Family business closing after 43 years
Last day for Herb’s Appliances is Saturday
For determined entrepreneurs, there are still opportunities for success in retail. But don’t take a risk on appliance sales and service.
That’s the advice from Gerry Ellerman, who’s closing his family’s appliance business after nearly 45 years serving southern Albertans.
“Take time for yourself,” he tells prospective retailers. “Don’t get burned out.”
Saturday will be the last day for Herb’s Appliance, started in 1975 by his father Herb. Gerry began working with him four years later.
So much has changed since then, Ellerman explains. Family firms — selling groceries, clothing, shoes, appliances and much more — were the backbone of Lethbridge retailing in those days.
Residents took time to find retailers they liked, and came back time and again. Owners earned their customers’ loyalty.
“Today, young people will cross the street to save $3.”
But it’s not just the arrival of “big box” stores that changed the appliance industry, Ellerman says.
Global manufacturers took over, and found ways to build appliances cheaper.
Customers once had a number of Canadian brands they could trust — but now their manufacturers have been swallowed up by international operators.
“There’s just about nothing made in Canada anymore,” at least in the appliance field.
Ellerman cites his Maytag products as an example of well-built, reliable appliances worth their price. But the company was bought out more than 10 years ago.
And today’s appliances are not built to last, he points out.
“A Maytag could last 25 years before anybody opened a tool box.”
Today, “A lot of brands last three or four years, and then they’re shot.”
At Herb’s and local appliance stores across the nation, follow-up service was just as important as meeting the customers’ needs when they’re shopping. But the big box stores don’t run service departments.
And now, Ellerman says, the manufacturers price their replacement parts so high that it’s hardly worth repairing an appliance.
“The repair business is almost dead,” with fewer technicians available as longtime service people retire. “There’s just no money in it.” Instead of maintaining an appliance, he says, manufacturers want consumers to throw it away — and buy another one. It’s another example of North America’s “throw away” consumerism.
“I’m surprised the environmentalists aren’t saying more about this.”
When Ellerman locks the door on his 3 Avenue South premises for the last time on Saturday, he’ll be part of a Canadian trend to fewer and fewer locally owned businesses as years go by. It’s happening in smaller centres like Medicine Hat, he points out — as well as in big cities like Calgary, where the national chains have opened outlets in so many neighbourhoods.
What’s next? Ellerman says he’ll take the winter off, then decide what direction to take.
“I’m basically burned out,” with so much time at the store or out on a repair, and so little time away. No more service calls! “I’ve undercharged people for so long,” he feels.
Yet some of Ellerman’s best memories involve longtime customers’ conversations and stories during his inhome service runs over the years.
“That ‘makes your day’ more than anything sometimes.”
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