My great wife Cathy and myself went to the A-Z Pawn Shop today to see how it looked compared to our last visit and we were just dumbfounded at what we saw.
When we got there, there were about 100 people inside and outside the small store. People were taking pictures and milling around. I thought they were filming a segment because so many people were there.
Well, we went in and it was very crowded. The very large security guard was moving people in and out. Apparently, the capacity in the shop is 60 people and they were very close or over that amount. Every other time we were there, there were no more than 10 people in the store at any given time.
Most of the people were just looking and not buying. The Old Man was there, acting as the banker- handing out and receiving money. No need for cash registers because the Old Man took care of it. Apparently he came out for a few minutes every few hours to sign autographs and have pictures taken of him. The other main characters- Corey, Rick and Chumlee were on vacation. I really don't think the Old Man likes all the publicity while others do.
The Old Man also had his office changed. In the show and the other times I have visited, he was in back of the cash registers. Now he is an office, off the sales floor and mostly hidden from view.
Even though there are 4 main characters in the show, the store has many employees, at least 10 were working today, including the Old Man.
We saw some things that have been featured on the shows. First was the barber chair that was on a few weeks ago. That has not been sold and to be honest, it looked ugly. It is smaller than most true barber chairs I have seen and it was white. No wonder no one has bought it.
I saw the perputual motion clock that was on the show yesterday. It really wasn't on display- just sitting in the corner on a shelf out of the way from everyone.
They also turned the southeast corner of the store into a sales area for souviners. Kind of takes away from the store, but hey, maybe they make some money from the looky loos who come into the store and gawk.
As for us, we saw some videos we wanted to buy. It was tough to find a sales person and when we finally found one, we got out movies and then he told me he would take it up front and left us.
It took me 10 minutes to find the CD's and check out.
When we were there, I saw 1 other person buy an item, a shot glass. I saw someone pawn some jewelery and another person get a $200 loan. It looked like she was a regular.
So, what was once a quite pawn shop, is now a very crowded shop in which the security guard and employees want to move people along, whether they buy something or not.
When you get famous, there are advantages- more traffic flow. But also it has it's disadvantages- poor customer service, crowded conditions and a store that makes you feel uncomfortable to shop in. I can easily see their regular local customers not coming to this store anymore as the tourists take over.
Oh, one more thing, don't park on the North side of the building. They have little parking signs saying that you have to be a city employee to park there or you will get a $20 parking ticket. We found out the hard way. The parking monitors constantly go in the parking area and ticket cars- like shooting fish in a barrel.
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