Prospective Park Place Pawnshop! - Near Franklin Avenue.

From what I understand getting change is a service that banks charge commercial account holders for. By change I don't mean getting 4 quarters for a $1 bill but rather getting rolls of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies. Since this is a service that banks offer to their business account holders I would be very surprised if a teller decided to refuse service to someone who walked in and wanted to pay for and use this service.

On the other hand, if someone walked in asking to change a $10 bill into a roll of quarters and didn't want to pay for the service and/or had a non-business account I could see them being turned down.

I don't claim to know what happened.

....I just claim that it is tough to figure out when people are "paying for convenience" vs when they are being "exploited".

Rent-a-Center
Payday Loans
Pawn Shops
Cash for Gold
Instant Tax Rebate places

....all of them make profits off of a population that seems to:
1. Have no other alternative. AND/OR
2. Be willing to pay for convenience AND/OR
3. Not be real savy

Whether you feel a solution is needed to these places depends upon which factor you think is dominant....

I tend to think there are some people in every category.

It's my understanding that the person who wanted change has a business account with the Chase bank, and they have some obtuse protocol to offer such a service. It seems that if you want business, you would cater to those whom have an account with you. But, the Chase back apparently does not do that.

I might be time for said business to take their business elsewhere.

If they are bored, they could then send their monthly "Other Bank" statements to the Chase manager.

I believe there are enough banks around that Cat 1 "no other alternative" does not apply.

Based on her statements last night, I think we can assuredly rule out #2.

....and I do not want About Time to be part of Category 3: "Not real savy".

A weird thing happened at the laundromat: the price of washing clothes there jumped up 25 cents for the washers. I don't know if it also increased for the dryers. The cost of using the smaller machine was $1.75. Now it's 2 bucks. The price of the other machines are also up by 25 cents.

I wonder, is it landlord's revenge, perhaps?

Arches cover that with his Money Laundry name

Maybe as was reported on the ILoveFranklinAvenue blog, the ownership of the pawnshop and the laundromat is the same entity, so to cover up their costs, they've increased it. What's weird is that it's 25 cents. In the days where laundromats used coins, a 25 cent jump would make sense, however in the era of using an electromagnetic card to pay for the privilege of paying for anything, price increases need not be in whole number units.

I mean, if the cost went up 18.3 cents, that would make MORE sense to me than the fact that it went up 25 cents. A 25 cent increase seems ARBITRARY, as did the original cost of using a small machine: $1.75; why not $1.73, or $1.78? The price of using the washing machines at the newly-renovated laundromat closer to St. John's place is actually $1.75...

Given the high turn over of machine usage at the Park Place laundromat, it's hard for me to not think that this is proprietor's revenge for off setting the costs of the now null and void pawn shop.

Maybe he should just charge CHCA members more, cause they are his nemisis.

He could take photos at meetings. I'd smile in my photo.

I must admit, I'm disappointed none of my names for the place are going to be used

Well, the lack of use bespeaks your lack of creativity.

I agree, but I liked a few of them nonetheless

but they sucked, as did your whimsies about a serious situation ...

I disagree.

Does anybody know what is going on with the Pawn Shop which now has an awning calling itself a Jewelry Store? The sign says it buys jewelry and electronics. I guess they are getting around zoning restrictions by calling themselves a Jewelry Store although it seems what they are practicing is ostensibly a pawn shop?

Do you mean the shop near the intersection of Franklin with Fulton?

I'm under the understanding that the "We buy gold and electronics" places are not regulated in the same way as pawnshops because they do not issue loans ....you sell them your stuff and its over.

Whereas a pawnshop gives you a ticket and then charges fees and interest rates etc.

...any business or individual can buy your crap. The state just seems to be interested in putting additional regulations and supervision on those that wish to loan you money and keep your stuff as collateral.

There are a lot of "we buy gold and electronics" places around. Unlike a pawnshop, they make their money only when someone buys the sold object. ....whereas a pawnshop makes cash from people who want temporary loans, as well as people buy stuff.

The smart "we buy gold and electronics" places usually tell the person selling the gold or electronics that they don't store the stuff on site; they immediately ship it to another location to sell it.

...this little speech minimizes the number of people who return wanting their item back because they feel --perhaps now that they are sober-- that selling the item for the agreed upon price was a bad idea.

A lot of them have several locations, so retreiving grandma's gold ring after selling it for $50 become very difficult: You may have to buy it back at their subjective retail price.

No, same location as former pawn shop- Park Place and Franklin in the same building as the laundromat. I saw the new awning being finished this afternoon.

I just noticed a pawn shop cleverly named "Pawn Shop" near the corner of Albany and Park Place. Directly across from the Albany Houses. I never noticed before. Does anyone know if this is new?

It's back! Signs are --- CROW HILL JEWELRY.

http://ilovefranklinave.blogspot.com/2010/11/pawn-shop-returns-nams-builds-their.html

Silly name

Hey, with this new format, does the originator of a thread no longer has ability to alter the title of it? I wanted to alter the name of the thread to reflect the name change.

You may PM a moderator requesting a change in title. What is the change? "Crow Hill Jewelery" I'll make it for you

Why would you rob the originator of a thread from the ability to change the name?

No, I don't want it called Crow Hill Jewelery

Dang! I can't even re-edit an earlier post!

I believe posts can be edited for one hour after they were posted.

xlizellx wrote:

It's back! Signs are --- CROW HILL JEWELRY.

http://ilovefranklinave.blogspot.com/2010/11/pawn-shop-returns-nams-builds-their.html

More news:

I walked by there this AM and realized not only has the owner has painted it purple (as reported on ilovefranklinave), but he has also created the outline for a mural.

Most notable is a baby wearing a crown, with a big $ sign on its chest.

....who needs a sign on top of the laundrymat when you have a big mural like that!

??

So the result of community efforts is an entity that is actually worse than what we would have gotten if we kept our collective mouths shut. Wow. On top of the cost of doing laundry having increased, we now have a store that is less regulated on its surface than ostensibly, it purported to be. Had I known this is what a pawn shop would devolve into, I wouldn't have said anything. And to be honest, I thought that stores that bought and sold gold fell under the category of 'pawn shop'.

Calling this a jewelry store is akin to putting lipstick on a pig, and calling the pig a lady.

but, but, but correct me if I am wrong, but i thought that that block of Park Place was zoned as residential, therefore no business could open on that block, no matter what kind of semantic game they play.

si?

I think that the lots on the ends of the block are zoned as commercial. The medical place behind the laundry has been there forever, and the laundry is actually on Franklin which is definitely zoned for commercial.