Metro Appliances & More started as Metro Builders Supply in Nick “The Greek” Stavros’ garage. It was 1974 in Tulsa, Okla., and he sold appliances to multifamily units and apartment complexes. The first Metro retail store in Tulsa did so well, Stavros expanded to Oklahoma City.
Almost 50 years later, Metro Appliances has expanded into four states and has nine locations, the most recent of which opened on Chenal Parkway in west Little Rock in July.
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“The original name was Metro Builders Supply, and it was strictly appliances,” said Wade Thompson, general manager of the Metro location on Maumelle Boulevard with which most central Arkansas customers are probably familiar. “We found that that name was a little misleading. A lot of people would come in and want a two-by-four or a box of nails.”
Metro changed its name to Metro Appliances & More about 15 years ago to reflect more accurately what it provides to customers.
“While we sell to building contractors, there are only so many in our market, and we wanted to continue to grow,” Thompson said. “Changing the name to include appliances opened us up a little bit more to where homeowners could come into the store and feel comfortable. A lot of people saw our name and thought they could only come here if they were builders. We knew capturing the retail market was where our growth was.”
Today, Metro Appliances & More has locations in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Lowell and Jonesboro; Wichita, Kan.; and Joplin and Springfield, Mo.; as well as Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Metro offers more than 50 major brands of appliances, including washers and dryers, refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, cooking ranges, hoods, ovens, and cooktops. About five years ago, Metro expanded to offering outdoor furniture and built-in barbecue grills. Today, it offers exclusively multi-fuel barbecue grills and accessories. Its Oklahoma City showroom also offers an extensive lighting department. While each location provides an extensive display of products, the Chenal location is modeled for a more retail-driven customer.
“This particular store has a lot more displays showing the customer how the appliances might look in their home,” Thompson said. “More than half the store includes built-ins, countertops and other displays. Then you have about 40 percent of the showroom that is actually a retail space, much like what you would find if you walked into Home Depot or Best Buy.”
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This includes rows of refrigerators, ranges and other appliances organized by the manufacturer. “This way, the customer can see everything GE makes, everything Maytag makes,” Thompson said. “They are much more educated on what they want, and we work to make it easy for them to get what they want.”
Thompson said the Chenal store serves as a place where customers can go when they must immediately replace an appliance.
“We get a lot of people who come in because their refrigerator is broken and have to have a new one right away,” he said, “or they are moving into their home the next day and need a washer and dryer. We can accommodate almost any need with the lowest possible pricing, financing and free delivery.”
The Chenal location was chosen for its centrality to the booming housing markets in Conway, Maumelle, Little Rock, Benton, Bryant and Hot Springs. Similarly, the Lowell store was selected for its accessibility to all of northwest Arkansas.
“We started with a smaller location in Bethel Heights,” Thompson said. “We knew the Northwest Arkansas National Airport would be coming soon, and the bypass had just been completed. We moved to Lowell so we were easy to get to from Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville. We knew it would be a growth area for us with Walmart, J.B. Hunt and the university, particularly with multifamily units, apartments and the home-building boom happening.”
While in-store shopping is the focus of Metro Appliances & More, Thompson said he sees a trend toward more online shopping, which began with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You can buy any of our products online,” he said. “A gentleman named Seth is our online retailer, and he and the online sales team take care of all those orders. It’s all organized by your location, and we ship your appliance to you from there. COVID-19 changed the way everyone shops, and we saw a huge spike in over-the-phone and internet sales because people weren’t coming in and shopping as much. They did their due diligence online.”
Because customers are much more educated about appliances, the process became much more informal than what the Metro sales team was used to, Thompson said.
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“We do see this continuing shift because the appliances are getting more where you don’t have to physically see or touch them to make them work for you,” he said. “Because of the internet and AI technology, you can sit in your living room and turn your appliances on and off from your phone. You can load your dishwasher at home and start it from your phone when you’re at your office. You can start your washer again when you’re at your office or preheat your oven in the car on the way home — all by using your smartphone.
“There’s so much stuff now that is making old ways of interacting obsolete. Where we once did sales completely in the showroom, we can now do it by social media, if you will. I can show you the entire showroom from FaceTime or Zoom or Google Meet or whatever app you’d like to use. All I have to do is pull up what you’re inquiring about on my iPad and show you what’s in the store without you ever having to come in.”
While this hands-off shopping experience is becoming more prevalent, the tradition of in-store shopping is still relevant, he added.
“Retail customers are the ones who use the phone or online ways to buy what they need because they have done their research and know what they want. Builders still come into the store because they want to see and touch the appliances to make sure it’s meeting what their client expects,” he said. “For example, they want to see the physical differences between the Sub-Zero and Thermador or how gold a handle on a particular appliance may be. They are building to the specifications of what the homeowner wants, and that can change, so they want to make sure they know what they are getting.”
Thompson, who joined Metro 18 years ago after working as a golf pro, said the company has been good to him and each of its employees. Because it is employee-owned, there is little, if any, turnover, he said.
“Our employees have a sense of pride in our company you may not find at other places because they have ‘skin in the game,’ if you will,” he said. “We offer a retirement plan to every employee, and they know the decisions they make have an effect on our bottom line. That’s why the delivery guy may be more willing to work after hours — he knows if the customer is happy, he or she will tell others who will come shop, or he or she will return. That means the delivery guy is making money, too, not just one or two owners.
“We invest in our team, too, and pride ourselves on providing factory training so our salespeople are all experts in the appliances we offer and customer service. We have manufacturers’ reps in our stores just about every week, going over training, and we send our sales team off to Louisville, Dallas, Atlanta and other cities for immersive training. It’s a family place — we hosted a pumpkin carving contest just last month — and we prioritize family over business.”
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