President Obama continues to tout his jobs bill, though it hasn’t been getting much traction in Congress. Still, there are a few industries that have been growing without government help: tech, healthcare, and interestingly, pawnshops.
The History Channel’s reality TV show “Pawn Stars” reflects how pawnshops are adapting to today’s economic reality: They now cater to higher-income people who just a few years ago were buying expensive watches, not borrowing against them.
KALW’s Callie Shanafelt takes us to one such pawnshop in Millbrae.
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Broadcast History
KALW 91.7FM:
November 7, 2011
Transcript
CALLIE SHANAFELT: At first glance, Numis International looks like a discount jewelry store.
JACOB NOTOWITZ: I have people who come in sometimes and they’ll say, “Do you know where the pawnshop is?” And I’ll tell them that it’s right here and they’ll be surprised.
That’s Jacob Notowitz. His father – endearingly known as Uncle Al, opened the shop as a coin store in the early ‘60s. Now more than half of the people who walk through their door come into the shop to get a pawn loan. Like Gordon Winter.
GORDON WINTER: I ran out of money I didn’t have the means to make it to the end of the month. I have a lot of other instruments here at the pawn as well.
Winter says this as he picks up the 1978 Fender precision bass guitar he pawned four months ago. Winter is a former musician and has been unemployed for the last three years.
WINTER: I worked for Xerox for six years and was laid off.
Now...
Read the full transcript
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