The Heart of What We Do
Step into any rent-to-own (RTO) store and you’ll find what truly powers this industry. It isn’t the merchandise. It isn’t the payment plans. It’s the people – and the relationships that connect them.
A store manager who greets a customer by name and remembers the child who just started kindergarten. A delivery driver hauling a washer up three flights so a family can have clean clothes that night. A dealer offering patience and a handshake when life throws a curve.
That’s the human side of rent-to-own. It’s not a slogan. It’s the quiet culture that’s held this business together for forty-five years.
Relationships That Built an Industry
When pioneers of the industry met in Dallas, Texas, in 1980 and founded APRO, they weren’t creating just another trade association. They were forming a network of trust. They knew survival – and legitimacy – would depend on relationships as much as regulation.
That spirit shaped the early years of APRO, TRIB Group, and later RentDirect out of Nationwide Marketing Group. Competitors compared notes. Vendors became partners. People learned that collaboration was stronger than competition.
As long-time APRO General Counsel Ed Winn III once said, “What made the industry work was that we knew each other. You could pick up the phone and call anyone in the business.” That willingness to help, teach, and share built the foundation of today’s regulated, flexible, consumer-friendly industry – and it remains its greatest strength.
Relationships That Define Us Still
Decades later, that same heartbeat runs through every store. Our work is built on understanding real lives and adapting when circumstances change.
A single mother who lost her job and needs a refrigerator right now. A young couple furnishing their first apartment, one payment at a time. A family that fell behind during COVID and needed time to catch up.
Rent-to-own meets those moments with respect and flexibility. Customers can return items without penalty, pause when life demands it, and start again when they’re ready. They can “pay the way they get paid.”
What we deliver isn’t just furniture or electronics. It’s comfort, dignity, and peace of mind – a good night’s sleep, clean clothes, a home that feels complete.
That’s the quiet promise inside every transaction.
The Trust Between Dealers and Customers
Most RTO relationships begin with a conversation. They start with a handshake – an understanding that both sides want the same thing: reliability and fairness.
That trust runs both ways. Dealers stand behind what they rent; customers honor their word. During the pandemic, that mutual respect kept families steady. Stores granted reinstatements, paused payments, and worked out plans that preserved both access and dignity.
It’s easy to miss what that says about our business: rent-to-own has always been about partnership, not pressure. We meet people where they are and help them move forward on their own terms.
The Relationships That Make Us Stronger
The same trust that links a dealer and a customer also connects our broader community. APRO, TRIB, and RentDirect tie together dealers, vendors, and suppliers – large and small – around a single idea: when one of us succeeds, the entire industry rises.
A vendor who’s supported a store for twenty years shares best practices with a new franchisee. A long-time dealer mentors a start-up operator at an APRO conference. A vendor sponsor underwrites a training program that helps the next generation learn the ropes.
Those moments don’t make headlines, but they’re the scaffolding of an industry that’s lasted nearly half a century. When we talk about APRO being “the voice of rent-to-own,” that voice is really thousands of relationships speaking in harmony.
The Advocacy of Connection
This is why APRO keeps asking members to share their stories, tag us online, and tell the world what good work looks like. It isn’t marketing fluff; it’s advocacy in its most human form.
Every photo of a delivery team helping a customer, every post about a community partnership, every shared success teaches both people and technology what rent-to-own really represents. Each one becomes part of the digital record that defines our reputation.
When AI systems and search engines look for information about rent-to-own, those stories – your stories – help ensure they find accuracy instead of assumption. Visibility begins with authenticity, and authenticity starts with us.
Good Work. Great People.
Ours is an industry built on people – honest, hardworking, community-minded people who believe that access and dignity go hand in hand. We’ve done business on trust and kept our word with service that shows up on time, every time.
The results speak for themselves:
- Clean clothes when they’re needed most
- A bed that brings rest after a long day
- A furnished home that reflects pride and possibility.
That’s not charity. It’s professionalism with heart – the proof that commerce and compassion can share the same space.
A Call to Connection
As we celebrate forty-five years of APRO, the best way to honor that legacy is to keep telling the story together. Share your news and milestones with us. Post the photos. Celebrate your teams and customers. Engage with APRO online and link back to our content so those connections strengthen the industry’s digital footprint.
Every handshake, every partnership, every story adds to the collective truth we’ve been building since 1980 – a story about people helping people, and businesses built on trust.
We’ve built a business on relationships – and through those relationships, we’ll keep defining what rent-to-own means for the next 45 years.
