🠈 Aaron Rents 🠊
Aaron's, Inc.
Aaron's Inc. is a rental company carrying furniture, appliances, computers and TVs.
The company was founded by R. Charles Loudermilk in 1955. It has since grown to over 1800 stores in 48 states. Corporate headquarters are in Atlanta, Ga. The company trades on the NYSE with the symbol: AAN.
An interesting aspect of Aaron's is that, through the years, the company has acquired a number of furniture manufacturing plants; So, the company builds and reconditions its own inventory.
Historical Highlights
Mr. Loudermilk began renting furniture, party products and items for sickrooms in 1955 while he worked at his parents' restaurant. He chose the name "Aaron's Rents" as it would be first in the phonebook. To negotiate rents, he would show potential customers items from shopping catalogs then run out and buy the product on negotiating the rental contract.
Here is a timeline. The data from 1955-1999 was drawn from Funding Universe.
- 1955: Loudermilk starts Aaron's Rents.
- 1964: Aaron's opens its first stores.
- 1965: Aaron's rents tents to civil rights workers for their march on Selma.
- By 1971 he had 20 stores. He was having a hard time buying enough inventory for the stores that he bought MacTavish Furniture Industries.
- 1982: Aaron's holds it IPO. In 1983 he had 92 stores and 50,000 rental contracts.
- 1984: Aaron's acquires Metrolease and becomes the largest rental outfit in the United States.
- 1987: Aaron's acquires Ball Stalker which manufactured upscale office furniture.
- 1987: Aaron's starts offering rent-to-own contracts.
- 1998: Aaron's purchases parts of Furniture Enterprises, Powell Furniture Rental, and Cort Furniture Rental Corp.
- 1990: Aaron's opens a franchise program.
- 1998: Aaron's acquires Lamps Forever.
- 2008: Aaron's sells its office rental business to CORT Business Services which had recently been acquired by Berkshire Hathaway.
- 2013: FTC charged Aarons for privacy violations. Some franchises installed spyware on the computers they rented. Also Aaron's did not disclose tracking devices installed on rented items.
Owners Can Track Inventory
The FTC Case brings up a subtle point about renting. Items rented are still part of the inventory of the rental agency. They have a right to track to things they own. The problem was the failure to disclose the tracking devices. As for spyware. Spyware is pretty much always wrong.
References:
- Funding Universe: Aaron Rents (Drawn 12/17/2017)
- Wikipedia - Aaron (Drawn 12/17/2017)
- Press Release - Aaron Rents, Inc. Sells Aaron's Corporate Furnishings Division (Drawn 12/17/2017)
Directory Listings:
- Cochise County - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Gila County - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Mohave County - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Navajo County - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Phoenix Color - Home & Garden: Aaron Rents
- Pinal County - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Santa Cruz County - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Yavapai County - Home and Garden: Aaron Rents
- Boulder Color - Home: Aaron Rents
- Colorado Springs Color - Furniture Stores: Aaron Rents
- Denver Color - Furniture: Aaron Rents
- Fort Collins Color - Home & Garden: Aaron Rents
- Grand Junction - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Pueblo Color - Home: Aaron Rents
- Internet Rivers - Rental Companies: Aaron Rents
- Missoula Websites - Home: Aaron Rents
- Davis County - Home and Garden: Aaron Rents
- Ogden, Utah - Furniture Stores: Aaron Rents
- Provo Utah - Furniture: Aaron Rents
- Saint George - Home / Furniture: Aaron Rents
- Salt Lake Sites - Rental Stores: Aaron Rents
- Sevier County - Sevier Color: Aaron Rents
- Vernal, Utah. US - Shopping: Aaron Rents
- Cheyenne, Wyoming. US - Home and Garden: Aaron Rents