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Pawn shop includes contract postal unit with drive-up service(Daily Oklahoman, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 7--French fries don't come with your order at Dean's Drive-Thru Pawn Shop, but you can get stamps or mail a package without getting out of the car. The drive-through service at the pawn shop -- 2617 S Robinson Ave. -- isn't a new concept. It was something Brett Fisher's father saw at another pawn shop while on vacation in Dallas 28 years ago. But the post office as part of the pawn shop is new. At one corner of the counter, the signature U.S. Postal Service logo hangs above a display of boxes and envelopes that can be purchased for shipping. A digital letter scale sits on the counter as a stuffed deer head keeps watch from the wall. With the addition of the post office in November, Dean's Drive-Thru Pawn Shop is one of at least 50 contract postal units in the state. Under the program, postal services also are offered at some grocery stores, convenience stores and a barbecue restaurant in Ada, said Larry Flener, manager of consumer affairs for the Postal Service in Oklahoma. The pawn shop's Internet sales and Fisher's frequent trips to the post office prompted him to start looking into the prospect of adding postal services at his pawn shop. Within three weeks of putting merchandise on eBay and other online auction sites in 1998, Fisher saw his business grow. Nearly 3,000 people have reviewed the pawn shop's merchandise on eBay. Having mail pick-up and shipping services at the store makes it easier to ship popular items such as American Indian bead works or tools all over the world, he said. "It was taking my guys an hour to go down to the post office. That's an hour of wages, the liability of having him out in a company truck and the loss of not having him here on the floor," said Fisher, president and owner of Dean's Drive-Thru Pawn Shop. The addition of the post office also has given residents of the newly revitalized Capitol Hill neighborhood a service they otherwise may have had to head downtown to get. "It's really good for that community," said Elaine Lyons, president of the South Oklahoma City Chamber. "Every community needs its own post office." Customers can buy stamps, ship packages, cash checks, buy phone cards, and buy and sell merchandise at the pawn shop. The only thing the store doesn't have is post office boxes to store mail -- and groceries, Fisher jokes. Customers use their possessions, such as televisions or tools, as collateral for a 30-day loan. A pawn shop is required to hold the merchandise for 60 days and let a customer pay off a loan before it can be sold, Fisher said. Customers are charged an interest rate of about 20 percent a month. Adding the services of post office also is bringing new customers into the store, just across the street from Capitol Hill Elementary School. "People like it because there aren't long lines when they come in here," said Fisher, a past president and a board member of the Capitol Hill Main Street group. "I have teachers who have worked at that school for eight years and have never come in who are coming in now. I've got little old ladies coming in to buy a book of stamps and eyeing the jewelry." Providing a community service also is knocking down the myth that pawn shops are just used to sell stolen goods. Pawn shops are highly regulated by the state and turn in a daily report of new merchandise to police officers, who check the pawn shops for stolen goods. Customers who bring in goods must show a driver's license, and their pictures are taken and stored in a computer, in case the item has been reported stolen and employees need to pick a customer out of a police lineup. Less than 1 percent of all the pawned merchandise reported in the state comes up as stolen, said Fisher, a past president and board member of the Oklahoma Pawn Brokers Association. |