Day in the life of a pawn shop owner
From diamond rings to new guitars, Rand Hendricks sees it all. As co-owner of Fast Cache Pawn, Rand handles the wide variety of items people bring in to trade for cash.
Rand said the pawn shop he and his father Norr Hendricks co-own is basically a business that gives small loans. People can bring in items they own, and the pawn shop will give them money for them, while charging a fee for interest. He said the store also just buys items people are looking to sell. Rand said his typical fee for the pawn loan is around $10. The items are then stored until either the person comes and pays the loan or the item is not picked up. Rand said if the item is not claimed after 30 days, he puts it up for sale in the store.
“It’s fun sometimes to help people out,” Rand said. “This money could help people keep their heat on.”
He said the interest he charges is lower than a bounced check fee or the interest on a payday loan.
Because pawn shops accept a wider variety of items than an antique store and offer money in return, unlike a thrift store, Rand said he sees a lot of unique items. The most unusual thing he said he remembers is an old working foot-pedal organ. However, one look at the walls and shelves of the store filled with CDs, snowboards, electronics, instruments, action figures, guns, jewelry, china, bicycles, tools and an even wider variety of miscellaneous items makes it easy to believe Rand has seen his share of interesting things.
“I do everything,” he said, laughing. “I’m kind of like the Wal-Mart of used stuff.”
But it is not the things he sees that are his favorite part of the job.
“I enjoy the hours. It gives me time to go to my daughter’s basketball games and coach my son’s team,” he said. “I can get the family stuff done.”
Rand said he opens the store at 9:30 a.m., making sure there is enough money to cover the loans needed for the day. He said a computer program tells him which items in the basement are past their reclaim date, and he brings them up to the shop to go on sale.
One of the difficult parts of the job is gun sales because it must be done correctly, Rand said.
In order to sell guns, Norr said all the buyers have to pass a background check through the Bureau of Criminal Identification. To buy a long gun, he said the buyer must be at least 18 years old. Restrictions for hand guns are tighter, and a buyer must be at least 21 years old and a Utah resident, he said.
Rand said another difficult aspect of the job is staying up on technology and the prices of items. Because the pawn shop accepts so many different things, Rand said he must know the current value of a wide variety of things. Electronics are the most difficult, he said, because the market changes so quickly and something like an iPod may be worth $300 one month but only $200 the next month if something new has come out.
Keeping up with everything in the store is almost impossible, Rand said. For example, he said a customer told him they bought a record for $1 in Fast Cache Pawn and sold it for $100. Because he handles a variety of things, Rand said he cannot know what the rare or very valuable items are in everything.
“With so many different items, you screw up,” he said. “We all screw up sometimes.”
However, there are perks to owning a pawn shop. Rand said he gets first pick of all the items that go on sale.
He said he also enjoys having his kids around the shop during the summer. Rand said they get learn how a business is run and then play basketball together. He said helping with the business has been very valuable to his daughter due to an in internship she now has.
Meeting new people is also fun, Rand said. He said tourists often come to the shop, and one family of sisters comes to the shop every year to buy jewelry.
Pawn shops are not like something on TV, he said. Rand said people have a bad impression of pawn shops, but at least in Cache Valley they don’t have any of the bad associations shown on TV.
However, during the 13 years Rand and Norr have owned Fast Cache Pawn, Rand said there was one armed robbery that happened 10 years ago.
Life is normally much calmer though, and the worst Rand said he has to deal with is customers who are angry they cannot get a $1,000 loan for a used computer they paid $1,200 for.
In the end though, he gets to hear some interesting stories – some more believable than others, he said.
One of Rand’s favorite stories is when woman he had known, who was always showing off her wedding ring, got divorced and came to pawn her ring. He tested the stone, which was supposed to be very valuable, and discovered it was a fake gem.
“When she left, she was saying a few nasty words,” he said.
Fast Cache Pawn is located at 527 S. Main in Logan and is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
-di.lewis@aggiemail.usu.edu