Beloff said pawn shops for decades carried the label of businesses that were dirty and sold stolen goods.
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“That is almost impossible these days because of all the regulations,” he said. “We work hard to have a good relationship with the police and the sheriff. They are in here all the time. Every now and again we will receive something hot but we report that immediately.”
The pawn industry has had a real change in its perception through popular TV shows like Pawn Stars or Hardcore Pawn, said Emmett Murphy of the National Pawnbrokers Association.
“They have become kind of cooler to go into,” he said. “So the negative stigma that might have been attached to pawn stores in the past doesn’t exist now. People are always looking for good deals over the holidays and pawn stores are always focused on giving great deals at the holidays.”
The retail side of the pawn industry is increasing, including for Millenials, according to Murphy. The association conducted a trend survey and it found Millenials now account for a significant portion of pawn customers.
“For the majority of pawnbrokers surveyed, consumers age 27 to 35 now make up over 40 percent of the average customer base for pawn stores, with the second-largest age group consisting of customers aging from 33 to 40 and the average pawn customer is 36 years old,” Murphy explained.
For Beloff and his wife, Frayda, who handles the books for the business, it’s the the customers and their stories that keep the business going, which includes a shrunken head that was pawned.
“In the 1950s my father took it in and found out it belonged to a Dutch sailor,” Beloff said. “A federal law made it illegal to own them he later found out. It looked like a furry baseball but you could see the face — it was wrapped in tissue paper.”
The shrunken head was eventually sold to a brain surgeon who claimed he was collecting them for research.
The stories also include a lottery winner who was so happy she wouldn’t have to pawn items again, only to find herself back in the shop a year later.
“That was a sad story, she just blew all of that money and was back pawning four times a month,” Beloff said.
Springfield Pawn & Loan, Rose City Fine Jewelry & Loan and Pawn Star Inc. also operates in the city.
Samuel and Jacob Beloff of Rose City Fine Jewelry & Loan said their business does a good mix of business online and in the store during the holidays.
Springfield Pawn and Loan’s Joe Birmele has been doing business as a pawn broker for more than 30 years, with 20 of those in the city.
“In a lot of situations people really need to use pawn shops because that flat screen TV they are pawning can be the difference between having or not having a roof over your head,” Birmele said. “The product we take in is reported to the police department and sheriff’s department daily. And you know I’m old school — I want to deal with customers face-to-face.”
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