Rent-to-own News - APRO General Session focuses on the industry's past, present and future

The 2007 General Session at the APRO Convention and Buying Show highlighted the past, the present and the future. APRO Executive Director Bill Keese opened the morning meeting September 25 to a crowded room of industry professionals. After thanking the show’s generous sponsors--whose support exceeded all previous years--Keese opened the floor to APRO President Larry Carrico. Carrico recapped what has been a tumultuous year in regards to neative press attacks as well as fighting off potentially harmful legislation.

He cited the unity and strength of not only the national association, but also the state associations, as the reasons why the industry has prevailed in most scenarios. He also focused on good news from the past year, including: flat-screen TVs have boosted yields-per-unit in most stores, Rent-A-Center and RentWay rejoined APRO, new RTO concepts like Rent-n-Roll and Premier gained strength and offered former rent-to-own employees the chance to own a family-run business, new state associations were reorganized in Louisiana, New York State, Pennsylvania, the Northwest and West Virginia; and, finally, the industry enjoyed its largest attendance ever at the 2007 Dave Egan Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. The membership heard reports from the chairs of the following committees: membership, budget, government relations, state association coordination, public relations and nominating.

During the public relations committee report, the members met the 2007 Rent-to-Own Employee of the Year, Jonathan Brown of Bestway Rent-To-Own in Tappahannock, Virginia. He’s a customer service manager who is an exemplary employee who is also active in Upward Bound, a charitable group that serves students from low-income families by helping them succeed academically. During “Tiger” John Cleek’s report on state associations, he announced and presented the 2007 Most-Improved State Association of the Year award to New York Rental Dealers Association President Dave Edwards. Once the general session adjourned, Carrico introduced keynote speaker Lowell Catlett, world-renowned economist and raconteur. Catlett regaled the membership with an optimistic picture of economic trends of the past, present and future. One of his themes was that when the market delivers what you want, when you want it and where you want it, price is not an issue.

Also, “people afford what they want.” He drew distinctions between the various generations, baby boomers, X Generation, Y Generation and the World War II generation and how each of those groups behaves in the marketplace. Catlett made his points about economic trends with humorous anecdotes from his life as an insightful baby boomer. He was met with a standing ovation from the audience. Then, to close out the meeting, APRO’s Keese and Carrico performed the ritual ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the buying show at the convention center to attendees. Click here to view photos from the event. APRO would like to thank GE Consumer and Industrial for its generous sponsorship of the 2007 General Session.