Western Appliance to close Santa Cruz store March 17

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Western Appliance is closing the Santa Cruz store on Soquel Avenue March 17. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)

SANTA CRUZ -- Western Appliance will close its Santa Cruz store at 902 Soquel Ave. on March 17, a move that coincides with the retirement of manager Dale Burdick, whose father began selling televisions some 60 years ago.

"It's about time for me to hang it up," said Burdick, 65, who stayed home this week to fight the flu. "I hope to enjoy life."

Currently, the store is manned by "five of us," he said.

A graduate of Holy Cross and Oregon State University, he was a teen when he began working for his father and spent his entire career in the appliance business.

His father Hal, a ham operator who served in the Navy, settled in Santa Cruz after the World War II. He worked for Thompson Radio on Soquel Avenue, bought the business in 1947, and renamed it Burdick's. He saw an opportunity with the startup of KSBW-TV.

"We put a TV in the front window," recalled Burdick. "There would be crowds out front, and the only thing on the TV was a test pattern."

His father bought and remodeled 902 Soquel Ave., opening Burdick's Television and Appliance in 1955, then built an 11,000-square-foot store at the same address in 1974, demolishing the old store to provide parking.

Burdick's serviced televisions when they were expensive to buy but that changed when the cost to buy a new model became less than the cost of repair.

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Western Appliance to close Santa Cruz store March 17