Fretter Inc. founder Oliver Ollie Fretter, 91, died Sunday at his Bloomfield Hills home.

Fretter was perhaps one of metro Detroits most iconic retail spokesmen. He was known for his zany advertisements that included phrases like, Ill give you 5 pounds of coffee if I cant beat your best deal.

He founded Brighton-based Fretter in the early 1950s as a single appliance repair shop. Fretter acquired 182 Silo stores from Dixons plc in 1993, adding 182 stores to the 87 stores Fretter operated in nine states.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996, after several years of declining sales and red ink amid competition from big box stores like Best Buy and Circuit City.

Fretter is survived by his wife, Elma; children Laura Fretter and Howard Fretter; and grandchildren Alexandra, Andrew and Catherine.

Visitation is 3 p.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday at A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Home in Royal Oak, with services at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

The family is suggesting memorial tributes be made to the Beaumont Foundation.

Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694, swelch@crain.com. Twitter: @sherriwelch

If you enjoy the content on the Crain's Detroit Business Web site and want to see more, try 8 issues of our print edition risk-free. If you wish to continue, you will receive 44 more issues (for a total of 52 in all), including the annual Book of Lists for just $59. That's over 55% off the cover price. If you decide Crain's is not for you, just write "Cancel" on the invoice, return it and owe nothing. The 8 issues are yours to keep with no further obligation to us. Sign up below.

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Appliance retailer Ollie Fretter dies at 91

Fretter Inc. founder Oliver Ollie Fretter, 91, died Sunday at his Bloomfield Hills home.

Fretter was perhaps one of metro Detroits most iconic retail spokesmen. He was known for his zany advertisements that included phrases like, Ill give you 5 pounds of coffee if I cant beat your best deal.

He founded Brighton-based Fretter in the early 1950s as a single appliance repair shop. Fretter acquired 182 Silo stores from Dixons plc in 1993, adding 182 stores to the 87 stores Fretter operated in nine states.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996, after several years of declining sales and red ink amid competition from big box stores like Best Buy and Circuit City.

Fretter is survived by his wife, Elma; children Laura Fretter and Howard Fretter; and grandchildren Alexandra, Andrew and Catherine.

Visitation is 3 p.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday at A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Home in Royal Oak, with services at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

The family is suggesting memorial tributes be made to the Beaumont Foundation.

Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694, swelch@crain.com. Twitter: @sherriwelch

If you enjoy the content on the Crain's Detroit Business Web site and want to see more, try 8 issues of our print edition risk-free. If you wish to continue, you will receive 44 more issues (for a total of 52 in all), including the annual Book of Lists for just $59. That's over 55% off the cover price. If you decide Crain's is not for you, just write "Cancel" on the invoice, return it and owe nothing. The 8 issues are yours to keep with no further obligation to us. Sign up below.

Offer valid for new MI subscribers only. Non-MI subscribers - $79. All other Foreign - $127.

See the original post here:
Popular appliance retailer Ollie Fretter dies 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.

Read more:
Ollie Fretter, colorful founder of Fretter Appliances, dead at 91

Fretter Inc. founder Oliver Ollie Fretter, 91, died Sunday at his Bloomfield Hills home.

Fretter was perhaps one of metro Detroits most iconic retail spokesmen. He was known for his zany advertisements that included phrases like, Ill give you 5 pounds of coffee if I cant beat your best deal.

He founded Brighton-based Fretter in the early 1950s as a single appliance repair shop. Fretter acquired 182 Silo stores from Dixons plc in 1993, adding 182 stores to the 87 stores Fretter operated in nine states.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996, after several years of declining sales and red ink amid competition from big box stores like Best Buy and Circuit City.

Fretter is survived by his wife, Elma; children Laura Fretter and Howard Fretter; and grandchildren Alexandra, Andrew and Catherine.

Visitation is 3 p.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday at A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Home in Royal Oak, with services at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

The family is suggesting memorial tributes be made to the Beaumont Foundation.

Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694, swelch@crain.com. Twitter: @sherriwelch

If you enjoy the content on the Crain's Detroit Business Web site and want to see more, try 8 issues of our print edition risk-free. If you wish to continue, you will receive 44 more issues (for a total of 52 in all), including the annual Book of Lists for just $59. That's over 55% off the cover price. If you decide Crain's is not for you, just write "Cancel" on the invoice, return it and owe nothing. The 8 issues are yours to keep with no further obligation to us. Sign up below.

Offer valid for new MI subscribers only. Non-MI subscribers - $79. All other Foreign - $127.

See original here:
Iconic metro Detroit retailer Ollie Fretter dies at 91

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