His Majesty
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
Paul Goldenberg is Big in Big Screens, Charitable, Political Contributions
Odds are you know Paul Goldenberg as the king. And you wouldn’t be alone.
Goldenberg, the owner of Paul’s TV & Video in La Harbra, is etched into Southern California’s cultural landscape as the king of big-screen TVs. Millions of people, from sports fans to movie stars, know of his commercials.
Goldenberg’s king persona is such that when he met actress Geena Davis at a recent social event, she had a request of him.
“She looked at me and said, ‘I want to hear you say it,'” Goldenberg recalled. “I said, ‘What?’ And she went on to say, ‘You know what.'”
Goldenberg obliged.
“I am the king.”
Goldenberg, 72, created his tagline to sell big-screen TVs about 35 years ago. He said he did so on the advice of a now-deceased advertising guru and close friend, Jack Lawlor.
Little did Goldenberg know that his radio voice, trademark gold crown and charismatic alter-ego would become a Southern California icon.
“He is a brand unto himself,” said Dean Dudley, president and chief executive of Pasadena-based DSLV Lawlor Advertising, which has handled Paul’s advertising for about 35 years. “I’ve never seen anybody that has created anything like this.”
Goldenberg is a bit more humble about his claim to fame.
“I don’t take any of this serious,” he said. “I’m just a hard working guy that has a television store.”
And Goldenberg’s no-frills store, known for good prices and free deliveries, has held its own despite stepped up competition from big-box chain stores, such as Circuit City Stores Inc. and Best Buy Co.
Goldenberg’s claim to big-screen TV royalty? Irvine-based Mitsubishi Digital Electron-ics America Inc., the largest seller of big-screen TVs and a unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp., recently recognized Paul’s as the biggest single-store seller of its big-screen TVs,for the 18th straight year.
“Paul’s sells thousands and thousands of big screens (every year),” said Max Wasinger, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “It’s not rocket science. It’s just about the fundamentals, and he executes beautifully. He’s just a model Mitsubishi dealer.”
Goldenberg, who also sells Panasonic flat-panel and smaller sets from Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. as well as other consumer electronics, declined to divulge annual sales or how many sets he sells a year. (Past articles pegged it at 10,000. Mitsubishi big screens sell for $1,500 to $4,000.)
Goldenberg did offer a snapshot of one of his busiest times: New Year’s Eve weekend. He said he sold 300 sets in those three days.
Still, he said, that pales in comparison to Super Bowl weekend, which is hands down the store’s busiest time. Goldenberg wouldn’t give specifics, but he said his 30 delivery trucks were running non-stop, as were the five additional trucks he had rented. Paul’s pledges to deliver anywhere in South-ern California within four hours,for free.
“We try to have limits,” Goldenberg said. “But it doesn’t always work.”
A Paul’s driver recently traveled 190 miles to Santa Maria to deliver a set, he said.
The volume that Goldenberg generates at his one store allows him to offer incentives. The biggie: no payments or interest for 14 months.
How does the king pull that one off? “By magic,” Goldenberg said with a chuckle.
The truth is, Goldenberg said, Paul’s is in the good graces of financiers.
“It’s tied to volume and the fact that some of the institutions will make special deals with us because we have such good customers,” Goldenberg said. “They hope after (customers) pay off their television, maybe they’ll finance their home.”
The grace period also makes buying a big-screen TV affordable for people that want one, said Goldenberg, who said he has a Mitsubishi with an 80-inch screen at home.
Goldenberg said today’s big screens,designed to show high-resolution digital broadcasts,”kind of sell themselves.”
The financial incentives always are neatly tucked into Paul’s advertising, according to DSLV’s Dudley. He said the store increases its media spending every year on print, radio, TV and outdoor ads. He declined to give specific figures.
“Anybody can do it if they want to spend the money,” Dudley said. “(Paul) is willing to spend the money and it has certainly paid off for him.”
But advertising only gets the attention of potential buyers, Dudley said. Paul’s customer service is what seals the deal once they get to the store, he said.
“That, for me, is the name of the game,” Goldenberg said.
It’s a mentality that stretches back to the early 1960s when Goldenberg finished TV repair school and started his business in Los Angeles with $1,000 borrowed from his cousin Betty. He relocated to Orange County about five years later.
“I used to deliver sets and I just used to get so excited carrying one of these big sets up into the house and delivering at a time when there was something exciting on,” he said.
When people come to his store, Goldenberg said they’re met by salespeople who have been with Paul’s for up to a dozen years.
“We don’t have a big turnover with anybody,” he said. “You get here and you’re stuck with me forever.”
The store also has a big selection of products,Paul’s warehouse holds up to 2,000 big screens. And if customers find they have service-related questions later, they can call Paul’s and a “real live human being is going to answer for you,” he said.
“We don’t have one of these infernal prompts on the phone where your press 1 for this and 3 for that,” he said. “When you come in and you buy something you ought to get what you pay for.”
But Goldenberg said he realizes that his 100 employees are not “angels” and sometimes things “slip through the cracks.” That’s minimized, though, by only running one store, he said.
“I will positively absolutely never have more than one store,” Goldenberg said. “Because I would say that this store runs at about 98% of perfection. And the reason for that is that everybody here is on top of everything that’s going on.”
And the king said he’s happy with a one-store empire.
“I make pretty good money,” Goldenberg said. “I don’t need to have 50 stores to try to make more money.”
Goldenberg likes to share his wealth. He’s a big giver to charities and political causes.
As scholarship chairman, Goldenberg oversaw the awarding of $756,000 in education money to a California Highway Patrol foundation benefiting the kids of officers. He’s given to La Habra High School and the city’s Sonora High School. He also donates to the pediatric AIDS Foundation and helped to finance construction of an Alzheimer’s care facility for the elderly at The Jewish Home for the Aging in San Fernando Valley. The facility’s dedication is on April 14.
“It’s the biggest thing I’ve been able to do, and it all came from Paul’s TV,” he said.
A staunch Democrat in Republican-heavy OC, Goldenberg also is a big supporter of his party and its candidates. He had donated two TVs and a DVD player to former President Clinton.
Goldenberg said he used to worry about people knowing his political party affiliation.
“I’m sure there are people that don’t like me because I support the Democrats,” he said. “I got to a point where I realized you’ve got to be who you are. Believe me, we have a lot of Republicans that come in here and love to buy our products.”
Though in his golden years, Goldenberg shows no signs of slowing. He scoffs at the notion of retiring and refuses to talk of a succession plan.
Most retirees “sit around at Winchell’s all day” or “chase a little white ball around the golf course,” he said.
Instead, Goldenberg said he’s intent on beating the pants off the big guys and their up to 50 stores in his area.
“There’s a challenge in having one store in a place called La Habra that most people have never heard of,” he said. “There’s a lot of fun in that challenge.”
Besides, he said, “I’m not ready to retire. A kid like me? What would I do? I’d get kept after school.”
