Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 7, 1994                   TAG: 9404070162
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OWNER DOESN'T MIND LOSING TO WIN OVER CUSTOMERS

Teams of well-groomed salespeople guide customers across pristine carpeted floors past fancy displays. They punch orders into computers, which spit out tickets that can be redeemed for the merchandise in another part of the store.

The atmosphere at Ward's TV and Appliance Center on Grandin Road is entirely different. First of all, the name is misleading. Although owner Bob Ward stocks television sets, he doesn't sell too many any more, he said. Most of his trade these days is in what the business refers to as "white goods": washers, dryers, refrigerators and stoves, arranged no frills-style in long lines behind the front windows.

His floors are covered with peeling linoleum that may date back to when the store was built, in the days when Grandin was a dirt road with trolley tracks down the middle.

His smoke-filled office in the back of the store is hung with heavy green-yellow drapes that probably came with the business when he bought it 23 years ago. On his desk are two withered apples and a gag hand grenade labeled "complaint department."

But the desk toy doesn't reflect Ward's real attitude toward his customers. More than once, he said, he has taken a loss on a sale just to keep a customer happy. And unlike many of his competitors, he offers free delivery, will haul off the old appliances for no charge, and throws in the electrical cord free.

"It's a minor thing," he said, but it adds up to savings of $60 or $70 for the customer.

"I like to treat people fair. Losing a few dollars won't hurt me," he said.

Ward also emphasizes personalized service.

"You have to sell yourself. If you have the price and the product, that's good, but if they don't like you, they won't come back."

His company also services what they sell. If there's a problem, "they call me," he said.

Ward said he can compete with the larger stores because he can buy just as cheaply as they can, but he can sell for less because he has less overhead.

He has five full-time employees, but he works 10 hours a day six days a week, coordinating deliveries, ordering goods, and selling directly to customers.

Ward estimates that 50 percent of his sales are to repeat customers. Business has been so good that six years ago, he opened a second store in the Riverpark Shopping Center in Vinton. Sometimes, he said, he has two trucks making deliveries all day long.

The Vinton store does not do as much business as the Grandin Road store, he said, but it is smaller and caters mainly to the Vinton and Bedford County areas.

The Grandin Road store brings in customers from all over, including Blue Ridge and Bent Mountain, Ward said, but 60 to 70 percent come from Southwest and South Roanoke. They are of all ages and all backgrounds, he said, but almost 90 percent pay for their purchases with cash or credit cards. "I do very little financing."

Another advantage to shopping his store is that everything he sells is mid- or high-quality, Ward said. "I've got the best products." Ward has been in the appliance business for 34 years. He grew up in the Roanoke Valley and in Pulaski, moving 15 or 16 times as his real-estate salesman father exchanged houses again and again. He graduated from William Byrd High School and played college football on scholarship for a year and a half. After he injured his shoulder, he left school and joined the army, knowing he would be drafted anyway.

After his discharge in 1960, he got a job at Holdren's, a large locally owned appliance store. He hadn't planned to make a career in sales, he said: "it just happened."

By 1973, "I had gone as far as I could go" at Holdrens, so Ward decided to go into business for himself. He bought the Grandin Road store, which was already an appliance dealership called Brown Electrical Company, "because it was the only one I could find." But it has proved to be a good location.

Ward's is one of only a handful of independent appliance stores in the Roanoke Valley, and he doesn't think there will be too many more opening up in the future.

"It takes a lot of money to start an appliance store today," he said.

"You'll never get rich in this business," he said, but "you can't take it with you anyway."

Ward's TV & Appliance Centers are at 1316 Grandin Road S.W. (telephone: 343-8921) and River Park Shopping Center, 1080 Virginia 24 Bypass in Vinton (telephone: 345-0516).