Ray Steele Jr. has a favorite scenario as the owner of Friendly Pawn, a business his father started 45 years ago in downtown Loveland.
“Someone borrows a little bit of money to buy gas to get to a new job. … This is just to get them over the hump,” he said. “When they come back to retrieve their item, they thank us for helping them out.”
That’s how he likes to think of Friendly Pawn, not in the caricatured way that pawnshops often are depicted.
“We do have a stereotype that we have to deal with – a guy chomping on a cigar behind some bars, being real gruff with people, trying to take advantage of people,” he said. “That’s not how it is in Loveland, with any of the shops.”
Steele said he’s always hearing from people how bright and organized and clean Friendly Pawn is.
“It’s a pretty darn nice shop, I do have to say,” he said.
The store at 200 N. Lincoln Ave. is probably the seventh location for the business, although it’s just about a block south of the first pawnshop his father, Ray Steele Sr., launched in 1975 as Family Pawn Shop.
Steele Sr. built the current building in 1998 and expanded it in 2009. Ray Steele Jr. took over full-time for his father in about 2012, he said, after a six-year stint as a nuclear propulsion engineer on a fast-attack submarine in the U.S. Navy and some time in the high-tech industry.
“I slowly started taking the reins, and of course Dad was looking over my shoulder to make sure I didn’t run the business into the ground,” he said. “I was keen enough to realize that if it’s not broke, don’t break it.”
His dad maintains a presence in the business as a consultant, he said.
1) For the people who never have been to a pawnshop, explain how they work. Why would someone go to Friendly Pawn if they didn’t need to borrow money?
A pawn is money given on a marketable item held as security. Customers have 30 days to retrieve their item by paying back the money plus an additional amount. The customer is also able to pay an extension on the pawn to provide another 30 days. And, least desirable, is for the customer to keep our money and forfeit their item. No hard feelings if that happens. Maybe three out of 10 forfeit their pawns.
Friendly Pawn also buys, sells and trades. There is a limitless variety of items on the shelves, some common, some very unique, and could be worth the time to browse. We never know what will come through the front door.
2) Talk about the negative reputation some pawnshops have gained and how Friendly Pawn and Loveland’s other pawn businesses are different.
Loveland pawnshops are not dark, musky dens full of stolen items. Quite the contrary; the shops help fight crime by uploading their incoming item transaction details into a national database so law enforcement can search by item description, serial number or the suspect’s name. Fingerprints are taken and video surveillance recorded.
About nine years ago, I spearheaded the effort for Loveland’s Municipal Code to include licensing pawnshops. The effort was an attempt to protect Loveland citizens and maintain local pawn industry integrity.
In the event an item is stolen, the pawnshop will release that item to law enforcement. Yes it happens, but for us it’s a small fraction of 1 percent. The act of pawning or selling a stolen item to a pawnbroker is a felony.
3) Although you grew up in your father’s pawn business, you’ve said you never planned to follow in his footsteps. How did you get where you are now?
My pawnbroker path was unplanned. I frequented my father’s shop as a youth so I knew the business. Later in life I worked in high tech, but that job field became uncertain so I pursued my Master of Business Administration from Colorado State University.
While working on my MBA, I found appreciable ways to apply what I was learning into the pawn business and slowly fell into the routine of running Friendly Pawn.
4) From your involvement in the Loveland Downtown Partnership and Downtown Development Authority, it’s clear that you have an interest in the vitality of downtown. Why?
Because I truly care about downtown Loveland!
Being on the LDP and DDA boards allowed me to channel my passion for the reinvigoration of downtown’s infrastructure, distinct character and business strength. By that I mean being party to bring in financially responsible (re)development and efforts to beautify the downtown environment, possibly figure out a way HIP Streets modernization can be become reality.
5) How does life at Friendly Pawn differ from what’s depicted on the “reality TV” pawnshop shows? (And do you regularly watch any of those programs?)
Those shows are so staged and are tough to watch. We’d put a camera crew to sleep in our shop.
We have no so-called or self-proclaimed experts to call to determine item values. We often rely on our own expertise and experience. A lot of customers do rely on the internet to seek prices, and we do venture there also.
Those shows never show pawning of items, only selling items. We partake about a 50/50 split for pawning and buying.
I do joke about having a grumpy old man about in the shop (my dad, Ray Sr.). Fact is, folks love talking to him about guns and his hunting trips in Colorado, to Alaska and Canada, and over the years of hunting trips memorialized in his photo album and tall tales.
Ray Steele Jr.
Occupation: Owner of Friendly Pawn in Loveland.
Years in Loveland: 45.
Age: 53.
Family: Wife Laura Steele, blended family of five children ages 20 to 30.
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