rant · moment 6 of 18
PC Richard & Son: The Long Island Appliance Dirtbag Empire
from The Men Behind The Boys · #102
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minAn extended riff on PC Richard & Son electronics stores, including Tim's memory of buying a DVD player from a pushy salesman named Duke, the store's reputation for failed car salesmen and washing-machine obsessives, and a bit about a Long Island handyman named Jimmy who threatened to kill Tim over unpaid money.
- 12:48Tim recounts buying his first DVD player at PC Richard & Son around 1999-2000 for $300, bringing a disc to test it in-store.
- 13:30Salesman Duke, a typical Italian guy with a huge pinky ring, sells him an extended warranty by repeating that all DVD players have great video and sound quality.
- 14:10PC Richard & Son is staffed by failed car salesmen from Long Island who couldn't move a Kia, now working as a goon squad in electronics.
- 14:36Tim describes the sales pitch: a manager tells employees they're not selling TVs, they're selling a lifestyle that transforms customers from living in hell to being a king.
- 15:20PC Richard & Son salesmen convince people a flat-screen TV will dress up the basement apartment they live in at their parents' home.
- 15:32Adult men go to PC Richard & Son with their mothers, and the store's primary focus is selling washing machines, not home theater.
- 15:55Tim jokes about the pitch for washing machines: 'Do you know what it feels like to wash your clothes in your home in your own home? Do you have any idea you feel like a man?'
- 16:08On Long Island, using a laundromat is treated like doing heroin—people respect the status of owning their own appliances too much.
- 16:32Tim once spent an hour at a laundromat talking to a guy named Jimmy who insisted he wasn't a heroin addict, just did a couple bags every morning to get straight.