Business/Economy

Anchorage's disappearing mom-and-pop pawnshops

When Dan Clark opened Southside Trade and Loan in the late 1980s, he could drive his snowmachine in wide circles on the open land next door. His pawnshop, stocked with guns, gold, tools and other collateral, stood on what was then the outskirts of Anchorage, just south of Dimond Boulevard.

Clark, who dabbles in cowboy and Vietnam War poetry and packs a Sig Sauer pistol in a shoulder holster, was isolated but not alone in plying his trade in the Anchorage Bowl. Through the years he faced competition from the likes of Easy Pawn, Tudor Pawn and Tudor Pawn Too, Ron's Pawn Shop, Spenard Pawn Shop, Price Busters and more than a dozen others.

Today, just a few of his rival mom-and-pops survive. It's a familiar story. Alaska's pawn industry, once a diverse ecosystem of independent owners, is now dominated by a single corporation.

FirstCash, a national chain based in Fort Worth, Texas, owns half the pawnshops across the municipality under the brand name "Cash America." In September, Cash America International merged with First Cash Financial Services to form FirstCash, the new reigning behemoth of the pawn industry. The publicly traded company owns over 2,000 locations in four countries and controls about 20 percent of the U.S. pawn market, according to a Bloomberg article in April.

"They've managed to put a lot of the independents like myself out of business," Clark said. Off the top of his head, he lists the names and former owners of closed shops. "We used to have a pawnbrokers association and everything."

Cash America first appeared in the Anchorage yellow pages in 2007 after it purchased the locations of Cash Alaska, a local chain owned by Bud Wilson and his wife Deborah Fink. Since Cash America's arrival, the ranks of mom-and-pops have shrunk. There were close to 20 pawnbrokers listed in the Anchorage Yellow Pages from the early 1990s into the mid-2000s. Today there are six independents and Cash America.

Led by Cash America, the consolidation of the pawn industry in the U.S. began a little over 20 years ago when the largest publicly traded companies were formed and started growing, said Emmett Murphy, spokesman for the National Pawnbrokers Association, which represents the industry's independents.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The downturn of the economy in 2008, the credit crunch, the high price of gold and the mainstreaming of the pawn industry image through television and other media drove further corporate acquisition," he said. "Typically what we see is those smaller stores will probably get closed down and there will be a consolidation of their customer base."

Across the country, pawn chains have adopted a design scheme of standardized banality to differentiate themselves from local competition and suppress the popular conception of the shops as black-market hubs, where thieves unload stolen goods. Some take a family-friendly approach, complete with Santa Clauses at Christmas.

The Cash America on Spenard Road is one of six in Anchorage and looks just like its compatriots, with red, white and blue lettering on a boxy, beige exterior. Inside, beneath fluorescent tube lights, one staff member or another greets customers with a smile. Photos of the manager and assistant manager hang next to the glass doors. Employees all wear black polo shirts. Guns are kept behind the counter. On the walls around the store, white lettering on blue background and rows of jaunty red stars indicate the location or description of items: Diamonds & Jewelry. Sporting Goods. Musical. Overall, it bears a strong resemblance, on a much smaller scale, to retail titan Wal-Mart.

Clark's shop, by contrast, is the antithesis of corporate and anything but standard. The low-slung, brown building along the Old Seward Highway is fringed with multicolored Christmas lights. Inside, severe handwritten notices abound. One on the door uses profane language to emphasize that thieves should stay away. Another on the ATM details how to manage the machine's quirks. Rifles and shotguns are within reach of customers. A sign decrying the ills of illegal immigration hangs above the doorway to an adjoining room containing groups of cigar boxes, VCRs and antique glass lamps.

Clark conducts business from behind a desk, beneath a velveted caribou rack. He uses a printer with continuous-feed paper. He refuses to connect his computer to the internet. He accepts cash and gold — no credit cards.

"I hate paying banks for credit card charges," he said, referring to the processing fees merchants pay banks and other middlemen to conduct card transactions.

Pawn loans, the core of a pawnbroker's business, can be tinged with anxiety, embarrassment or regret. People bring in personal items of value to pawnshops when they are short on cash. Pawnbrokers lend them money and charge hefty interest while holding the item as collateral. If the debt is repaid, the item can be reclaimed. If not, it belongs to the pawnbroker and can be sold.

At the Spenard Cash America in late October, a would-be customer was politely informed that a gold ring weighing 1.4 grams could obtain a 14-day loan of $30. The total cost of the loan would come to 37 percent, with a $5 per-item pawn fee and $6 in interest. Without being informed of Cash America's price, Clark said he would offer a loan of $15-$20 for 30 days at 20 percent interest.

Customer Theron Parker said Clark has a better rapport with customers than the staff and managers at chain pawnshops. Parker, a former Texan and employee at a local motor home company, has a collection of guns that he rotates in and out of pawn as necessary. On a Tuesday in October, he brought in a Buffalo Bill commemorative pistol. He has been coming to Clark for more than a year and prefers dealing with him over "big, corporate America."

"You can connect with people, it's the same owner, you establish a relationship," said Parker, who doesn't use credit cards and doesn't trust banks. He said Clark is more knowledgeable about the true value of merchandise, offers fair prices and is "down to earth." 

All pawnshops are required to obtain identifying information from anyone pawning items and log those items along with any serial numbers into a computer program monitored by police, Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Jennifer Castro wrote in an email.

Clark and fellow longtime pawnshop owner Ron Pickles of Price Busters in Mountain View say they are more vigilant than the chains about preventing stolen items from entering their inventory, and stock higher-quality goods.

Yolanda Walker, a spokesperson for FirstCash who formerly worked for Cash America, said no one from the company was available for comment for this story.

Pickles and Clark, who are friends, agree that the presence of a pawn chain has made it harder to break into the business. Alaska's slower economy also isn't helping.

"The independents will slowly die out," said Pickles, who was born and raised in the same neighborhood as his shop. "It's gonna get tight for everyone. It's a tough business and it's getting tougher every year, but we do our best."

Neither seems particularly concerned about the prospects for the future of Alaska's mom-and-pop pawnshops.

"I'm a capitalist and I love it," Clark said. "Competition doesn't scare me."

ADVERTISEMENT

As if to prove his point, he jotted a note on one of his business cards and instructed this reporter and a photographer to deliver it to Pickles.

"Ron: They came here first," it said.

Jeannette Lee Falsey

Jeannette Lee Falsey is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. She left the ADN in 2017.

ADVERTISEMENT