Amy Zeller is entering a new stage of life – complete with new home, husband, & son-in-law-to-be, but she still finds that lifelong family feeling in rent-to-own
It’s been almost exactly 23 years since Amy Zeller was first profiled in this publication (known then as Progressive Rentals magazine). She was coming up on her 30th birthday, was a decade into running seven family rent-to-own stores located in six Ohio cities, and was quickly approaching her wedding to her first husband (spoiler alert).
Today, Amy is 23 years older, 14 years into owning and operating two Ohio-based RTO stores, and quickly approaching her wedding to – by the time you’re reading this article – her last husband (here’s hoping!).
A lot has happened in-between, as you might expect, including a break with rent-to-own, the near-fall of a family business, a move away from her hometown of a half-century, and a beautiful, brilliant daughter who (get this) is also engaged to be married. Oh, and a darling dog who takes “go for a ride” to the next level.
But the parallels between Zeller’s life then and now are unmistakable, and the in-between stuff is equally as fascinating. And despite the ups and downs of the past almost quarter-century, it looks like in this full-circle moment, Amy Zeller’s success has been a constant for the whole 360º journey.
Amy Zeller grew up in Defiance, a small city in the northwest corner of Ohio, where the official town motto is “A Great Place to Live.” Amy was the youngest of five, with two sisters and two brothers, all of whom attended parochial Lutheran school through eighth grade, then went on to public high school. Amy played basketball at her Lutheran school; her eighth-grade team won the state championship. In high school, she turned to playing trumpet in the band, including marching, pep, concert, and symphonic.
But Zeller’s favorite childhood memories come from Clear Lake, Indiana, about an hour’s drive from Defiance where her family spent every summer at their lakeside cottage.
“We did anything and everything having to do with watersports,” Zeller remembers. “We were all involved in the Clear Lake Water Ski Club and at the Yacht Club. It was wonderful.”
Zeller’s parents, Jim and Jane, opened up a retail television, electronics, and appliance business in Defiance in 1972, the same year Amy was born. The company – originally called Zeller’s, then Zeller’s Super Warehouse – became hugely popular, and all five kids grew up helping out with the family business in one way or another.
Amy, meanwhile, went off to college at the University of Toledo to study business, but didn’t jibe with the college’s vibe. At 19, she was home from school working at the Super Warehouse, when her mom revealed she had been thinking about getting into rent-to-own, and wanted Amy to launch the first store. Jim Sr. wasn’t keen on the concept initially (though he came around later), so Jane had secured a $50k bank loan in her own name.
“I was like, ‘I’m 19. Are you kidding me?’” Amy recalls. “But she was serious. So I opened up my first RTO store in 1991, in Wauseon, Ohio. My mom had blessedly hired [wife of rent-toown legend Bud Holladay] Cathy Holladay as a consultant to teach me the whole business from A to Z, and she did. She taught me everything I know, and Cathy and Bud are like my second parents.”
Jane and Amy named the company Zeller Rentals, but eventually changed it to City Rentals. Amy served as Vice President of Operations, and Zeller Super Warehouse served as the main merchandiser for the business, which the mother-daughter team grew to seven Ohio-based stores – which Amy describes as “really, really great, and fun fun fun.
“I did that for 14 years, and it was a fun little business, though of course I worked my fanny off,” Zeller attests. “I had the world’s most amazing daughter, Kennedy, in 2004, and in 2005, decided to leave the family business. My mom was retiring from retail, I had different ideas, and we just chose to go separate ways. I moved on and went to work for ProMedica, a nonprofit healthcare system in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
I joined the physician services team, and had sort of a dream job. I connected primary-care doctors with hospitals, so I also got to take them to lunch and golfing … it was a pretty sweet deal.”
But five years later, the family business was in trouble, and Zeller’s mom asked Amy to check into it. When an embezzlement was discovered, some quick changes had to happen. Amy loved ProMedica, but missed being her own boss; she secured financing, bought the assets of City Rentals, and launched The Rental Market. She then reduced the company from its remaining four locations to just two – the OG Defiance store and another in Bryan, Ohio, about a half-hour away.
“By that time, I was a single mom,” notes Zeller. “I know how time-consuming this business is, and how hard it is to find good, hardworking, trustworthy employees. I needed only two stores to be able to pay our bills, to have my hands around what I could handle, and above all, to be there to raise my daughter. She was my priority.”
I was a single mom, I know how time-consuming this business is, and how hard it is to find good, hardworking, trustworthy employees. I needed only two stores to be able to pay our bills, to have my hands around what I could handle, and above all, to be there to raise my daughter. She was my priority.
Amy Zeller’s recipe for RTO success seems to be a justright blend of nature, nurture, guidance, and practice. Zeller is a natural-born salesperson – she was consistently tops in Girl Scout cookie sales as a youngster, and says her friends’ parents would likely agree she could sell them just about anything. Then she grew up in her family’s store, immersed in the world of retail business.
The guidance, as mentioned, came mostly from her mentor Cathy Holladay, whose impact, according to Zeller, was profound.
“Cathy and I used to talk every day of the week,” Zeller elaborates. “I’d fax my store numbers to her, and we’d go through them; she’d teach me what to watch for on the profit-and-loss statements. She’s seen me break down and she’s talked me off of the proverbial ledge. Cathy was my rock. She totally took me under her wing, and I still to this day use the lessons I learned from her and Bud both.”
The practice comes from Zeller’s now 28 years of rent-toown experience – 14 years with City Rentals, and now, 14 years (and counting) running The Rental Market. And her “secret sauce”? An uber-personal approach that emphasizes close relationships, individual attention, and extreme accessibility, with just a dash of tough love – as needed.
“I run a tight ship,” explains Zeller. “I want to be like the last of the true mom-and-pop businesses. I’m here in the store, I watch every element of the company, and I know my customers. I cater to them, and make it so close-knit here that they reach out to me personally and say, ‘Hey, I need a sofa, I need a freezer, I need whatever,’ and they know we’re going to get them what they want. They trust us, because we make sure they’re happy with every transaction.
“I try to be fair but firm,” Zeller continues. “I don’t charge off accounts following 90 days of nonpayment like the big guys do. I’ll run into these folks at the grocery store and say, ‘Hey, let’s talk, let’s work this out. Let’s get a new payment plan going; you can’t just not pay.’ I hold people accountable, just like I hold myself accountable.”
I want to be like the last of the true mom-and-pop businesses. I’m here in the store, I watch every element of the company, and I know my customers. I cater to them, and make it so close-knit here that they reach out to me personally and say, ‘Hey, I need a sofa, I need a freezer, I need whatever,’ and they know we’re going to get them what they want.
The Rental Market has a couple of unique features that also contribute to its mom-and-pop character. One is a little room off of the Defiance location’s main showroom that Zeller has dubbed The Gift Market.
“There was nothing to do with this quirky space, so I just find fun stuff at garage sales and such, and put it in there for sale,” Zeller says. “It actually began as Kennedy’s Closet, where my daughter would resell her clothes, but she stopped sending me inventory, so I’ve just gotten creative with it. Now it’s like a little boutique with antiques and gifts and things. Sometimes, I get bored, and I just want to do something different, and it adds a little pizazz to the store.”
Second is Zeller’s ever-present canine companion, Callie Laker. This six-year-old white fluffball is a hub of personality and popularity, accompanying Zeller just about everywhere she goes. Two years ago, Zeller made the move from her wholelife hometown of Defiance to her custom-built dreamhouse on Clear Lake, and Callie could not be more on-board.
“She loves boat rides, jet-ski rides, riding on the Kawasaki Mules (ATVs) around the lake,” affirms Zeller. “If you leave her behind, she about breaks through the door. If we go to the Clear Lake Yacht Club, she bellies up to the bar with us. Everybody knows her, loves her, and has their own nickname for her.”
Way back when Zeller was running City Rentals, she was also actively involved in RTO industry leadership.
She served for three years as President of the Ohio Rental Dealers Association, as well as ORDA Vice President and Treasurer at different times. She traveled to Washington, D.C., four times to lobby for federal rent-to-own legislation, and served as a member of the APRO Board of Directors from 2000 to 2004.
But when Zeller re-entered the RTO realm with The Rental Market, she lasered in on her business (second) and her daughter (first). Everything else was a distant also-ran.
“My priority was to raise my daughter and to raise her like a rock star, and I did,” Zeller confirms. “She’s a sophomore at Trine University in marketing and she’s on the President’s List. But she’s already gotten her real-estate license and is working as a full-time residential agent with Sotheby’s. And now she’s engaged to marry her boyfriend of more than three years, Ryan. She and I are exactly like the Gilmore Girls – she was a joy to raise, and we just have so much fun together.”
Zeller also put her own love life on hold during Kennedy’s growing-up years, but around the time her daughter turned 18, Zeller began a romantic relationship with another “Clear Laker” she had known for about 20 years – Jim Trudell, who runs a plumbing and electrical business in Toledo, Ohio. The couple plans to wed in mid-June.
“We just realized we were meant to be,” claims Zeller. “He’s been married before, too, and has two kids – CJ who is 24, and Rachel who is 22. They and Kennedy get along fabulously, so it’s an easy blend.”
Zeller enjoys golfing, and she and her family spend their lake life doing watersports and pontoon-boating. Though her dear dad has passed, mom Jane also lives at Clear Lake, both of Zeller’s brothers still spend time there, and one of her sisters lives in Defiance (the other sister lives in Pennsylvania).
“Everybody knows everybody at the lake,” Zeller says. “I have family and a lifetime of new friends there, and we’re just living large. Our lake home never sees a dull moment.”
Despite the clear richness of her life on the lake – and the hour-long commute into Defiance – Zeller says her circle of rent-to-own isn’t quite complete just yet, and she has no intention of leaving her business behind anytime soon.
“RTO has been good to me, and I’ve got no regrets,” states Zeller. “It’s a great industry with a lot of good people, and I miss connecting with them, I miss the conventions. But I really believe I’ll get back to it all one day.
“I really love what I do, and I doubt I’m going to find anything else I like any better,” she concludes. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but I’ll give it 100 percent till I’m done. I’m still sailing my own ship, and that’s important to me.”
Kristen Card has been a contributing writer for RTOHQ: The Magazine for more than 20 years.
