How to seperate multiple stores from having Google see them as one and rank higher

I havent tested this, but it does make sense. Fred -Progressive Auto Parts contributed this from a source at Google.

Your phone # is usually shown all over your website and can be used as a driver to identify if your website has a relationship to another website that you own.

Come to think about it, I am sure this is only one of the ways they come up with that conclusion.

As you know that auto part store and auto accessory store were once in the same location but now one is in FL and the other in NY. Out of no where few months into it we rank side by side while before we never ranked side by side. I think we are def. on to something here.

Other ways Google can form the relationship: