From Triangle Dot Bizjournals Dot Com

Giving New Life to an Old Profession

Owner of eight pawnshops says perceptions are wrong, and he aims to change them

Triangle Business Journal – by Dale Gibson

Bob Moulton converted the old Don Murray’s Barbecue building into what he says is the prototype of the modern pawnshop.

DURHAM – If Bob Moulton hadn’t ended up in the family business, he might have been an actor: picture “Tick Tock” McLaughlin, the William H. Macy character in the movie “Seabiscuit.”

Reddish hair, thin build, a propensity for making funny. Moulton once used his impersonation of an Indian customer to rib one of his employees over the telephone. He was the class clown at Southern Durham High School, had designs on going to the North Carolina School of the Arts, but ended up as a radio DJ for meager pay at stations in Rock Hill, S.C., and Concord.

When he got married in 1983, he was making $80 a week.

He somehow made it. “I’ve been poor, but I’ve never been broke,” says Moulton. Still, 80 bucks a week wasn’t cutting it. He quit radio and moved back to his hometown of Durham to help his mom in her recently opened pawnshop.

There, he learned the business from his mother and an uncle, who also operated a shop. In 1986, Moulton opened his own store and has been a pawnbroker ever since – now operating eight stores in Durham, Raleigh and Wilmington.

He figures he spent around $2.5 million turning the defunct Don Murray’s Barbecue restaurant on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh from a grease-stained and rundown building into what Moulton declares to be the prototype of the modern-day pawnshop – National Pawn – complete with a walk-in vault that would be the envy of any banker.

Wander into that store, and the stereotypes about the pawn business drift away. On one side is a jewelry showroom as fine in decor as a shopping mall jeweler. On the other side are attractively displayed pawned items for sale – computer games, guitars, hand drills, television sets, even one iPad has found its way to hock.

Moulton is about building a business – and he and his wife, Teresa, have one now that generates some $7.5 million in revenue and provides jobs for 55. But he’s also about changing the way the public perceives the pawn business. “My mission is to improve the image of the pawn business,” says Moulton, who is president of the N.C. Pawnbrokers Association and has been on the board of the national association for a decade. “I’ll put my business reputation up against anyone in town.”

He’s fully aware of the perception of the pawn business – dirty, dingy stores full of stolen property with brokers looking to buy way low and sell way high. So, rather than tucking his stores in unobtrusive corners in bad parts of town, Moulton looks for high-profile locations near good neighborhoods.

His stores are far from dirty. On the contrary, they are bright and inviting. The employees are dressed in uniform blue shirts. National Pawn has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina, with no complaints over the past 36 months. As for stolen goods, industry research says that less than one-tenth of 1 percent of pawned goods are stolen.

Pawnshops actually help track stolen items rather than hide them. Each day, every pawnshop in the state is required by law to submit a report to local police on every pawned item, including the serial number of the item and the full identity of the customer. If an item turns out to be stolen, the police confiscate it and the pawnshop loses the money it lent.

In fact, the pawn business in North Carolina is tightly regulated at both the state and local levels. The Pawnbroker Modernization Act of 1989 sets strict limits on monthly fees that can be charged on a pawned item – they can’t exceed 20 percent of the amount lent for the item.

Jim Sughrue, spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department, says the department has a “generally good relationship” with pawnshops. “They have an interest in taking in as little stolen property as possible,” he says.

As for margins, Moulton says his philosophy is to make a small profit on high volume.

He once made a $500 profit on a 5-carat diamond that had been pawned for $20,000. The lucky buyer had it appraised and found it to be worth $75,000, but Moulton had no remorse. “I’d rather have a fast nickle than a slow dime,” he says.