Crazy Eddie had Insane Prices and Stereos

Crazy Eddie Antar passed away in September 2016. Sadly, he’s more known for embezzlement and fraud than for having an iconic store. For many years, Crazy Eddys’ was THE place to get electronics. 

I have one personal story about Crazy Eddie. Normally in this blog, I write about things from Mix Tapes' time and way of thinking. 

In 1986, my parents got me a stereo through a Shop At Home company. They bought it in July and stored it away until Christmas. Christmas Day, 15 year old me opened the box and found that the front of the stereo had been cracked. The crack went along the whole radio station area. I think one of the cassette holders was off too. Honestly, the radio worked, it had a turntable and the other cassette player. It was cool with me since I couldn’t play loud music in the house. The important things worked and it was better than I had at the time. My father was bothered that the stereo had been ruined, but what can you do? He saw in the Star Ledger that morning that Crazy Eddies was open. The only store we knew that open on Christmas day. We went out for a new stereo. 

The cracked stereo was put in the garage where we could play it loud. The Crazy Eddie’s in Totowa was packed with people. At one point, I remember my father saying “why are we here on Christmas? This could wait. It’s a shame there are so many of us here at Christmas.” Anyway we got a killer stereo for dirt cheap. Turntable. Cassette, Radio. Three foot high speakers. Equalizer. 

I had never played with an equalizer before so I played with the bass and volume with every song. I could change the song sound and heard instruments that I never heard before. The first single I played on the record player part was The Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls.” I changed the bass and treble each time I played it. Normally I’m a hard rock guy, but that song caught me in a good mood and the synthesizers made it easy to play with.

Back to Crazy Eddie.

They started with one store in Brooklyn New York. At their peak they had 43 stores in the Tri-State Metropolitan area. They had loads of commercials that people loved. 

The company went public and sold stock. By October 1986, stock prices started falling and there were rumors of Accounting irregularities. In December 1986, Eddie Antar resigned as CEO.

The news got worse. Employees were paid off the books. Sales weren’t recorded and the cash from those sales were skimmed off the books. When regulators audited the company the inventory on hand didn’t match what it should. Stocks really fell. Antar fled the country. Stores were closed. 

In 1989, stock holders demanded the company be liquidated. 

notes from Wikipedia.