5 Arrested For Looting Brooklyn Rent a Center During Blackout

Aaron Rents Acquires 15 Texas Franchise Stores for 11 x Revenue
Rental Purchase stores typically sell for between 6 and 10 times revenue, but at an average of 105k monthly, double the national average for rent to own stores, these 15 most recently acquired locations are hardly typical...more

Flexsteel Industries to Acquire DMI Furniture
Don Dreher, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DMI Furniture, noted that DMI Furniture will be operated as an independent business unit of the combined company with the headquarters remaining in Louisville...more

Rent a Center Co Founder Tom Devlin to Speak at Wichita State
Rent a Center alums are icons at WSU. The Barton School of Business is named after W. Frank Barton who co-founded Rent a Center with Devlin in 1973. The Center for Entrepreneurship is housed in Devlin Hall...more

Wichita Eagle
Bud Gates Version of "The Restaurant"
Former Rent a Center President Bud Gates is fast tracking a new venture. "I've just put a stake in the ground and just said, 'We're going to open Sept. 15,' " says Gates ...more

UK Based Rent to Own Company 'Boxclever' Blamed for Huge Losses at West German Bank
To date, losses from the deal have forced WestLB to set aside over 200 million euros to cover expected losses...more

Flash
easyhome Reports Q2 Revenues Up 7.3%; Same Store Sales up 4%; Brand Transition Complete
David Ingram
President and CEO
"We have now posted 21 months of consecutive comparable revenue growth, demonstrating the appeal of our concept and our ability to target customers effectively."...more

recommended reading
The Eerie Times is producing a six part series on "The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Rent Way". Links to the first 5 parts are below. Our opinion...A Must Read.

• The seeds of Rent-Way's fraud
• Faking numbers became a way of life
• Making the fraud public
• Risk pays off for company founder
• A handshake sealed $100 million sale

Whirlpool Sues LG for Technology Patent Infringement
David L. Swift
Whirlpool's executive VP for North America
"Whirlpool will tirelessly and aggressively work to protect our assets from competitors who choose to disregard U.S. patent law."...more

Bush Industries Q2 Sales Down 10.3%; Projects Loss In Q3
Paul Bush
Chairman and CEO
"The North American furniture market continued to be soft throughout the second quarter, as order patterns from our retail partners remained cautious"...more

RTO Relationship Retention
The following story about the power of relationships was adapted from a reader email. The reader was a bit perturbed about the term 'dirty storefront' used to describe some past and present Rent to Own dealers...more

Annual Rental Purchase Industry Tradeshow Set to Kick Off in Reno
For the first time, RTO Online will be reporting daily from Reno with interviews, photos, and news...more

Video Trade Association Releases Comprehensive Report on DVD, VHS, and Video Game Sales
From the report
-High-definition DVDs are being pursued as the next wave of growth for DVD
-Nearly 50% of Best Buy's shoppers go to the Web site first before making a trip to the store
-65 million people own at least one game console
...more

Aaron Rents Seeking to Buy Back Franchises
R. Charles Loudermilk, Sr.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
"We're actively trying to buy all the stores"...more

Rent a Center Customers Donate $116 K to Big Brothers Big Sisters; Total With Company Match $216,000
The Company's stores raised $116,000 by offering customers the opportunity to sign their name to a paper egg that was then displayed on store counters for a one-dollar donation. The remaining $100,000 came from Rent-A-Center's pledge to match donations...more

Introducing "My RTO Portfolio"
No registration or log-in is required. My RTO Portfolio uses cookies to store stock preferences. Visitors enter their 'Portfolio' once, the information is stored and displayed with every visit to the page...more

Rent a Center Customers Donate $116 K to Big Brothers Big Sisters; Total With Company Match $216,000
The Company's stores raised $116,000 by offering customers the opportunity to sign their name to a paper egg that was then displayed on store counters for a one-dollar donation. The remaining $100,000 came from Rent-A-Center's pledge to match donations...more

Introducing "My RTO Portfolio"
No registration or log-in is required. My RTO Portfolio uses cookies to store stock preferences. Visitors enter their 'Portfolio' once, the information is stored and displayed with every visit to the page...more

Aaron Rents Seeking to Buy Back Franchises
R. Charles Loudermilk, Sr.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
"We're actively trying to buy all the stores"...more

Rent-A-Center Repurchases Additional 440,000 Shares
Robert D. Davis
Chief Financial Officer
"The repurchases announced today are consistent with our stated intention to repurchase a total of 3,200,000 shares of our common stock...more

Legislative Update
Kansas Republican Sam Brownback Brings Senate Cosponsor Count to 15
Brownback is in his second term and serves on the Appropriations, Commerce, Joint Economic, and Foreign Relations committees...more

Groups Urge Congress to Confront China Threat to Domestic Furniture Manufacturing
"Between their labor pool, industrial capacity, and growth in exports to the United States, China has the ability to consume most of the U.S. market if left unrestrained"...more

Rainbow Rentals Conference Call Summary
Wayland Russell
Chairman and CEO
"About 15% of our stores are underperforming"...more

briefing.com
Aaron Rents downgraded from Strong Buy to Buy by BB&T Capital Mkts
...newratings.com
Carole Cranmer of Morgan Joseph reiterates her “buy” rating on Aaron Rents

Aaron Rents Sponsors NASCAR's Tony Raines At This Weekends Brickyard 400
“It’s a great honor to drive the Aaron’s Dream Machine for BACE Motorsports this weekend at the Brickyard"...more

RTO ARTS Adds Large Format Art to Lineup
Fritz Rollins
President of RTO/ARTS
"It won’t move off your wall if no one knows how to rent it. We’ve made it much easier for stores. If a store’s BOR is 50% furniture, adding an additional $7 to $10 on each agreement can really make a difference,"...more

Rainbow Rentals Reports Q2 Revenue Up Slightly; Comp Store Sales Flat
Wayland J. Russell
Chairman and CEO
"Although we were encouraged by higher deliveries for the second straight quarter, higher costs in our comparable stores affected our profitability"...more

Aaron Rents Reports Record Q2; Same Store Sales Up 11.3%; Announces Acquisition of Showplace
Aaron Rents acquired ten rental stores in Ohio from Showplace, Inc. The Company will merge five of these stores into existing Aaron's locations...more

Rent to Own Polling Shows Key Results
These polls offer a snapshot for comparison of key variables to other rent to own locations.

Current polling reveals  interesting results.

• 12% of participants reported card close over 10%
• 47% of participants report a 'keep rate' exceeding 50%
• ...more

Rainbow Rentals Appoints Director of Marketing
Rainbow Rentals today announced the appointment of Daniel J. Griffin Jr. to the newly created position of director of marketing...more

Rent a Center to Sponsor Ricky Rudd NASCAR
Rent A Center will become an associate sponsor of the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus, following the signing of a multi-year agreement...more

Rent-Way Chooses Gilat's Spacenet Subsidiary for Satellite-Based Retail Data Network
Matthew Dawson
Rent-Way Manager of Technical Services
"We thoroughly investigated all available two-way satellite solutions and Spacenet was the clear winner...more

Consumer Confidence Falls Nearly 7 Points in July
Those rating present business conditions as "bad" increased to 30.4 percent from 28.1 percent...more

Newratings.com
Analyst Dennis Telzrow of Stephens downgrades Rent-A-Center from "overweight" to "equal-weight

Rent A Center Q2 Conference Call Summary
Company President Mitch Fadel noted that average revenue per agreement continues to climb due to the focus on higher end merchandise... more

Chromcraft Sales Off 19.2% in Q2
Michael E. Thomas
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
"...the ongoing weak economy and foreign import competition continued to impact furniture shipments"...more

Rent a Center Reports Record Revenue But Profit Down on Charges; Same Store Sales Up Modest 2.7%
Board Approves 5 for 2 Stock Split
Mark E. Speese
Chairman and CEO
"We believe the stock split we are announcing today...speaks to the confidence we have in both our core business and our growth initiatives..."...more