What does a typical day look like for you? Does it change day to day? Yes, and to explain that I’ll give you a
brief history of the store and myself. I
started working here back when it was
Bjorn’s Disc Store, and it was located off Broadway and Bitters. We sold CDs and rented laser discs and were one of the
push the newer and next things. In fact,
just a couple of months ago I was cleaning out our old location after 17 years of it
being a storage location. I was there clean-
What do you see as the future for the store?
zon in here that I would love to be
With our new direction it’s not a lot
work as a clerk, because I love music and
now, I’m pushing to the future, and my
bit of college, but I learned school just isn’t for me. I’d rather be out doing
things, so I kept working there and be-
came manager of that store. From there, I went on to the office area and learned
accounts payable/receivable, and when we moved to our current location, I came
back to the sale side of things for a cou-
ple of years and eventually managed our small electronics store, The Gallery of
Small Electronics. I then did facilities,
more sales, warehouse and deliveries, and
truthfully I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But finally I fell into what kick-
started everything, — computers. They
were coming on with the internet, and I
stepped in to do upgrading for us to Win-
dows XP. That got me into the role of IT for the store. During that time we didn’t
have a website so I taught myself HTML and built our first website, and that was
from 2004 to 2011. Losing our marketing person kick-started the next portion for me, which was the marketing side of
things, sharing ideas on promotion and
jobs. We’re in an in-between time right
dad is still here in the store sharing what he knows from the last 42 years. There
are areas I like to focus on for what my dad would call the retail side, which is
Over the years I grew into the
spokesperson, appearing in commercials,
and for a few years I really felt things were changing on what we needed to do to position ourselves for the future. That’s
when I pushed to move forward in the
company, becoming general manager and now vice president. So to answer your
question, yes, I still get involved with all these things I used to do, plus trying to
it, but I will be “demoing” it very soon.
This new system uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, but it’s different
from Alexa in that you can talk to it like a
normal thing. “I want to turn on the lights
in the kitchen and watch Game of Thrones
Season 1,” versus how Alexa functions, having a launch party for it.
sounding high-resolution audio, vinyl or surround sound. A couple of years ago, Dolby Surround came out with a new
format called Atmos, which is the biggest jump in technology in 20 years, adding a
lights.” It will be here soon, and we will be
With all these changes in technology, what is your favorite new innovation? With the smart home, I love how it
height channel. I tend to get more
makes your life easier, can save you money,
there’s a whole sub-section of not only
will let you have time to do what you really
installation, but audio is still a legitimate
store is built on, as well, is educating the
excited about the smart home side. So
going after the smart home customer and
and it’s entertainment. If it’s set up right, it want to do. What I enjoy and what the
thing. And on the TV side, we will always
customer. We’ve always been a place where
good thing is all of it still goes together,
want you to buy from us, but if you don’t,
have TVs, but it’s less of a focus. The but it’s just a new focus.
So is this the direction you see — do you want to focus more on the smart home? Yes. It started three years ago after at-
nings of smart home, and I was in awe. I
doing commercials.
time. Things are still being worked out on
done with audio, whether it’s better
whole audience to show what can be
wanted to be included in the future. I
things, and the next thing I know I’m
demonstrating, because it’s ahead of its
where you must state, “Alexa, turn on the
tending the Consumer Electronics Show,
worked alongside my dad, doing little
have a second voice assistant from Ama-
audio. (My dad is an audio guy.) There’s a
so forth. At that time I had already developed the love for the company and
show Amazon Alexa, lighting, locks, AV
distribution and adjusting shades. We also
of retail shopping, it’s more installation
movies. After high school I tried a little
down, specifically for smart home. We can
ing it with our facilities guy.
biggest renters of laser discs in the country. I would go there after school and
So here in the store we’ve always had
this house, but a year ago we ripped it
you can come and learn. We absolutely that’s OK, and at least I know you’re
making the right decision. We’ve always
done seminars. A few years ago I started
Bjorn’s University. We took a break with it
to reclaim that seminar space, but it will be
coming back this year in a different format. I’ve missed it, because it’s something I
which we do every year. I saw the begin-
enjoy, and my dad does as well.
understood it because of my background
we’re doing, it’s opened up other groups to
day one with my dad when he would go
women. Even before the smart home,
in IT. We’ve always done installation from out and install speakers. Installation was never something we really focused on, even promotion wise, but with smart
home being profitable, it cemented in my mind that this is where it’s going. With things like Amazon Alexa and Google,
Since things have changed with what
us: designers, builders and architects and female interest in what we do had been
tracking up. We did the store originally to cater to that upswing with each room a
vignette so people can see their home.
I’m glad to see women getting interested. I’m looking forward to bringing in all
that is what is spurring this new interest
groups, getting back to the educational
of the population that knows about it, but
forefront of some of the newer
in the smart home. It’s still a small portion not everything until you show them.
side of things to bring us back to the technologies, now that we’re set.
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