A.J.'s Legacy
By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 3/27/2006
The CE Hall of Fame announced its class of 2006 members (see p. 6) and high on the list is the late Alfred J. (A.J.) Richard, the long-time president and later, chairman of P.C. Richard & Son, the privately held New York area electronics/appliance chain.
A.J., who died in December 2004 at age 95, was the “Son” in the P.C. Richard name. He inherited a 10-store hardware chain from his father. A.J. decided to add major appliances to the product mix, and later radios and other consumer electronics. During the 77 years A.J. worked for the chain it became a 49-store operation that has an estimated $1 billion in sales. He served as president until 1980 when his son Gary became president. Today P.C. Richard remains a family affair with Gary continuing as CEO and his son Gregg as president.
“Honesty, integrity and reliability” are lofty claims for any business, especially in any form of retail operation, but those are the featured company values of P.C. Richard & Son in its advertising to this day. The chain also focuses on product selection, price and service, the latter point being the key to this story.
Our advertising account executive Toni Ingenito took the plunge into HDTV recently, but wanted to order a new four-piece wall unit for her family's new 50-inch DLP. After ordering the unit and months of waiting (how does the furniture industry get away with that?), it was delivered on a Saturday with the HDTV scheduled to arrive from P.C. Richard the next day.
The furniture was delivered at 2 p.m. and installed by 4 p.m., but the more Toni looked at the piece, “It just didn't look right. The base unit definitely looked smaller, and my kids kept telling me I was nuts.”
She measured it, and the opening for the TV was 4 inches smaller in width. Toni called P.C. Richard, and though her salesman was already gone for the day, she got one of the managers of the West Babylon, N.Y., store, Gerard Dodenhoff, on the phone and explained her problem.
Toni noted, “I can't even begin to sing this man's praises enough. He put me on hold, measured the set, came back and confirmed that it was not going to fit. He put me back on hold, and he came back with a couple of different options.” Toni ended up selecting a similarly featured DLP HDTV that would fit, and it was delivered and installed the next morning.
“Gerard took the time to work this out with me over the phone. He didn't tell me to come in or put the order on hold. He stayed with me on the phone and worked it out even though it wasn't his sale in the first place. And he certainly didn't know I worked for TWICE. All the while, he was upbeat, friendly and courteous. This man's [effort was] a customer's dream come true,” Toni said.
She wanted to contact P.C. Richard to sing the praises of the chain. I passed her experience along to Gregg Richard, who e-mailed this response: “I will not only share this with Gerard but with all of our store managers in our meeting next week. It is always important to show them that these are the experiences that truly make us different.”
A consumer experience like that doesn't just show that P.C. Richard is “different.” It also shows how ingrained its values of “honesty, integrity and reliability” and customer service are part of the chain's company culture, and that A.J.'s legacy is intact and going strong.
