In article ,
patgkz wrote:
I worked for LRE for a short while starting during their "last days".
Employed at Company store #54 in Milwaukee WI 1973 thru 1975. LRE opened
this store as the first Wisconsin Company store in 1973. They had about six
stores in the Chicago area for years. LRE epanded to two stores in
Milwaukee before folding in the late 1970's.

During our store's grand opening, I got to meet Abe Plettman (the CEO) and a
few other LRE big-wigs like Harold Weinberg, their audio guru, creator of
the "Criterion" speaker line.

I also met Larry d'Amato, the leader of the ham/cb line.

This was when LRE was spending bookoo bucks on expanding company stores all
the way to the west coast. I think the expansion killed them.

When I was managing the store, I remember calling Syosset Headquarters to
check on backorders, we were plagued by import backorders. HQ's phone
system was so antiquated, we had to call back numerous times after getting
disconnected. Call forwarding was done with "switchhooking". Many of the
people that I remember talking to were well up in years, a couple were deaf
and we had to shout to them while calling.

Looking back, LRE's massive expansion was doomed from the start. Imported
CB radio's were continually backordered, angering the dedicated customer
base that went elsewhere. The discount "warehouse" stereo stores undercut
LRE as they rose to retail power at that time.

It was really fun working for them at the time. We employees could buy
things at actual cost. For instance, the premium CB radio Comstat 35 which
retailed for about $200 cost me a mere $68.00. Talk about markup! LRE made
a killing on their Jap imports. Employee buying was closely monitored as
many employees were buying CB radio's at cost, then re-selling them to
supplement their meager income. Salespeople were grossly underpaid compared
to other stores at the time. You sell a 800 dollar stereo system and may
only receive a commission of $3.00. Pretty poor.

Just some ramblings from a former LRE employee.

BTW, I was making an incredible sum of $200 per week in 1975 when I was
promoted to store manager. That equated to about two bucks an hour
considering all the "store hours" I worked!

I left LRE probably two years before they folded. Gotta wonder where all
the parts and inventory went! LRE kept a huge cache of "import parts" at
Syosset. You could order an s-meter for a 20-year old CB radio if you
wished. We kept the parts list on microfiche at the time. They probably
had tens of thousands of individual parts for every CB, tuner, stereo that
they sold. Incredible.


"Smokey" wrote in message
...
Does anyone know anything about the corporate structure of Lafayette? Is
anyone out there a former employee, especially during the 1950s and 1960s?
Who "absorbed" or bought Lafayette?

Smokey





AFIAK, the two stores in NY (100 Ave of the Americas (aka 6th Ave) and
Jericho Turnpike) were all there was, circa 1963. I used to go to the
6th ave location once in a while. A few months ago I sold my 1963
edition Lafayette catalog on ebay for a few bucks. It was a time
capsule.

I've always been fascinated with long-established single-store
operations that expand like crazy and then go out of business.
Lafayette Radio did that. The Wiz is the most recent I can think of.
My pop, who was in what is now called Venture Capital said that what
happens is that original owner wants to retire and sells the business
to a developer who runs the company for a couple years in a manner that
made the books look really good and then writes a business plan to go
public and expand, so it's the investors and stockholders that are
left holding the bag in a few years. The children of the original
owner, and the first buyer are in the clover.










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