By: Jill Mcclure
This has been a year none of us is likely to forget any time soon. A global pandemic, which initially hit the U.S. in the spring, continues its relentless American body count even as we approach the annual turn of the calendar into 2021. Combine the relative isolation, forced familial togetherness, working from home, homeschooling, rampant business closings, millions unemployed, Zoom burnout, hug hunger, grief, fear, stress, and all the other unpleasant upshots of the coronavirus crisis, then add nationwide racial tensions and a deeply entrenched political divisiveness and – voila! – that’s 2020 for you!
When the COVID-19 hit the proverbial fan way back in March, the team here at APRO was deep into preparation for April’s upcoming Legislative Conference – complete with a record-breaking number of attendees registered, and even a White House tour on the itinerary. But once lockdowns began rolling across the country, the only way for a company to stay open was to be deemed an “essential business” – so at APRO, our first order of business became ensuring rent-to-own companies, whoever and wherever they were, were classified as essential.
Every member of our team began reading through the onslaught of executive orders being issued by states, county health departments, cities, and the federal government as they poured in. We flagged their myriad definitions of “essential business” and began working with our members to make sure they were included in the definition as decreed by their particular governing body.
To date, APRO has issued 63 legislative alerts this year – compared with a typical 23 alerts during all of 2019 – addressing those executive orders, as well as pandemic-related operations, employee, and PPP loan issues.
We put together helpful webinars about these issues, and developed resource letters for members to use to explain their essential status, eventually creating a special COVID-19 resource website exclusively for our association members.
In brief, we did what we have done for 40 years and what we do best at APRO: we safeguarded our industry through effective education and successful advocacy about RTO and why it’s important.
Once we helped secure open doors and open stores for our members, it quickly became clear that rent-to-own is, indeed, essential – RTO businesses nationwide aren’t just surviving, but thriving through the coronavirus crisis. It hasn’t been easy but rent-to-own knows how to rally and how to adapt. What an extraordinary business this is, flourishing during a global pandemic.
With our promising 2020 Legislative Conference sadly cancelled, we at APRO turned our attention from watch-dogging executive orders to rescuing our third annual RTO World national convention and tradeshow, originally scheduled for August. With just a few weeks’ postponement, our team managed to put together a 100% virtual convention – and tradeshow! – with whopping registration numbers, participants enjoying some brilliant education, collaborative meetups, and fantastic deals, all socially distanced and fun, to boot!
This issue of RTOHQ: The Magazine covers some of the highlights of RTO World 2020, including of course, the 2020 APRO Hall of Honor where we shine a well-deserved spotlight on our award recipients, including the announcement of a brand-new award and its namesake inaugural recipient – turn to page 54 to see who we’re roaring over!
This issue also covers the full story of RTO’s pandemic response [“Why We’re Here: APRO’s Pandemic Response,” page 36], as well as APRO General Counsel Ed Winn III’s take on how staying at home is evolving our culture and our industry [“RTO and the Cocooning of America,” page 40]. And, should you need to take a break from all the coronavirus convo, be sure to check out our dual APROfiles – one about a rental dealer whose stores are on tropical islands [“Renting in Paradise,” page 30], and the other about an RTO vendor who feels right at home in America’s heartland [“Full Circle with High Touch,” page 44].
Finally – saving the best for last – I must note that this crazy year marks APRO’s 40th anniversary, and give a bigtime shoutout to the man who has been in it to win it since the very beginning: Happy 40th APRO anniversary, Ed Winn! We’re fortunate to have had your legal prowess, wry sense of humor, and sound guidance with rent-to-own every step of the way. Cheers, and here’s to many, many more steps still to come! [Read all about APRO and Ed’s four-decade journey together in “APRO @ 40: Still Winning,” on page 18.]
I’m wishing us all a safe and healthy holiday season, and a prosperous, eventually virus-free new year … onward, into 2021!
