Tom Peterson (born 1930) is an American retailer, pitchman and television icon from Portland, Oregon.
Peterson opened his first store in 1964, which grew to a regional consumer electronics, home appliance and furniture chain in the 1970s. His memorable television commercials and unusual promotions made him a widely recognized personality in the Portland area by the 1980s, leading to cameo appearances in the films of Gus Van Sant.
In the early 1990s, having acquired and been unable to successfully integrate a competing chain of electronics stores, Peterson filed for bankruptcy protection before reemerging as a scaled-down personal electronics retailer. He continued appearing in his own commercials into the early 2000s, and the store's final location closed in February 2009.
Early life
Peterson was born outside St. Paul, Minnesota, where he grew up on a farm, the son of a federal government worker. He studied business at the University of Minnesota.
Peterson met his future wife Gloria, also from the St. Paul area, at a Lutheran church camp at Green Lake in northern Minnesota at the age of 14. The two were married on Sept. 20, 1952.
Tom Peterson's
Founding and expansion
Peterson spent ten years working at the Jolly Green Giant Co., rising to eastern regional manager in charge of 17 food processing plants in the United States and Canada. However, the western regional manager was the son of the company's president, so in 1963 Peterson obtained a franchise from Muntz television, sold his home for $10,000, which he put into the business and moved with Gloria to Portland on the advice of friends.
He opened his first store at Southeast 82nd and Foster Road in 1964. Peterson paid himself a salary of $100 a week and $50 a week to Gloria, who was the controller of the business. In 1964, his first year in business, Peterson had revenues of $300,000. By 1989, Peterson was selling $30 million per year. It was during this period that Peterson first achieved fame in Portland and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
By the early 1980s, Peterson had become one of the largest home electrontics dealerships in Portland, alongside Smith's Home Furnishings, Stereo Super Stores, Montgomery Ward and Sears. Peterson went on to open stores in Eugene, Gresham, Hillsboro, North Portland and as far away as Spokane, Washington but later closed these stores, citing an inability to offer the personal service by appearing on the floor alongside his sales staff.
The Petersons' children also worked in the business, daughter Kathy as a personnel manager and son Keith as a partner in an affiliated electronics import-export business, operating out of Boston.
Bankruptcy and reorganization
In September 1989, Peterson outbid two challengers to acquire Stereo Super Stores, whose parent company had filed for bankruptcy the month before, paying $940,000 plus another million for inventory. The acquisition included a car stereo specialty shop at Mall 205, Car Stereo East. Peterson continued to operate the franchise's locations at Jantzen Beach and Washington Square Too without a branding change until March 1991, when he renamed them Tom Peterson Super Stores, as he did his original home electronics store at 82nd and Foster. Peterson explained that the original stores were performing better than the newly acquired outlets, so he decided to combine them. His other two stores and car specialty store were unaffected.
In August 1991 Peterson closed his Jantzen Beach location and in October filed for chapter 11 protection, listing liabilities of $7.5 million owed to 283 creditors on assets of $2.7 million. He also faced lawsuits from suppliers and AT&T Commercial Finance. At the time of the filing, Peterson said: "I should have listened to my wife. She said, 'Don't buy Stereo Super Stores.' She was right."
Peterson said sales shrank 16 percent in fiscal 1991 compared to the previous year, and that his business had been in the red every month but one in the 25 months since the buyout. Peterson said at the time: "They should have been called Stereo Stupid Stores."
Peterson closed his furniture store at 82nd and Foster, consolidating all operations in his two remaining stores, but kept his ads on the air. At Gloria's suggestion, immediate subsequent television spots referred to the bankruptcy, spelling out the troubles and asking customers to please buy today. A crisis manager took control of operations, leaving Peterson to work the sales floors until the stores closed in March 1992.
Peterson said in 1995, "The big nationals make it very tough on the regional, like Smith's, and on the locals, like us." Peterson also said: "In life, we are all carpenters of our own crosses. Don't blame someone else."
Tom Peterson & Gloria's Too!
In September 1992 Peterson reopened for business at his original location, an 11,000 square-foot showroom at 8130 Southeast Foster Road, under the name Tom Peterson & Gloria's Too! Peterson's son-in-law Robert Condon became president, daughter Kathy the store's accountant and Gloria Peterson resumed duties as chief financial officer. Peterson himself remained the primary public face of the company, and resumed his familiar advertising. Condon raised a portion of the new venture's seed money from the sale of Tom Peterson memorabilia, having bought hundreds of wristwatches and alarm clocks from the bankruptcy trustee, then reselling them at a profit.
As of 1995, Peterson and a staff of 18 were selling $5 million of household durables per year, having showed a profit in 23 of 25 years. As of 2002, Peterson was working "part time" 44 hours per week, half of what he once had put in, and booking $4 million in sales per year.
In the mid-2000s, the Petersons sold their last remaining property at the corner of Southeast 82nd and Foster and moved the store to a side street a block away, just off 82nd Avenue. The final location closed on February 28, 2009.
Television advertising
Peterson is widely known in Portland for writing and starring in his own low-budget commercials, for his trademark flattop haircut, catch phrases including "Free is a very good price" and referring to his store as "the happy place to buy." In the 1980s, Peterson was described by Oregonian columnist Margie Boulé as "arguably, the most recognizable man in Portland."
Peterson's most famous commercials were his "Wake up! Wake up!" spots, which began airing in the mid-1970s. Peterson borrowed the idea from another retailer in Corpus Christi, Texas. Said Peterson, "Somebody told me about it and I followed it up. Ours was much more successful than theirs. They didn't have the store owner or a strong personality doing theirs." Peterson kept his stores open from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. to accommodate customers inspired by the ad to visit his store late at night. The commercial ran less frequently in the 1980s, and last aired in 1988.
In 1987, Peterson experimented with hiring an outside firm to produce a series of commercials, a first in 23 years on the air. The new commercials parodied daytime soap operas, featuring a housewife named Monica whose domestic problems are solved by merchandise from Peterson's stores.
Of his television spots, Peterson said in 1987: "It's probably the best-known commercial in town, but not the best-liked one." Peterson continued writing and starring in his own commercials into the early 2000s.
Special promotions
Tom Peterson haircuts
In July 1986, Peterson offered a free flattop haircut to anyone who attended the opening of his third store at 82nd and Foster. Peterson, who got his first flattop haircut in 1952, hired three barbers to give haircuts on the floor of his showrooms. They gave about 50 haircuts the first day, and Peterson decided to make the gimmick a weekly event. He continued offering the haircuts for two decades and as of 2002 was still giving away about ten haircuts per week.
Halloween masks
Starting Halloween 1986, Peterson offered visitors free cardboard masks with his face on it. All 5,000 went in a single year. In 1987, Peterson said, "We thought about doing a better mask, with a more realistic Tom Peterson on it. But then we thought, what if somebody robs a bank wearing one, and the witnesses say, 'It was Tom Peterson!' So we're sticking with the black and white cardboard."
Alarm clocks
In October 1990, after he had ceased running the "Wake up!" TV spots, Peterson debuted an alarm clock in the shape of a television set with his face in the center and voice as the alarm, saying: "Wake up! Wake up to a happy day!" Peterson said of the promotion at the time: "If you can put your face in 5,000 homes in Portland, it certainly can't hurt."
Wristwatches
Peterson has cited as his most successful promotion the Tom Peterson watch, also featuring his face. Peterson sa
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