► Terry Fleck of NAFCO, a finance company for smaller RTO dealers, says that “there’s enormous opportunity out there” for RTO start-ups. Fleck was interviewed by Furniture Today in December. Due to the high number of mergers and acquisitions, there exist many experienced RTO dealers who are ready and willing to start over with stores of their own.
Fleck was quoted as saying that, “We’re just seeing the ramp-up now. But there are a lot of locations that still don’t have stores, there are plenty of qualified operators for new start-ups and there’s a lot of financing available for this.” He also estimated that the industry’s current 7,500 store count will grow to 11,000 or 12,000 in the next five to 10 years.
► New Jersey RTO dealers have offered up satisfied customers who have been willing to be interviewed and/or testify on the industry’s behalf before the Legislature. In articles appearing in the Trenton, NJ, Times, and the Newark, NJ, Star-Ledger, for example, happy customers were profiled by reporters covering the industry’s efforts before the New Jersey Legislature. Both stories began with interviews of satisfied customers. One of the customers was quoted as saying, “I’m not poor. I live in Montclair. I have a good job.”
► Rentown USA in Springfield, OR, was recently featured in the Springfield News. The story was positive in that it focused entirely on the benefits of leasing, full disclosure of prices to customers and that customers have a choice in whether they choose to lease or not. The reporter interviewed two employees, both of whom were former store customers. Rentown Assistant Manager Lisa Berg was quoted as saying, “For someone who just got a divorce or just moved to town and has stuff in storage, or for someone who filed bankruptcy and may not have established credit, this is a good option.”
► Kudos to RentWay and to Gary Bryant of Jones Rent-To-Own in Indianapolis for their charitable spirit! RentWay awarded a house full of furniture in a national sweepstakes drawing to Chicago Heights rental customer Mae Turner. Turner’s odds of winning the sweepstakes were 1 in 250,000 as about 400 RentWay stores participating averaging about 750 to 800 entries each. She has been a loyal RTO customer for 15 years and doesn’t plan to stop shopping at RentWay, even with a house full of furniture, Turner says in an Alsip-Blue Island (Illinois) Star News article. “It will be little odds and ends stuff,” she says.
“They won’t lose me. Sometimes you might need bed sets or mattresses. They just got me as one of their family.”
► Gary Bryant of Jones Rent-To-Own in New Castle, IN, stepped up to the plate to help a family of 15 (a mother and 14 adopted children), who had been displaced due to extensive repairs to their home. The Dodd family home caught on fire in early November. After being invited to stay in a local church annex, the family obtained furniture from Jones Rent-To-Own.
“I am overwhelmed with gratitude for everything that people have done for us,” says Dodd in an article appearing in the New Castle Courier Times. “Gary Bryant, owner of Jones Rent-To-Own, made sure we had furniture to rent and the church let us rent this house, enabling the children to stay in the same schools…”
