spurred by World War I--during which Warshawsky injected himself and his firm into the Liberty Bond campaign. [5]
The onset of World War I saw demand for auto parts grow exponentially, to the point where Chicago's normal supply of junked or abandoned vehicles couldn't meet it. Warshawsky then began buying up the assets of defunct auto manufacturers, and with the industry's first great shaking-out, there were plenty to be had. The scope of his salvage yard expanded to include a new retail store.
Warshawsky & Co. continued to prosper through the Great Depression, when few Americans could afford new auto parts. By 1933, Warshawsky began publishing a catalog for its salvaged parts. Covers declared: "The century's greatest VALUES!" He offered Ford Model A cylinder heads for $3.15.
This was about the time Israel's son, Roy, was graduated from the University of Chicago. Joining his father at the firm, Roy decided in 1937 that the catalog should be expanded to include new parts and accessories and that it should be distributed beyond Chicago to encourage a mail-order business. Although the company has always been known in Chicago as Warshawsky & Co. (and still is), Roy gave the catalog a different name: J.C. Whitney & Co.
Roy took charge after his father's death in 1943. He continued to grow the business, always developing new strategies in response to changing customer needs.
Around the start of World War II, he bought a $60 retail ad in Popular Mechanics magazine, and urged readers to mail in a quarter for a "giant auto parts catalog" that he'd compiled and laid out himself. The feedback was overwhelming, and persuaded Roy to implement his next idea, giving the company an identity that was a little friendlier to the tongue than the family surname. As a result, J.C. Whitney was born. By 1947, the firm occupied an entire city block on State Street, and it had adopted the slogan it still uses today, "Everything Automotive."
Possibly inspired by the success of fellow Chicago mail-order giant Sears and Roebuck, it was Roy’s idea to expand the business beyond Chicago by entering the burgeoning mail-order catalog business. [6]
The company is most famous for its JC Whitney catalogs that, since 1934, have provided the single best and most complete resources for automotive parts and accessories – while also serving as a true rite of automotive passage for tens of millions of enthusiasts and hobbyists. [7]
At the time, JC Whitney still sold a lot of what we would later call “hard parts.” These are typically replacement items like alternators, brakes, body panels, and even complete engines, as shown in the ad above. Almost always made of steel or iron, hard parts are expensive to ship, and have a relatively low profit margin.
But of course, it is not the hard parts that made JC Whitney famous, but rather all those wild, wacky accessories.
In addition to introducing "Winky The White Cat," which appeared in every catalog, selling hubcaps that somewhat resemble exotic alloy wheels, an illuminated hood ornament showing a jester thumbing his nose or stick-on Jeff Gordon taillamp graphics, helped make JC Whitney one of the aftermarket industry's strongest powerhouses.
JC Whitney flourished under the strong hand of Roy Warshawsky. He hired John Armstrong to computerize the company in 1973.
Roy Warshawsky retired in 1991.
