Nov 17, 2008 5:15 pm US/Central
Some Businesses Booming In Economic Downturn
Pawn, Repair Shops Flush As Consumers' Budgets Shrink
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Pawn shops are among the businesses that are booming during the current economic downturn.
CBS
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Plenty of unusual items end up in pawn shops, especially during tough times, but this diamond-encrusted gold dental bridge stood out among the rest at State Pawners in Chicago.
CBS
While most businesses are tightening their belts and cut back during this economic slowdown, some businesses are actually booming in the bad economy.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports some companies – including those temples of tough times, pawn shops – are turning the crisis into a profit.
"I need money to pay my bills," said pawn shop customer Dorothy Seitz. "I don't have a job right now and it's hard to get a job."
So, Seitz went to State Pawners and Jewelers to hock some CDs. In the last year, the shop's loan business doubled, and they have so many watches, cameras and electronics in hock, they've bought the building next door to expand their storage.
The clientele is changing, the owner says, is changing.
"Unfortunately, the pawn shop's had the rap of drug addicts and low class. It's just not the case anymore," State Pawners owner Scott Cohen said. It's middle class, high class. It's anybody who's in a bind for cash."
With times so tough, pawn shops are flooded with hundreds of unusual items. CBS 2 found a gold-tipped cane almost a century old, and a solid sterling silver chalice given to a priest for his ordination in the 1960s. But nothing more unusual than a gold, diamond-crusted dental bridge hocked by a man in his 60s to pay his daughter's college tuition. It brought in $15,000, and the man who pawned it has another one to use.
"It was probably one of the most touching things I've ever had happen in this shop," Cohen said. He decided not to charge the man interest on the dental bridge.
Customers say they're going to pawn shops because banks have simply stopped giving loans.
And business is also humming at Beehive Shoe Works.
"People are not purchasing retail shoes. They're taking shoes out of their closet and having them fixed, repaired, shined, cleaned," said Samer Shunnarah of Beehive, where business is up 20 percent since September.
Shunnarah fixes purses and luggage in addition to shoes, as thrift-conscious consumers stretch their dollars.
"I'm just old enough, Depression era parents...you buy the good stuff and you take care of it," shoe repair customer Thea Pazen said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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