Think most rental stores look the same? Think again. Nestled along the Front Range in Colorado Springs is the best-looking RTO store you’ve never seen…until now.

Watch your mailbox for THE rental-purchase industry's vendor directory.

The July Issue of RTO Magazine, the leading print trade publication in the home-goods Rent-to-Own and leasing sectors, is arriving in mailboxes this week. The issue features a 60 page vendor directory of suppliers attending the upcoming RentDirect Nationwide PrimeTime! buying show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

RTO Magazine (www.rtomagazine.com) is published by RTO Online Inc. (www.rtoonline.com), the leading source of news and information for the rent-to-own industry. The company publishes two vendor directories per year.

Also in this issue, RTO Magazine features an expanded RTO Excellence profile of Chuck Green, owner of Colorado based New Image RTO. See excerpt below

Also in this issue:

- 10 Questions For Wogie Badcock - Executive VP of Badcock & More

- Great Places to Work are Great Places to Shop

- Good Customer Service Can Be Your Best Legal Defense

- State of the RTO Union

- Stop Dryer Fires; Improperly installed and maintained dryer vents cause millions in damage every year

Chuck Green, owner of New Image RTO is setting Colorado's Front-range on fire with his bold RTO store designs.

Excerpt from RTO Magazine's July RTO Excellence Profile - "The Height of RTO Design"

Think most rental stores look the same? Think again. Nestled along the Front Range in Colorado Springs is the best-looking RTO store you’ve never seen…until now.

Chuck Green, Owner of New Image Rent To Own, is a lifelong rental dealer with five successful rental stores in Colorado that push the envelope of RTO store design. Perhaps it’s because Green has always considered his locations to be furniture stores first.

“We definitely focus on furniture. It’s about 65% of our business, and it’s featured throughout most of our showroom. We’ve always accessorized our showrooms well and carried the latest looks. Even in the ‘90’s we were huge in wall units before the major rental chains caught on. We like to look for ways to fill in and complement the competition.”

But most of the complements these days are aimed at Green for creating a store design model that stands out from the industry norm.

“Our new showroom concept clearly makes a statement on who we are and how much RTO has evolved. I really wanted to get away from having a stripe painted around the store.”

Green has succeeded in his quest, with an interior that evokes a warm and inviting upscale home.

“We have exposed wood ceilings with custom matched track lighting, cloud-painted ceiling areas, the latest paint colors, different hard wood flooring and tile flooring areas, cultured stone fireplaces, and wall mounted waterfalls, just to name a few of the upgrades. We feel it is an investment in our future and a way to help our customers visualize the quality of their experience when shopping with us.”

That’s a $225,000 investment, to be exact. And while some dealers might worry about how they would ever recoup that outlay, Green remains unfazed.

“It isn’t something you recapture overnight. But you do look at how much BOR you need to grow to pay for it over five years. In our case, we built our building, so it was a long-term decision. And so far, since the upgrade, this location has grown 15% in just about eight months.”

That growth comes despite the fact that in the midst of the remodel, Aaron’s opened up a location right in Green’s backyard.

Interior shot of New Image RTO. Yes...it's a rent to own store.

“I could throw a ball and play catch with their manager, that’s how close they are to me. And they opened about two or three months before we were finished. But actually, it’s been good to have some real competition because before then we really had very little.”

Green is a very detail-oriented person and carefully worked through every issue that arose when remodeling his 6,800 square foot store. In fact, when it appeared that limited parking could pose a concern, Green purchased the vacant Arby’s building next door so that he could acquire an easement to increase the amount of parking spaces for his customers. He has since sold the building to a developer, who plans to convert it into a shopping center.

Green has come a long way from the days when he first opened a rental store, with a small amount of money borrowed from investors.

“For me it was literally going door to door and asking for referrals. It took months of knocking on doors to get a handful of believers. That was in late 1989 and I owe them a great deal of gratitude. They were all paid off a couple of years later and I greatly appreciate their believing in me.”

Those early days were “undercapitalized” in Green’s view, and he says he started the first store with about 25-30% of the capital he really needed.

“In those days you rented, you collected and you delivered it yourself. I’ve come the long distance, and it’s made me conservative. I never wanted to jeopardize what I had worked so hard to achieve. I’ve seen companies that overextend themselves financially and I have always preferred to grow in a very controlled and sustained manner. It’s held me back in some ways, but I made a commitment to myself and to my employees that I would never grow on borrowed money.”

Green’s employees seem to appreciate his dedication to the financial health of the organization, and Green is proud to have never lost a store manager.

“Every single store manager is still working at the store they were at when it opened.”

Green has taken a different approach with selecting store locations.

Pretty impressive, considering the first rental store Green opened in Colorado Springs was back in 1997. He then added Fountain, CO in 2000; a second Colorado Springs store in 2003; Pueblo, CO in 2005; and in September of 2006 he opened a 21,000 square foot clearance location.

“We like to funnel our pre-rented merchandise through there. It’s a great way to keep our showrooms looking fresh and new. We do 90 days same as cash and even layaway at that location. Since all of our stores are within about a 50 or 60 mile radius it works out well for us and for our customers.”

Green has taken a different approach with selecting store locations, as well.

“We took a big leap of faith and opened up a store in an area with average annual household income of $86,000. Thanks to the upscale store design, it is working very well. Most of the customers look at the transaction as more of a lease, and we do a great deal of business with people who may be new to the area or temporarily in the area.”

Does that mean a higher-income customer base poses less of a collection issue?

...See the July issue of RTO Magazine for the rest of the story.

Contact:
Sales@rtoonline.com