name, and were generally models from the brands Savage, Marlin Firearms, or Mossberg. Other than markings, Revelation models were identical to standard production models. They were the most basic models produced by the various manufacturers, and featured plain birch or walnut stocks. However, metal bluing remained good and nearly all models were provided with iron sights and mounting provisions for scopes. Once valued lower than "name brand" equivalents, store-brand rifles, shotguns, and revolvers have essentially reached price parity with their more universal counterparts. Firearms were one of many lines added to the store in a product diversification effort. By the end of the 1950s Western Auto was similar to a Sears store, equipped with a catalog order center. Auto parts comprised a small percentage of the company's sales by the mid-1960s, and had nearly disappeared by the 1970s. Beneficial In 1961, Western Auto was sold to the Beneficial Finance Corporation. Beneficial retained ownership until 1985, when the company was purchased in a leveraged buyout led by Western Auto management and Wesray Capital Corporation. Streamlining business operations In the early 1980s, in response to the success of Wal-Mart, Western Auto Retail converted all of the company-owned stores to what it called "FLAG" stores, which sold exclusively automotive parts and accessories. These stores were largely located in more urbanized areas much like their successors today. Western Auto Wholesale strongly urged its associate stores to become at least 50% automotive, but most refused because the customer base of their locations, in "small town America", demanded a wider range of merchandise. This disagreement by the associate stores would later save the company. In February 1986, Western Auto purchased 40 White Stores in Texas from Canadian Tire for US$24.5 million. In February 1987, Western Auto purchased Wheeling, West Virginia-based Tire America. In October of that year, it purchased Dale City, Virginia-based National Tire Warehouse. Sears Roebuck & Co. purchase In 1988, Sears Roebuck purchased Western Auto from Wesray Capital. In 1995, Western Auto went into a buying spree involving two unrelated business transactions by acquiring 84 auto parts stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee from the bankrupted Nationwise Automotive chain in October for an undisclosed amount and later acquired Wheels Discount Auto Supply and its 82 auto parts stores in New York and Pennsylvania at the end of the year from its then owner Fay's Drug for $37 million. Also during 1995,