O’Reilly Auto Parts opened its first Middle Peninsula store on Feb. 13 at the Hayes Store Shopping Center on Route 17.

The company might be new to Gloucester, but is well known in other parts of the country. Store manager Ted LeBlond of Gloucester said the Springfield, Mo.-based company has 4,600 stores.

District manager Randy Cash, who heads a dozen stores throughout South Hampton Roads, the Peninsula and now the Middle Peninsula, said O’Reilly is a publicly traded company and that O’Reilly family members are the majority owners. The chain had a simple start, Cash said, the first store being run from a garage.

From the simple start in 1957, aimed at commercial auto accounts, O’Reilly Auto Parts has relied on good customer service and grown to offer numerous stores well-stocked with car and truck parts. Each store’s inventory is tailored to the local market, with county records checked to see what type vehicles are located within a few miles of a store,...