My experience with Auto Zone has been better over the past five years. Eddie Lambert JR (ELJ), was AZ's largest shareholder and sold his stake in AZ about eight years ago. AZ has been improving in my observation since ELJ sold his controlling stake in AZ. AZ is far from perfect, but greatly improved from the AZ we knew ten years ago.
Of note, ELJ was (and still is) the majority owner (and Supreme Leader) of Sears and Kmart.