Ollie Fretter, colorful founder of Fretter Appliances, dead at 91

Oliver L. (Ollie) Fretter, the colorful founder and president of the old Fretter appliance and electronics store chain whose zany commercials endeared him to a generation of local television viewers, died Sunday at his home in Bloomfield Hills. He was 91.

Ollie Fretter was very much the public face of his chain. His TV pitches included the memorable pledge, Ill give you 5 pounds of coffee if I cant beat your best deal. The Free Press noted in a 1996 article that Fretters Ollie Oops sales on dinged and dented merchandise were a penny-pinchers delight.

Related: Ollie Fretters greatest hits TV commercials from the 70s and 80s

Fretter started his company in the early 1950s as a single appliance repair shop. One of his first stores was in Redford Township. The company went public in 1986, and along with Highland Superstores and ABC Warehouse, was one of the Detroit areas Big Three appliance and electronics chains.

Through growth and acquisitions the firm expanded to a peak of more than 250 stores in several states by the early 1990s, under the names Fred Schmid, Fretter, Dash Concepts, Silo or Yes! About 60 stores carried the Fretter name itself.

By 1987 Fretter stopped appearing in the chains TV spots as the company hired actor Robert Stack for more somber ad campaigns.

His Brighton-based company eventually struggled amid increasing competition from discounters and big box electronics chains such as Best Buy and Circuit City. The fast-falling prices of computers and other electronics by the 1990s played a role in the chains demise, too.

Fretter declared bankruptcy in 1996 and all of its stores were liquidated. Of Detroits electronics Big Three, today only the ABC Warehouse chain is still in business.

At the end it just got to be a tough business and he wanted to retire, his son, Howard Fretter, recalled Tuesday.

Oliver Fretter was born in Cleveland in 1923 and moved with his family to Michigan as a teenager, graduating from Royal Oak High School in 1941. He worked as an appliance repairman in Detroit before founding the Fretter Appliance Co.

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Ollie Fretter, colorful founder of Fretter Appliances, dead at 91