Rogersound Labs was very competetive, and had higher dollar volume per square foot than any other retailer in the country. They were very successful. I worked there and it was truly different than any other gig in the country.
Howard got offered big bucks to sell the company, and it was not to a Japanese concern...but to investors. Right after that we had the Gulf War which caused biz to dip a little, then Good Guys opened (that's another story if you follow where they are now) and Best Buy which certainly does a lot of biz, even though it's lower end from what RSL did.
The purchase was higly leveraged. When business dipped, they could not make the "house payment"
What is interesting is that from what I hear from vendors, RSL was the only company to go out of business that did not stick it to any suppliers. Though the company that held the note on the purchase no doubt got boinked.
If you go to most retailers, they don't want the customer to sit down. Not a chair in the place. At RSL we were encouraged to hang with the customer when time allowed. Nobody worked on direct commission. So there were salesman that sold very little, but were good at hand holding customer service issues.
I had a customer that was so struck when we closed he and his buddy drank a six pack of beer in front of the store after the doors were locked up. I laughed when he told me this, and don't doubt it was true.
What was said about Howard Rogers being nice cannot be overstated. He is a special man that was good to a lot of people, and deserves evrything he worked for. I can't say how proud I am to have said that I worked there.
