Book Review: Retail Gangster by Gary Weiss

Overall, no matter who you are, Retail Gangster by Gary Weiss is a very good read - eight out of ten hot dogs. But if you were a child of the 80s growing up in the New York area, this book is essential.

Growing up, as far back as I can remember, there were always ads on for Crazy Eddie electronics stores. These ads were everywhere, and really stood out, as they featured a frantic pitchman (Radio DJ Jerry Carroll) shouting about appliances and TVs for 25 seconds, followed by "So come to Crazy Eddie's, where the prices are...INSAAAAANNNNEEEE!!!!". They were all over the place - on Eyewitness News, on Yankees broadcasts, on The Saturday Afternoon Movie (usually The Breakfast Club - "FLIP YOU!"), all the way through the early 90s. Then I went off to college, and by the time I got back in 97, the ads had disappeared.

Retail Gangster tells the story of what happened, starting with the founding of Crazy Eddie's by Eddie Antar. Eddie was a Syrian Jew, with a culture that is quite at odds with what most of us goys would consider "Jewish" - as Weiss explains in the book, while European Jewish culture encouraged assimilation into the highest levels of American life ("My son is going to be a doctor!"), Syrian Jewish culture prioritized staying exactly who you were and what you believed before leaving Syria. The Antars came from a long line of market owners, and with a culture that also emphasized tight-knit families he gained entry into retail. His family was not all that interested in being "fair" shop owners, and Eddie wet his feet by working at a family store in Times Square that featured incredibly huge mark-ups. Thanks to his father and his uncle, by the mid 70s Eddie had a store of his own to run on Long Island.

The people in the store's neighborhood, far from Times Square, had a much better idea of what things should cost, so Eddie could not hope to make money with mark-ups. And laws at the time tightly controlled how far down you could discount retail prices, so he could not claim to have the lowest prices around. Legally, at least, there was little he could do to distinguish his store from other stores in the neighborhood (some of which were also owned by family members).

But Eddie realized that if he couldn't win legally, he could win illegally. He chose to concentrate on having the lowest prices in town - while still keeping enough himself to be profitable, and found several ways to do it. First, he paid none of his sales taxes to the state (surprisingly easy to do in the mid-70s pre-computers), allowing him to lower his prices a bit while putting a good amount of cash in his pocket. He also hired an advertising director, whose ads (including the effective Jerry Carroll spots) highlighted top-line brands (which Eddie may or may not have actually had in stock); once a customer actually came to the store, they were encouraged to drop down to a cheaper brand - cheaper, but with much higher mark-ups. Eddie also found ways to secure grey-market merchandise, and would even sell floor models (which may not actually work) that were very carefully put back into their original packaging like they were new - if they didn't work, customers were told they could not be returned...because they were floor models.

Eddie's store, eventually named Crazy Eddie, was extremely profitable. He opened a few more Long Island locations, then several more - including his first Manhattan stores, then leapt into the rest of the New York area, continually expanding. As the company was moving beyond the New York area, Eddie became enthralled with the idea of being a publicly-traded company - he saw even more opportunities for profit there. He cleaned up some (but not all) of his merchandise maneuvers, but found other ways to make an immoral buck on Wall Street, through stock manipulation, insider trading, and falsifying records.

As the retail chain grew and grew, Eddie and his family ended up like Game of Thrones. Eddie himself became an impetuous cocaine addict, barking out orders, firing people at will, and becoming extremely hard to work for (although always very pleasant around potential investors). Eddie's father Sam, who initially brought Eddie into the business and put up a third of the money for the original store, was often at odds with Eddie, mostly because Sam resisted being shuttled aside as head of the family (even though most of the family ended up working directly or indirectly with Crazy Eddie's). Eddie's first wife raised their kids while Eddie took off whenever he wanted and became increasingly mentally abusive. She raised the prospect of divorce, which he initially resisted - but only agreed to after he had tricked her into signing away any rights to alimony or privacy (as Eddie was allowed to show up at her house whenever he wanted). The family drama is what makes this story sing the most - it's no surprise that when Eddie Antar finally fell, it was due to another family member coming clean.

Again, this is a great Michael Lewis-like read regardless of who you are, but if you remember the store that preceded PC Richards, The Wiz, and Tops Appliance Center, this will have special meaning to you. Recommended!