Pawnshop cashing in on higher end

SETTING UP SHOP: From left: Brothers Scott, Cliff and Eric Frye founded Fastcash Pawn & Checkcashers in 2003. Since then, they’ve looked to grow their business among higher-end clientele. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
SETTING UP SHOP: From left: Brothers Scott, Cliff and Eric Frye founded Fastcash Pawn & Checkcashers in 2003. Since then, they’ve looked to grow their business among higher-end clientele. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

Before all the cash-for-gold businesses, Internet-loan sites and celebrity appraisers, there were old-school pawn brokers like Attleboro Pawn Shop on Pleasant Street in downtown Attleboro.
With neon signs and bars in the windows, they usually weren’t much to look at and carried a reputation as desperate places among more genteel neighbors.
It was a desperate time for Arthur Frye in 1993 when he opened Attleboro Pawn in a corner storefront below some apartments after layoffs at Sears cost him his sales job.
But the humble pawnshop worked well enough for Frye to put three sons, who would pick up pieces of the trade over the years, through the University of Massachusetts studying accounting and sports marketing.
Although they had no intention of returning to the family business when they graduated, the Frye brothers – Cliff, Scott and Eric – wanted to be entrepreneurs. And after a credit card startup didn’t pan out, they were drawn back to the pawn trade.
“We saw an opportunity in this business with what my dad had done in a little shop,” said Eric Frye, the youngest brother. “He wasn’t tech savvy; didn’t know Amazon, eBay and Facebook. But in the past seven or eight years, we have seen more of middle-class America walk through the doors despite the pawnshop stigma. We saw an opportunity to make it something more.”
In 2003, with Eric still finishing his degree at the UMass, the Frye brothers founded Fastcash Pawn & Checkcashers on Newport Avenue in Pawtucket.
The idea was to build on the basics they had learned with their father in Attleboro, but expand the range of services and customer base into higher-end clientele.
After 10 years in the business, the Fryes are happy with their decision.
Last year they bought out their father, allowing him to retire and close the Attleboro store.
And in the next year they hope to expand to another, yet undetermined, location in the region.
“Definitely not your typical pawnshop,” is how the company described itself in a release celebrating its 10th anniversary, adding that they were “working to change the general public’s perception of the stereotypes from the movies.” To shed that gritty reputation, Fastcash wants its 10,000-square-foot space bright and clean with a contemporary, showroom feel. For those looking to conduct business away from prying eyes, there are private rooms for negotiations and evaluating merchandise.
The team closely monitors the value of various items online and is not hesitant to show potential customers what the items they are looking to post or sell are worth.
Rather than try to squeeze an extra few dollars out of a customer by fooling them, Frye said the shop wants to show them they are getting a fair price to build trust and encourage them to come back. Of course, while the Fryes work to change the reputation of pawnshops in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, larger forces are at work.
A series of reality television programs about pawnshops has raised their profile, alternately reinforcing and flipping the standing stereotypes.
Eric Frye said “Pawn Stars,” the History Channel show about a prominent Las Vegas pawnshop, has helped the industry’s reputation, while “Hardcore Pawn,” about a shop in Detroit, hasn’t.
“ ‘Pawn Stars’ was good for the industry; it showed people running a good business,” Frye said. “The other one is playing off all the bad things.”
For brick-and-mortar shops such as Fastcash, Frye said the biggest competition is now from Internet lenders and pawn brokers, who offer anonymity for those still wary of being seen at a pawnshop.
To counter these sites, which take in items through the mail, Fastcash offers greater speed and the comfort of knowing exactly who you are dealing with.
For the Frye brothers, who all have their own areas of expertise, the excitement of the business is finding out what treasures are going to come through the door next.
A 1967 Mustang, rare coins, World War II artifacts and a Patriots Super Bowl ring (from a franchise employee) have all been on display in the store.
“People when they come in are super intrigued and they want to see what everyone has,” Frye said. “Because you never know what it is going to be.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Fastcash Pawn & Checkcashers Inc.
Owners: Cliff, Scott and Eric Frye
Type of Business: Pawn Shop
Location: 848 Newport Ave., Pawtucket
Employees: 7
Year Established: 2003
Annual Sales: NA

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