 APRO: The Official Voice of the Rent to Own Industry
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APRO's Exclusive Rent-to-own Audio and Podcasts
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Rent to own Audio & Podcasts: Mark Key
Mark Key, manager with SEI Aaron's, is the new secretary/treasurer for the newly created New England Rental Dealers Association December 11.
Key is a native Texan who's spent all his life in retail -- operations internal auditor and buyer for convenience store chains and field marketer for big box drug in the northeast. He traded in his retail boots for rent-to-own three years ago when he went to work for the largest Aaron's franchise in the country and never looked back. Key manages nine SEI Aaron's locations in Rhode Island and south coast of Massachusetts, locations "Our customers really don't have many options," Key said. "Retailers really don't pay attention to the folks who walk through our doors. Without us, where do they go. Certainly we want the industry to survive and organizations like these help that effort." Key said the diversity of the new association, which includes the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island is its strength. The association's inaugural meeting drew dealers with from one to over sixty stores with a seat reserved for Rent-A-Center, the nation's largest rent-to-own company. "It helps bring not only different minds from different places together, but we can be more likely to ensure that we're covering all our bases, that all voices are being heard," Key said. I'd like to see the diversity that was represented here today also to get and stay active. We do have the ability to have an impact from a grassroots level. We will have a significant impact in a short period of time." | ||||
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2012 APRO Convention and Trade Show July 24-26, Memphis, TN
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RTOHQ: The Magazine
RTOHQ: The Magazine is the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations' award-winning rent-to-own industry magazine, and it's available here. | |||
 CLICK HERE FOR OUR DIGITAL RTOHQ: THE MAGAZINE
RTOHQ: The Magazine’s upgraded digital format APRO's new, mobile-ready magazine is now available in addition to our print edition. The digital format provides the same informative content as our printed magazine, but also offers tools to make the reading experience more enriching. Access the table of contents page with one click or tap. Get additional information from advertisers by clicking on the links in their ads. The interface is easy to navigate and requires no special app—read our magazine on your computer, digital table or smartphone. Click here to access the digital version of RTOHQ: The Magazine March-April 2012.
A New Rent-to-Own Experience by Neil Ferguson Here’s the lowdown on APRO’s 2012 Convention and Trade Show, July 24-26 in Memphis. The RTO industry’s big event will offer many valuable experiences, including insights on how to turn your stores into “experiences”–the good kind for consumers
Who Is Your Competition? by Bill Keese In order to expand your customer base, you can learn a lot by observing your competitors. But first, you need to figure out just who they are. If you think your only competition is the rent-to-own store down the street, you’re not considering the bigger picture. APRO’s executive director offers a big-picture perspective.
A Review of Online Customer Complaints by Ed Winn III While rent-to-own companies have not cornered the market on negative reviews posted on consumer complaint websites, it’s no surprise that there are cyberspace beefs against RTO. APRO’s general counsel reviews some of them in search of a pattern and he considers appropriate response to online complaints.
Rent-to-Own Families, Part VIII by Kristen Card Our series of family-run rent-to-own businesses continues with profiles of the Homeiers in Kansas and two Texas-based sets of kindred colleagues, the Spangles and the Weisblatts.
Future issues of APRO's magazine will be available in this same new format. Click here to access past issues that are not yet archived in the new interface.
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Association of Progressive Rental Organizations 1504 Robin Hood Trail Austin, Texas 78703 800/204-2776, ext. 103 Fax 512/794-0097 |