Rentcash Opens 200th Location
"This 200-store milestone marks Rentcash's entry into the competitive Toronto arena and demonstrates our rapid growth as a national chain" - Gordon J. Reykdal, President and CEO...more

ACE Cash Express Reports Record Quarter; Store Count Up 10% In 12 Months
"[Our results are] representative of our ability to continue to meet the needs of our customers and the large under-banked consumer marketplace"- Jay B. Shipowitz, President and CEO...more

ColorTyme Convention Coverage
Work Hard - Play Hard; ColorTyme Hosts Night Out For Convention Attendees
ColorTyme rented the entire 60,000 square ft. Main Event Entertainment facility for an evening of fun and relaxation for franchisees, employees and vendors...more

ColorTyme Convention Coverage
Dealers Crowd Floor At ColorTyme Tradeshow (50 Photos)
"This show kicks off our entire year," said Ken Mushrush, GE sales. GE's hottest new RTO product is the silver metallic line of Hotpoint appliances. "It's perfect for rent to own,"...more

ColorTyme Convention Coverage
ColorTyme University Expands Program (59 Photos)
CTU students earn their Bachelor of Rental (BOR) degree and can move on to earn a Masters and even a Doctorate in rental management...more

ColorTyme President Announces Financing Program to Help Multi-Unit Managers Become Business Owners
A multi-unit operator at Rent-A-Center, Aarons and Rent-Way with eight years in the business would receive $8,000 credit toward a ColorTyme franchise fee...more

New Generation Latino Consortium Prepares Marketing Conference; Miami April 6, 2005
WHAT IS A NEW GENERATION LATINO (NGL)?
Predominantly U.S. Born 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation Latinos, who consume mostly English-language media and represent over $300 billion in purchasing power....more

Texas Rental Dealers Ready For Legislative Blitz
"Texas dealers expect to hold over 60 meetings with their Senators and Representatives," said Kelly Sayre, President of TARA, the countries largest RTO state association...more

Twinhead Introduces New Product Lineup; Rugged Notebook Computer Big Hit At CES
"We are extremely excited about our involvement with emerging markets like Rent to Own"-Ray Oribello, Director of Sales, Twinhead...more

John Spangle To Open 30 Rent-n-Roll Locations In Texas
John Spangle, owner of Friendswood, Texas based Partner's Rent to Own and President of TRIB (The Rental Industry Buying Group), will open 30 Rent-n-Roll stores in Texas...more

Maytag; "It does not make sense to continue selling our major appliances at Best Buy"
Maytag Corporation announced today that it will no longer sell Maytag-branded major appliances at the specialty retailer, Best Buy...more

GE Rebates To TRIB Members Record High In '04
In 2004, GE had the largest member payout ever with the Group Volume Rebate, and 17 dealers qualifying for the Individual Bonus Growth Rebate and qualified for additional rebates totaling more than $58,000...more

Rent-Way Schedules Q1 Earnings Release
A link to the live webcast will is available from My RTO Portfolio...more

Briatico, Beer End 30 Year Careers At Maytag
Maytag Corporation today announced that two senior executives, both working in the Office of the President, will leave the company, effective Jan. 31, 2005...more

Hispanic Advertising Expenditures Increased 11% In 2004
The boost comes amid an explosive increase in the U.S. Hispanic population, and surging purchasing power, that has advertisers jockeying for a larger share of this relatively untapped market...more

Arkansas Rental Dealers Plan Spring Tradeshow; Target 100 Dealers And Vendors
The Arkansas Rental Dealers Association (ARDA) today announced preparations for the trade group's 2005 Spring Convention and Trade Show...more

La-Z-Boy Names Miller VP - Process Improvement
Miller will be responsible for coordinating a continuous process improvement discipline across the organization...more

Study Claims US Furniture Manufacturers Have Permanently Lost Ability To Compete
The group claims it will take "bold strategies" to free manufacturers from the crucial mistakes that have plagued them for more than a decade...more

UK Rental Chain Boxclever; Sale Complete
In 1999, Granada Rentals and Radio Rentals joined forces to form BoxClever. This created the UK's largest Rent to Own with over 900 stores under three brands; Radio Rentals, Granada, and Box Clever...more

Rent-A-Center Announces Preliminary Court Approval Of California Class Action
The settlement will resolve pending claims under various consumer protection laws in California against Rent a Center challenging certain of the company's business practices in that state...more

Rent-A-Center Schedules Q4 Conference Call; Call to Be Broadcast Live Via the Web
Rent-A-Center will broadcast its quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday, February 8, 2005 at 10:45 AM ET over the Internet...more

Premier’s "Rich and Dave Rentals" Opens in Reading, Pennsylvania
Rich Bagoly and Dave Jones recently joined the Premier Rental-Purchase family with the opening of their first store in Reading, Pennsylvania...more

ColorTyme's Second Annual Charity Golf Tournament Approaches
"I’m asking rent to own dealers and vendors to join the fight against Juvenile Diabetes"- Bob Kogler, ColorTyme Franchisee, Event Organizer...more

Consumers Concerned About Economic Future
At 92.3, the Investment Index -- which tracks consumers’ confidence in their ability to save for the future after making purchases for the home -- is nearly 7 points lower now than in December (99.2)...more

Poundex Recalls 32,000 Dining Chairs
The welds on the chair's rear legs can crack and break apart, posing a fall hazard to consumers. Poundex has received one report of bodily injury due to collapse of chair...more

TRIB Approves 16 New Vendors
New TRIB Vendors Are: SED International, Twinhead Corporation USA, M&D Wireless Communication, Almo Corp/Daewoo, APA Marketing, Cottage Lane Furniture...more

Aaron's Opens 1,000th Location; Store Count Rises at Record Pace
The Aaron's concept has proven to be as viable in small-town America as it is in larger cities. This opens up numerous areas of the country as potential development sites"-Ken Butler, President, Aaron's...more

Bassett Q4 Sales Down 3%; 2004 Full Year Flat
"Overall retail conditions were fairly spotty throughout most of our fourth quarter"-Robert H. Spilman, Jr., president and chief executive officer...more

Consumer Electronics Show Wraps Up; Record Attendance
The show featured a broad array of exciting product and technology introductions and announcements, many of which provide consumers with unprecedented control over when, where and how they watch movies, listen to music, view their digital photos and access other information...more

Household Discretionary Income Shows Wide Gap
Per capita discretionary income is lowest in the West North Central region (including Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas) at $7,040...more

Business Organizations; Choosing the Right Business Entity For Your RTO Company
When starting your new Rent to Own business, one of your first decisions will be to determine what type of business entity will work best for you. There are essentially five types of business entities from which to choose...more

Over 30 Vendors To Show At ColorTyme Winter Operations Meeting
This meeting promises to be especially exciting for franchise owners. Company officials hint at other "significant developments" to be announced at the show...more

Texas Rental Dealers; Deadline Approaching For Legislative Conference Registration
The 2005 TARA Legislative Conference will be held in Austin, Texas January 25-26 at the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel. TARA's room block expires this Friday (January 7th)...more

Importance Of Merchandising Upscale Products
Customers are looking for products that are not only functional but also make a statement about their sense of style...more

RTO Store For Sale; 700 AOR, Annual Revenue $1 Million
Rental Mania Owner Eric Friedland is looking for a buyer for his New York location. "With New York Governor Pataki approving the construction of 5 local casino's, the natural growth potential of this store is enormous"...more

37% Of Shoppers Noticed Less Christmas Decorations In Stores; Spent Less As A Result
What more can retailers do to inflict visual pain upon their customers?...more

Westinghouse Introduces Decorative Frames For LCD TVs
Frames are an extension of the popular ‘skin’ concept for consumer electronics products today which enable consumers to customize the look of their cell phones, car radios and MP3 players...more

ACE Cash Express Continues Rapid Growth; Acquisitions and De Novo Development Fuel Expansion
"We are particularly excited about introducing company-owned stores in four new markets and expanding our presence into these attractive geographic locations...more

Roberts Elected To EZCORP Board
Roberts is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served five years in a number of staff and command positions in the U.S. Army...more

Martinez Resigns La-Z-Boy Board; Heads to Washington
"It is bitter sweet that we are accepting Mel's resignation in light of his successful election as a United States Senator representing the citizens of the State of Florida...more

Premier Rental-Purchase Opens Washington, Pennsylvania Store
This is the best looking rental store I have ever seen." That's what customers are saying about AJ Rentals, Inc., the latest Premier Rental-Purchase store, opened recently in Washington, Pennsylvania...more

Sources: Apple To Introduce Sub $500 Mac
A sub $500 G4 would put the Mac solidly in rent to own territory for the first time...more

J. Alan Barron Takes Over Reigns At First Cash
Phillip (Rick) Powell, who has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 1992, has relinquished his role as Chief Executive Officer effective December 30, 2004, but will remain in his current role as Chairman of the Board of Directors...more

Arkansas Rent to Own Customer Wins Furniture And Appliances Now  "Live Free For a Year" Grand Prize
Furniture and Appliances Now (FAN), a Jonesboro Arkansas based Rent to Own company, awarded the "Live Free for a Year" grand prize to customer Randy Moore of Wynne Arkansas...more

The Art Of Recruiting; Networking Key To Finding New RTO Talent
At the nations current unemployment rate, around 5%, experts say that anyone who wants a job, has a job. It follows that your best recruiting prospects will be employed...more

Philips LCD Highlights Full Line-up For CES 2005
"Based on the increased demand for LCD TVs, iSuppli predicts a compound annual growth rate of 44 percent from 2004 to 2008 for the LCD TV market"-Paul Semenza, vice president of iSuppli Corporation...more

Aaron Rents Forms Two New Divisions; Announces Management Changes
Gregory G. Bellof has been promoted to Vice President, Mid-Atlantic Operations and David A. Boggan will become Vice President, Mississippi Valley Operations. These are two newly created operating divisions, increasing the current number to eight...more

RTO Vendors Report Christmas Rush Ad Campaign Success
RTO Online, the news source for the rent to own industry, today announced the results of it's Christmas Rush ad campaign; RTO Online's latest quarterly promotion featuring RTO vendors and products...more

RTO Tradeshow Adds Vendor Rep Listings
RTO Tradeshow, a service of RTO Online, Inc., announced the addition of Vendor Representative Listings to the online tradeshow...more

Aaron Rents Acquires Nine Michigan Franchise Stores
The stores were purchased from Great Lakes R & P, LLC, an Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership franchisee since 1996...more

'Twas The Night Before Christmas...
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the store, one account was past due, just one BOR...more

Bush Industries’ Entertainment Furniture Wins Design Competition
Bush’s Tuxedo Entertainment Center, marketed under its Eric Morgan brand of set-up case goods furniture, was recognized by the American Society of Furniture Designers for its design excellence during the Ninth Annual Pinnacle Design Achievement Awards...more

Mitsubishi Launches Interactive Home Theater Web Site
"Our new home theater site was created in response to inquiries from customers," said Marty Lash, retail sales manager, home theater projectors for Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America...more

Bestway Delisted Effective Tuesday; Company To Complete Going Private Transaction
Bestway requested that NASDAQ grant an extension to the Company regarding the listing requirements until Bestway's going-private transaction was completed. This appeal was denied by NASDAQ...more

Clay Barton Scholarship Awarded
The late Rent-A-Center Chairman Emeritus W. Frank Barton established the scholarship as a memorial to his son who died in 1988 at age 20...more