Bravo Team
is the most experienced in running small stores with eCommerce. Our prior
development partnership with EBay which elevated our selling ranking to number
1 on Ebay's platform in One week uncovered what was possible. We were the very
first published case study by EBay. Our team also includes a deep knowledge of
Lending online.
Kelley's
former experience includes leading a large technical team for the worlds
largest Payday / Lead generation software company. These hands on experiences
is why we believe there needs to be a strategy for all small businesses to
address this competitive attack. Everyone needs to take notice.
The Internet is going to have an impact on Pawn and Sales,
today and in the future. I believe it is accelerating. And this discussion
validates the symptoms of what is ahead. In the Go Go days of late 90's most of
us believed it was going to happen. Because it did not happen immediately most
don't believe it today. IT IS HAPPENING.
When I was operating SuperPawn, we discovered the Internet
Effect when we were partners with EBay (2001) co-developing code for stores to
directly integrate into EBay's business model. Our partnership blew up, but
that was all I needed to understand how important all of your stores are to
EBay. EBay is the market place, a great place to learn how to sell, but very
expensive, and difficult to make a profit. Outside EBay's fees which I believe
are reasonable, the time and cost that is invested in each item transaction is
very, very expensive if it is not a fully integrated process within your core
operating system.
There is a learning curve to successfully sell on the
Internet. Here are some suggestions. Over describe your item and you will have fewer returns and
disgruntled customers. When you have the most demanding customer, let them win.
Get over it. On the Internet in the next minute your on to another transaction.
I believe selling on the Internet makes you a better store operator. If you are
making customers happy on the Internet and delivering the same happiness to
your stores customers, you are going to win.
Internet Pawn. Here is all you have to do. Compete. Do
something about it.
Number 1 - put up a website to protect your local market.
Number 2 and its free, sign up on all 5 FREE Pawnshop Finder Services - here is
ours: http://www.maxpawn.com/Stores.
Number 3 - at least setup
Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and Pinterest, Yelp, etc.
Anyone who would like to discuss our solutions or what challenges you have today please give us a call.
Pawnbrokers are confronted with a quickly advancing business disruption. Brick & Mortar operators must arm themselves with technology and effort in pivoting to a In-store fully integrated Commerce Model.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Bravo SKU creates more opportunities for store operators
How to
make some extra profit – Get Bravo SKU
Bravo Pawn SKU
stock keeping units.
Many operators benefit by splitting up tools for example
into buckets to piece out individual items for sale. It creates a
shopping experience that many operators believe in. The profits are
generous and customers love it. With Bravo it’s simple and custom so you
get to operate the business the way you want to not the way other systems
require you to.
Bravo is introducing the
newest and most complete SKU inventory process. Why is Bravo different?
·
SKU setup for Company level – creates universal
SKU for multiple store operators.
·
Optional printed Price Labels & SKU pricing
card.
·
SKU Image – Bravo includes Image capture to
easily identify the SKU bucket.
·
Transfer SKU between stores
·
1000 custom SKU positions – you choose what you
want!
·
Cycle Count Physical Inventory is a snap.
·
Easy Setup
Bravo Pawn SKU is included
as a part of the basic package at no extra charge.
Call us or sign up for one
on one demonstration.
888.407.6287
Friday, October 19, 2012
BRAVO TO THE RESCUE
Bravo Bits – Bravo to the rescue !
A year ago
I sat down with the CEO of a Fortune 1000 company and he laid out a vision of
an Single Operating Platform for all of his financial services in a dozen
countries. He said, “That’s what I want”. It was one of those
moments that I wanted to jump out of my seat and say, “ooh, ooh we have that”,
however our Internationalized product was in Beta, and we were weeks away from
deployment in Mexico. We are happy J to
say that Mexico is firing on all cylinders, and so is Sweden for this client J J.
Multiple currencies, tax, regulation, and language. We are feeling pretty
good since this CEO had been waiting years for a product like ours and we were
able to fully deploy at 24 locations after 4 ½ months and delivered on time.
Retail News
Best Buy announced that they will be matching
Amazons prices. Do you think eCommerce is a real threat to Brick &
Mortar? Bravo to the rescue.
We just launched
Auction for Bravo. Our
users now have the power to easily launch one or more items into 4 different
auction formats in 3 clicks. We include an Inventory analytic tool to
scrub and identify slow moving items. The power of our off site
computing for small business with our ONE commerce strategy is unfolding and
getting more and more exciting each day. Our users are seeing
acceleration gains on a daily basis. Below I have included a testimonial
from Dave Munsee one of our early adopters.
Bravo Recycle Process Bravo’s integrated proprietary Jewelry recycle
process is showing between 3-5% net profit gains for our users. The
complete life cycle from acquisition at the counter to the check received from
the refiner is measured and reported.
New Pricing - We will be announcing new pricing
offerings next week. One that I am very excited about is targeted for new start up “Buy & Sell” starting at $49.00.
We currently have 152 stores on our Maxpawn Network.
Our traffic continues to rise weekly, this week by 12%. We are averaging
over 1000 new shoppers each day, and have over 2100 registered active users.
We are also excited to announce that BUYA.COM coming
soon -- simply buying with booya. Our eCommerce objective was to
open a common marketplace for small merchants. A place for everyone see and
shop. This week we were successful at obtaining BUYA to meet our strategic
objective. Stay tuned for our release.
NEW FEATURES
Lots of everyday stuff improving each day, but here are a
few.
·
SKU for pre-owned merchandise. Selecting
items to price and put into a bucket. For multiple store operators
in Bravo you will able to transfer from Store to Store.
·
Physical Inventory – Cycle Count. Bravo
created a light weight app that simply loads on any PC with a scanner your off
with a robust live inventory audit.
·
Optimizing – Bravo is faster: our
engineers rock! Average round trip transaction from Las Vegas to Sweden is
2.75 seconds.
·
New CRM view for Customers. New update for
Product Analytics. New update for Employee ranking –KPI
·
Our fastest growing product line – Bravo
Business Intelligence – Grande and Premier.
I have included some screen shots and please take a
look at our Auctions and do some bidding.
1.
Bravo Auction App
2.
Bravo Auction Manager – one view for your
complete Auction management.
3.
MaxPawn Auction Item
4.
Buyer Rating Guide for Bravo Merchants.
Know who you are selling to.
*One Commerce Strategy – Ecommerce and Store Commerce
as ONE.
Testimonial October 2, 2012
Steve-
A customer comes in and wants a
particular movie or game. We check our inventory but don’t have it. So
instead of letting Mr. or Mrs. Customer walk out empty handed we check MaxPawn,
find it, and order it. Moral of the story is........ customers ALWAYS come here first. We have purchased IPhone, games and
movies from our fellow MaxPawn users.
You may want to pass that
little ditty along.
Dave Munsee
Check out this redirect - Click
here and then look at Liberty
Pawn and see how they are utilizing local advertising.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Get to know your business better with Bravo Physical Inventory
Bravo PI – Physical
Inventory Module
Beta Available – 9/6/2012
$399.00
While all other Point of Sale systems require you to spend
up to $2000.00 for a scanner, Bravo introduces its Cloud Based
Application – Bravo PI Click Once, that instantly down loads to any LapTop or
Tablet. Use your existing USB Hand Held Scanner and you are in
business.
Imagine you can finally perform a professional Audit
specifically designed for your business needs. No complicated download or
upload sessions. Bravo PI is a Live Audit.
Multiple Store Owners – can see Audit Sessions in place at
each location and perform the Audit with unlimited number of staff members at
the same time.
Each Store License includes unlimted number of Bravo PI
computer activations per store. Bravo PI is Wireless Network Ready.
Its so simple fast…. Can you image performing audits without
the pain?
- · Instant Random Audit Sets
- · Instant Customized Audit Sets
- · Quick Audit – 10 items or more
- · All Store Audit – Loans - Inventory
- · Easy to Reconcile – Shortages
- · Easy to fix duplicates
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
BRAVO MOBILE
The funnest part of Bravo’s platform, The Cloud, The Web,
The Services, is that we have the ability to leverage so many functions and
inventions of others like APPLE and
ANDROID, We are excited to announce The MOBILE application for Bravo.
Bravo will support 5 forms of customer communications.
1.
Print notices
2.
Email - enabled
3.
Text – coming soon
5.
Mobile – coming soon
Without spilling all of the beans of our application.
Customer Communications, Coupon Deployment, and Payments.
Now you will have a rich link to your customers deploying
afforable measurable marketing products to your customers from one easy screen.
We will offer this application for Apple and Android mobile
products.
If you have any questions please contact us for a one
on one live demonstration. 888.407.6287
Saturday, August 4, 2012
BRAVO COST
Fellow Business Operator,
I know what you do every day, what it takes, and know that
with a REAL System assisting you each day will be a whole lot better with
BRAVO.
Many of you have asked if the cost of Bravo is more than the
others. The answer is unequivocally NO. Nothing is more powerful
and more affordable than Bravo no matter how you measure it.
First, Bravo features are unsurpassed and 10 years
ahead of our closest competitor.
Bravo Store Systems has the lowest Total Cost of Ownership.
Our cost saving features make you money and is exclusive to Bravo
Technologies.
No Servers – No Backups – We do it all.
Save your money and headaches in keeping your servers running in your
stores. They are expensive and becoming obsolete each day. Enjoy
the multi-million dollar software and services with Bravo for a fraction of the
price starting at $149.00 per month.
In-store network NO more. All you need
is Router. Many of you have invested in Novell, Citrix and other
expensive infrastructure to hook all of your stores into your store
server. With Bravo Technology thin client architecture, you can create a
secure store environment with unlimited number of workstations easily.
All you need is a Router and Switch for as low as $150.00. Plug it in or
Wireless (Yes Bravo runs on a wireless network)
Bravo will help you earn an
extra $5.00 - $15.00 for every transaction you perform in your store.
Best Technology – We took no short cuts.
We know that your business needs mission critical systems. Your system
has to be reliable. We choose enterprise class Microsoft technologies – Microsoft
SQL Server – WPF- Windows Presentation Foundation – Microsoft
Visual Studio - .NET Microsoft.
Best & most secure Collocation Facility –
Switch Communication – SuperNap – click
here.
Best of class - IBM Hardware.
THE CLOUD – it’s here, it’s the future.
A scalable solution built on Microsoft
AZURE. Our ability to integrate is unsurpassed. Hardware,
Peripherals, 3rd Party Applications, and Custom solutions are all
what we do every day.
Check Out our Store
Network - click
here
Call us or sign up for a free One on One Demonstration – 30 minutes – click here
Who is the smartest Pawnbroker in the World?
The
pawnbroker that uses Bravo.
If you had information at your fingertips like this what
would you do? Apple IPhone 4 – A1349.
In this example we contend that pawnbrokers with the
intelligence, instant Google, EBay, and Bing Search, will lend with more
confidence, sell faster, check and test the merchandise and in the end make
your more money.
Stop living with the systems that don’t bring value to your
business. Bravo brings home more profit with every click.
Pawn Broker Intelligence
20% defect rate
Sells in 20 days
Average default rate is 22%
Average Margin is 37.79%
Broken Condition sold for - $249.99
Call us for a free demonstration
1-888-407-6287
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Ship for Free? - Why or Why not !
Shipping
Fee - To be Free or not to be Free.
- If you can make money on shipping you are achieving online selling miracle.
- If you can break even you are way ahead of the pack.
- If you lose or give away free shipping, this is a common cost (investment) of doing business. The most preferred. Why would you want to lose (invest) money when you ship something?
FIRST
- In Retail there is a cost of acquiring merchandise – called FOB – freight on
board. The shipping costs that are passed on to the retail merchant when
the vendor ships merchandise to the store location, or in the case of the big
merchants, the cost of a distribution center, break down, and
redistribution. Wal-Mart is famous for having the most efficient
re-distribution of merchandise, and this alone differentiated itself from
K-mart and killed them. The same case study of Staples and Office Depot,
Staples wins. Moving stuff is very important part of the cost of doing
business.
One
of the big advantages of Pawnshops and such, is customers bring the stuff to
the store. FREE – FOB. Big competitive advantage. Think of the
effort and cost to bring items to your store location. Its
huge. Its free.
SECOND
– Big question?, why give it away for free and lose (invest) money. Amazon? No one does it better and they are the one to study and figure out why they do what they do.
When analyzing online business, the cost of acquiring customers
comes into the equation. Between $20 – $50 per customer. How do you get a return on this customer acquisition investment? You have to sell
repeatedly to the same customer in order to get a return on your
investment. Maxpawn provides customers for FREE. Our Bravo stores have
a unique and lucrative opportunity. This is why Amazon gives free shipping for
items over $25.00 and repeat customers. You need velocity and repeat business.
If
you sell online, the strategy behind this effort has a big payback.
Shipping is not a cost but an investment. Here is why.
PAYBACK – Online customers
are very loyal and shop more frequently. Fact is, people have more time
to shop online than shop at stores, and this trend has not slowed down.
If your customer service delivery is good, people will shop your store every day.
The
first dip into the water with many online customers is Media. If
you make them happy , they will come back. Bravo’s key advantage is full
use of the Estimator.
1.
Specific
identification
2.
Meta
Data – Quality Assessment
In
this business there is nothing better than really knowing what your inventory
is to sell it fast with the highest profit potential in your store and online.
Conclusion
I
believe that pawnshops and such have the merchant advantage. But, there is so much room to
grow the business. We just need to figure out how to get you more
merchandise.
At
the end of the day, week, and next few years this effort will enhance your
store performance, you will be a formidable online selling machine with
hundreds or thousands of loyal online customers.
Your
store inventory variety will expand, turn over will accelerate, your loan base
will grow in numbers and dollars.
Have a lot more fun :) Its fun to sell online.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The HOWS and WHYS of Ecommerce and the Web
The HOW to be successful selling on the
Web. What can you learn? There is more to gain that just selling stuff on
the web. Is it different than selling from your store front?
I believe that learning how to sell on the web successfully
will determine your business success in the future. Get ready to tune up
your business operation skills.
My experience selling used merchandise started when I was 9
years old working at my dad’s shop. 1500 square feet store with 6 show
cases in a building over 100 years old.
In 2003 Our Company was the
largest seller on the Internet with EBay selling through 50 stores with one
system.
I learned to sell new merchandise as well over the
years. Ordering from vendors, receiving the partially filled orders,
waiting for the back ordered goods and finally closing out the PO – ‘purchase
order’ and paying the bill as negotiated.
We never had enough used goods, so we were always looking
for bulk bargains on merchandise so that our prices were cheaper than the
competition. I learned that selling used merchandise was easier than new
merchandise. I learned over time that it was easier in many other ways as well.
Because there was so much competition between big boys and our purchasing power
was so limited, our only defense was to call our new merchandise used. It
worked.
Until we figured out how to grow our loan portfolios to fill
the demand for our goods for of our retail, we needed to buy new
stuff. At one point we had 2 buyers looking for deals on new
and used merchandise. We were purchasing millions of dollars a year to
fill our stores. It was hard work. We added a warehouse, splitting,
palletizing and shipping. And expensive. Every item that we bought
new that we finally got to the store to sell had $5.00 - $15.00 distribution
cost. It took us 2 years to figure out that cost.
Were we making money? Probably not. I knew that
it was very small at the time. But the traffic it drew and the
Brand that I was building, I felt at the time it was worth the time, effort,
and cost. Building a business is not always profitable at the
beginning. It takes time and investment to figure it out.
“ THE GIFT – THE CUSTOMER” -- a customer coming into your business is “An
Investment not a Expense”
Then came the Internet in 1997 and I finally figured this
out.
Factoid - In 2003 our Company
was the largest seller on the Internet with EBay and Superpawn.com, selling
through 50 stores through one common system, Bravo’s previous version
PRIMA. The only system available today, Bravo now adds the power of the Cloud
to its exclusive Dynamic Ecommerce. We sold 3000 items in our first 5
days.
The whole world was going to change with the Internet.
And it has. But it continues to change and its 15 years later. The
one thing I learned about online shoppers. They shopped first and
purchased later. Hmm, the same as in the store? Was this a wakeup
call on the Internet or have I been neglecting my store customers all of these
years.
The most important lesson
that I learned selling merchandise on the Internet was I had a lot to learn
selling correctly through my stores.
Customers are Gifts.
Everyone knows that customer service is important.
Every customer that walks into your store is a gift. But you’re paying
for the gift. The Gift could have wandered into your store for a million
reasons. Do you know why? It could be your location, yellow pages,
your signage, advertising, word of mouth, and If you are a pawnbroker, it may
be the person had no other choice. But it’s important to figure out
the ‘why’ they came in. The reasons your customers come into your store
will continually change. And if your spending additional money outside
your rent (location, location) and word of mouth, every dollar you are
spending is an investment, not a expense. It’s all up to you whether turn
that investment into a profit.
There is a big difference treating the visit as an
investment rather than a expense. What you do with that customer (the
gift) in your store is the all-important question you should be asking yourself
every day as long as you are in business.
If you think of the customer visit as an expense, if the
customer buys or not, you end up treating this visit as a one-time event.
If you treat the gift as an investment, every moment
you are with the customer, everything the customer experiences, your
store appearance and smell, your employees image and approach, your
merchandise presentation and price, ‘the detailed experience’, will amount to a
final determination of whether your investment will pay off.
1. Will the customer come back?
2. Will the customer tell a friend?
1. Will the customer come back?
2. Will the customer tell a friend?
That’s it. That’s
the goal. That’s all you have to do.
So now you think I am crazy because the score is all about
the purchase. Well it is. But even if they purchase it’s not
over. Will they come back, will they tell a friend. One more visit
by the same customer and you have reduced the cost of acquiring that customer
by 50% and so on. No one closes 100%, if you are exceptional it’s probably
30%. However, if you give up and most do, you have walked away from
your investment. How many times a day do you walk away from your
investment?
Remember, customers don’t come back to look, they come to
buy.
The first impression is the most important. Did you
deliver? Did you say No? Did the customer get a good
impression? Will the customer come back? Will the customer tell a
friend?
Question? Am I talking about what happens in your
store or on the web?
Second most important lesson learned. If you are
delivering on the web and give the same experience to your store customers, you
are a winner and a competitive business, in today’s market place. The
Web buying experience has set the new standard in retail.
The future is here! Nearly everyone
shops on the web before they buy. Our vision for our Bravo users is that
when an item is shopped using your mobile phone, the shoppers choice will
be. $100.00 to purchase and ship to my house with free shipping, or
$90.00 to go pick it up 1.2 miles from where you are. Online or Nearby
will be the common way to shop.
Bravo feeds every item into the shopping engine network,
so that you fit into the web shopping purchase equation.
How does everyone give away free shipping?
Simple answer. It’s cheaper to sell an item by giving away the shipping
than selling it on your store shelf. Many of you see the shipping process
as a profit center or cost recovery, but in the world of selling on the
Internet, the winners offer free shipping. You got to figure out your
full cost to sell.
Huge Advantage. What I also learned
about shipping was the cost to get it in my store. When you purchase
merchandise from a vendor, you pay shipping costs to your store. When you
buy used merchandise over the counter the customer pays the freight. J Huge advantage.
Another Advantage. The key
advantage in owning your store and having a thriving business without the
Internet is that every dollar that you make selling on the Internet drops to
your bottom line. Bravo empowers your existing store to become a
competitive battleship on the Internet. Free shipping, Best Prices, no
one can resist your products. Now just get your piece of the online pie.
Online customers are loyal and they shop more frequently.
Most shoppers test the waters. They buy something that costs very little
and they come back. They shop every day. People shop online shop
more than they ever shopped before. The cost of gas goes up and it
becomes harder and harder to afford to shop around and people love to shop with
a business they have gotten a good deal from and merchandise they expect.
Your online customer are more loyal than the customers walking into your store
today. I believe the reason for this is time that customers have, and the
cost to drive to your store. On the web this goes away and everyone
selling on the web is working to make even easier and faster.
If you can make a buck and sell an item online you have a
repeat customer. Don’t turn down offers if there is any way
possible. Each customer that Maxpawn brings you is a fifty dollar
investment in your ability in making this customer yours. We currently
are getting a thousand customers a day looking at your store. Don’t let
them walk.
We want you to be successful with Bravo. We have
created Bravo with the ability to provide you customers and a selling platform
that is 80% less expensive than what how you can sell on EBay. This is a
huge opportunity, it’s an exclusive opportunity for our Bravo users, and its
easy.
Go build your online business.
This is the first part of the HOW selling on the Internet
will make your business prosper.
If you are a Pawnbroker, the lessons learned translate
straight into your Loan Portfolio. Stay tuned for my next article.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The Monkey and his Master
Steven Mack • Here is a family story - 1964.
Pawnshop laurels - Mack Family - 4 generations of pawnbrokers.
I had heard this story when I was 6 years old – 1964. My dad Ron was 5 years into his pawnshop with my mom Judy. The two of them started Cameo Jewelry and Loan with $1,800.00 in a 1800 square foot store next to the Silver Dollar casino in downtown Reno. They went to Laundromats to purchase Men’s suits and various clothing that were left by unpaid cleaning charges. Had a limit on how much they could loan out each day. It was a day to day roller coaster for many years.
My dad was a frustrated scholastic. Wanting to be anything but a 3rd generation pawnbroker, he had achieved two graduate degrees, one in Law and one in Accounting while running his pawn business. When he finally completed the correspondence legal studies from La Salle Law School in Chicago, Illinois, his job offers did not measure up to the income his little pawnshop was providing his family.
Reno pawnshop’s had a unique opportunity than most pawnshops around the country. Tourism and Gambling was the backbone of downtown, and tourist loved to shop. They loved the journey into the many pawnshops in downtown Reno. Retail was where the opportunity of success was discovered.
This is a little back ground about my dad and this story is about a customer wandering in with a furry companion on day. A pet monkey.
My dad loved the zoo. He grew up in Oakland, California. As a kid he would go over to the other side and visit the San Francisco Zoo. When our family was young we would visit the Zoo and we would have to make the visit to the monkeys at every visit. I remember my dad, jumping up and down on his bed, acting out his monkey routine. It was gut busting funny!
This desperate customer had this monkey and my dad wanted it. A deal was struck - $600.00. My dad had brought home a Terrier one day that he had purchased in his store and was our beloved pet for years. Bringing home a monkey to the family, the excitement, the companionship, the illusion was a dream come true. My dad and his monkey a little more than hour together before all hell broke loose. Feeding him and wondering how my mom would react, the mood changed quickly when the monkey cocked his head from left to right looking for his missing master.
As my dad still tells the story, “the monkey went Ape Shit”. My dad’s tiny store was long and skinny with rafters on both sides. The monkey began urinating and defecating everywhere. For a few minutes my dad thought he could calm down his new companion, but plan B was the only option. He locked up his store, left the monkey, and started running through the casino’s in downtown Reno.
After running through the Silver Dollar, Horseshoe, Harrah’s and finally Harold’s Club, there was the man leaned over the crap table down $200 of the money my dad had given him. My dad convinced the man to give him back the remaining money he had left on the rim of the crap table, forget about the $200, and comeback for the monkey. They both whisked back to the store for the reunion of master and monkey. My dad was so relieved.
It took a month to clean the store and we don’t have to get into the detail of this effort, but the story lives on, is priceless, and still to this day, we love to hear “the story of the monkey”.
I had read a story of a similar tale from a pawnbroker in Georgia and never thought it was possible to happen twice, but I have found pawnbrokers love to take home pets. Zoo lovers, I guess.
From a fellow Pawn Broker - written April 12, 2012
Pawnshop laurels - Mack Family - 4 generations of pawnbrokers.
I had heard this story when I was 6 years old – 1964. My dad Ron was 5 years into his pawnshop with my mom Judy. The two of them started Cameo Jewelry and Loan with $1,800.00 in a 1800 square foot store next to the Silver Dollar casino in downtown Reno. They went to Laundromats to purchase Men’s suits and various clothing that were left by unpaid cleaning charges. Had a limit on how much they could loan out each day. It was a day to day roller coaster for many years.
My dad was a frustrated scholastic. Wanting to be anything but a 3rd generation pawnbroker, he had achieved two graduate degrees, one in Law and one in Accounting while running his pawn business. When he finally completed the correspondence legal studies from La Salle Law School in Chicago, Illinois, his job offers did not measure up to the income his little pawnshop was providing his family.
Reno pawnshop’s had a unique opportunity than most pawnshops around the country. Tourism and Gambling was the backbone of downtown, and tourist loved to shop. They loved the journey into the many pawnshops in downtown Reno. Retail was where the opportunity of success was discovered.
This is a little back ground about my dad and this story is about a customer wandering in with a furry companion on day. A pet monkey.
My dad loved the zoo. He grew up in Oakland, California. As a kid he would go over to the other side and visit the San Francisco Zoo. When our family was young we would visit the Zoo and we would have to make the visit to the monkeys at every visit. I remember my dad, jumping up and down on his bed, acting out his monkey routine. It was gut busting funny!
This desperate customer had this monkey and my dad wanted it. A deal was struck - $600.00. My dad had brought home a Terrier one day that he had purchased in his store and was our beloved pet for years. Bringing home a monkey to the family, the excitement, the companionship, the illusion was a dream come true. My dad and his monkey a little more than hour together before all hell broke loose. Feeding him and wondering how my mom would react, the mood changed quickly when the monkey cocked his head from left to right looking for his missing master.
As my dad still tells the story, “the monkey went Ape Shit”. My dad’s tiny store was long and skinny with rafters on both sides. The monkey began urinating and defecating everywhere. For a few minutes my dad thought he could calm down his new companion, but plan B was the only option. He locked up his store, left the monkey, and started running through the casino’s in downtown Reno.
After running through the Silver Dollar, Horseshoe, Harrah’s and finally Harold’s Club, there was the man leaned over the crap table down $200 of the money my dad had given him. My dad convinced the man to give him back the remaining money he had left on the rim of the crap table, forget about the $200, and comeback for the monkey. They both whisked back to the store for the reunion of master and monkey. My dad was so relieved.
It took a month to clean the store and we don’t have to get into the detail of this effort, but the story lives on, is priceless, and still to this day, we love to hear “the story of the monkey”.
I had read a story of a similar tale from a pawnbroker in Georgia and never thought it was possible to happen twice, but I have found pawnbrokers love to take home pets. Zoo lovers, I guess.
From a fellow Pawn Broker - written April 12, 2012
Steve
I read with interest your story about your father buying a monkey
We had a similar story.
About the same time, around early 1960's I was about 6 or 7 when my father brought home a monkey he had traded for a guitar.
At the time, we had four kids all under 15 living at home. We thought it was great! We fed that thing everything you can imagine; leftover dinner, cereal, salad, candy and of course bananas. As you know, when monkeys eat, they must dispose of that food after it digests. And that monkey disposed of that food all over the basement.........much to my mother's dismay. She told my father....in no uncertain terms.....it was the monkey or her. Well, the next day when all us kids woke up, the monkey was gone. We never did find out what happened to it. Knowing my dad, he sold it at a profit.
Take care
Lou Tansky
President
Uncle Ben's Pawn Shop
Ohio Pawnbrokers Association
2600 St. Clair Ave,
Cleveland, OH 44114
216-325-5626
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