 APRO: The Official Voice of the Rent to Own Industry
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 Rent-to-own News
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Rent-to-own News - TRIB Group 'Meeting of the Minds' breaks attendance records in Vegas
Close to 200 rent to own operators are in Las Vegas this week for TRIB Group’s annual 'Meeting of the Minds' -- a one of a kind RTO brainstorming and educational event -- that kicked off today at Bally's Las Vegas with a day long series of dealer-led information and training sessions that have become staples for today's independent RTO operator.
TRIB Group Executive Director Dennis Shields reported attendance at the 'Meeting of the Minds' is up significantly over last year with close to 200 registered attendees representing 73 member companies. That represents a 60 percent member company increase and a 90 percent attendee increase.
The second roundtable focused on generating new business including online sales, fee collection, new products and pakaging led by Seth Weisblatt of Sam's Appliace and Furniture.
Other topics included "cutting costs and improving gross margins" led by Terry Beville of Buddy's Home Furnishings and "human resources" led by Trent Agin of Rent One.
The day rounded out with the TRIB Group Hotshow which generated just over $4 million in sales of specially priced items offered by participating TRIB Group member vendors.
Al Benson of Central File Marketing -- a first year participant in the Hotshow -- said the fast paced rent to own micro-show was a great opportunity to build name recognition among rental dealers. Benson and Central File sold 100,000 direct mail promo packages in under a minute at the show.
"It's fun to be able to sell our services here, but its really more important to show our support for the show and for TRIB," Benson said. "We generated a lot of interest here and hope that spills over onto the show floor tomorrow." The TRIB Buy show opens Tuesday at 12:30 at Bally's and runs through Wednesday.
Brownie Calvin, who operates three Option Rentals stores, said the excitement was especially evident at the Hotshow.
"People get really worked up and you can feel the excitement," Calvin said. "It's fun to get caught up in it and the vendors who really brought out there best deals you can tell because they sold out. Those who didn't didn't. But it's all part of the show and part of building vendor dealer relationships and that's something TRIB is really good at."
APRO Executive Director Bill Keese leads an RTO industry update Tuesday Aug. 31.
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2012 APRO Convention and Trade Show July 24-26, Memphis, TN
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RTOHQ: The Magazine
RTOHQ: The Magazine is the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations' award-winning rent-to-own industry magazine, and it's available here. | |||
 CLICK HERE FOR OUR DIGITAL RTOHQ: THE MAGAZINE
RTOHQ: The Magazine’s upgraded digital format APRO's new, mobile-ready magazine is now available in addition to our print edition. The digital format provides the same informative content as our printed magazine, but also offers tools to make the reading experience more enriching. Access the table of contents page with one click or tap. Get additional information from advertisers by clicking on the links in their ads. The interface is easy to navigate and requires no special app—read our magazine on your computer, digital table or smartphone. Click here to access the digital version of RTOHQ: The Magazine March-April 2012.
A New Rent-to-Own Experience by Neil Ferguson Here’s the lowdown on APRO’s 2012 Convention and Trade Show, July 24-26 in Memphis. The RTO industry’s big event will offer many valuable experiences, including insights on how to turn your stores into “experiences”–the good kind for consumers
Who Is Your Competition? by Bill Keese In order to expand your customer base, you can learn a lot by observing your competitors. But first, you need to figure out just who they are. If you think your only competition is the rent-to-own store down the street, you’re not considering the bigger picture. APRO’s executive director offers a big-picture perspective.
A Review of Online Customer Complaints by Ed Winn III While rent-to-own companies have not cornered the market on negative reviews posted on consumer complaint websites, it’s no surprise that there are cyberspace beefs against RTO. APRO’s general counsel reviews some of them in search of a pattern and he considers appropriate response to online complaints.
Rent-to-Own Families, Part VIII by Kristen Card Our series of family-run rent-to-own businesses continues with profiles of the Homeiers in Kansas and two Texas-based sets of kindred colleagues, the Spangles and the Weisblatts.
Future issues of APRO's magazine will be available in this same new format. Click here to access past issues that are not yet archived in the new interface.
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Association of Progressive Rental Organizations 1504 Robin Hood Trail Austin, Texas 78703 800/204-2776, ext. 103 Fax 512/794-0097 |