By:Doug Miller
There really was a P.C. Richard, says Gary, the CEO of P.C. Richard & Son: Peter ChristiŠŠn Richard, who came to the U.S. from Holland in 1889 at age 18 with just the clothes on his back. He settled in Bensonhurst, got a milk route, and took odd jobs as a handyman for his customers until he had the inventory to start his own store. That store became two, soon he had kids, and P.C. Richard & Son was born.
Today they're everywhere - in Manhattan, across Long Island and even deep into New Jersey. For 25 years there's been a store in Oceanside, and that relationship got a shot in the arm this year when the company - for the first time ever - tore down one of its stores so it could build a much better one. Gary Richard and the local business community called it an enthusiastic vote of confidence in the region's economy.
"P.C. Richard is one of the standard-bearers of the Long Island business community," said Mitchell Pally, vice president of the Long Island Association. "This new store represents a reinvestment in the Oceanside community and is a sign of the community's continuing economic rebirth."
"That location, Lawson Boulevard, gets us Oceanside, Island Park, East Rockaway, Long Beach and the Five Towns," said Gary Richard, looking relaxed in a golf shirt at the company's headquarters in Farmingdale. "It's a prime location, and we're very excited."
But even more important than the location, Richard said, the company is taking advantage of a convergence of opportunities. One was the chance to purchase the land on either side of the Oceanside store, and Richard decided that this would allow the company the chance to build a new type of P.C. Richard, a higher-end model.
This store will boast more than walls of televisions and cordless phones. Changes in the way people decorate their homes, Richard said, have essentially turned the appliance market upside down. The new Oceanside store will be as much a showroom as a warehouse.
"It used to be your laundry room was a washer and dryer hidden behind bifold doors," he said. "Now they're out there in their own room, they're entertaining-looking. There's all this new design, like these sleek Sub Zero refrigerators. It's an entirely new market."
P.C. Richard was founded in Brooklyn, but Gary Richard is a Long Island guy, and his business strategy, he said, has been shaped by his company's experiences over the past century on Long Island.
"Back in the day, we had Fairchild, we had Grumman, we had Republic here, and 100,000 workers getting good wages in lots of little factories," he said. "People stayed on Long Island and put their money into Long Island. When those three went under, the mom-and-pop stores that supported them went with them. They were replaced by" - he has to spit the words out - "the big box retailers.
"Where are their corporate offices?" He asked. "Not on Long Island. When the doors close at 10 p.m., the money doesn't even go to a local bank. It gets wired to another state. We're from here. Long Island is our home."
Since the company is privately held, Richard said, he doesn't feel stockholder pressure to keep wages down. He added that he doesn't believe in commissions, but calls it "profit sharing."
"We employ the middle class. We pay well, and our employees shop at our delis, our dry-cleaners," he said. "We support our communities and we pour money back into our communities."
The result is happy, enthusiastic employees who are eager to come to work, Richard says. And that's a big factor in keeping the company around. The industry has seen its share of Darwinism. Remember Two Guys? Newmark and Lewis? The Wiz?
"I think we put the Wiz out of business three times," Richard said with a laugh.
The products may be ultra-modern, but the business model is a classic. If everyone charges the same, Richard said, customers will go where they get the best service. And P.C. Richard always takes care of its vendors, so when an item becomes scarce, customers count on the company to carry it.
The new store is open for business, but the grand opening isn't until later this month. A word about P.C. Richard's grand openings. In the company's corporate culture, a store opening is treated like the birth of a child. There will be tents, balloons and a band: the Brooklyn Dodgers Sym-Phony, which plays every company party.
"The Sym-Phony has become a part of the P.C. Richard family over the last 10 years," said Marketing Director Alan Meschkow. "These are the same young men who used to parade into Ebbet's Field and play 'Three Blind Mice' for the umpires. A.J. Richard, the 93-year-old chairman, loves to bang the drum with them."
Mark July 15 at 11 a.m. on your calendar.
The county's business community has pointed to this reinvestment in the local economy as a hopeful sign of things to come. "P.C. Richard is an icon in the electronics industry, and are a huge part of the Nassau County economy," said Richard Bivone, president of the Nassau County Council of Chambers of Commerce. "They support everything we do in Nassau County, and hopefully they'll be around another 100 years."
