When John Weiss, 58, and his father started Coast Electronics in 1978, they did so with one simple philosophy in mind—quality, familiar customer service.
A lot has changed since then, most notably the advent of personal computers, ubiquitous wireless internet, and cellphones, but Weiss said a comfortable niche still existed for locally owned, brick-and-mortar electronic stores.
“The biggest thing we offer is customer services,” Weiss told the Sun. “From a business standpoint, it’s one of those things you don’t get over the internet, and we recognize that. We are competing with the internet—and if we are going to compete solely on price, it’s gonna be tough—so what we bring is competitively priced technical services.”
Those services include electronic repair ranging from TVs to radios, cameras, and any range of equipment that plugs in or operates by battery.
“We fix everything,” Weiss said.
And he means everything.
“Anything electronic,” he added. “We fix [down] to a component level—whether it’s a flat-screen TV, turntable, or a receiver; we fix ’em all.”
Repairs vary in price—typically running anywhere from $25 to $100—and are performed by technicians with more than 150 years of combined experience, according to Weiss.
“The people who are working in our stores on average have over 20 years experience helping customers in electronics,” Weiss said. “I think what happens with the big stores is they don’t attract the people with experience. I mean, the average tenured employee at a box store is a lot less than 20 years and most of them have a lot less experience in the business, that’s just the reality of it.”
That breadth of knowledge and experience combined with longtime employees makes for an electronic repair shop that customers can trust, Weiss said.
That trust is something that’s hard earned on the Central Coast, he explained.
“Let me put it this way, this whole area has a lot of customers with two homes, and they come to us because they will see the same face twice in a row,” he said, “and that’s important to them because they have a relationship.”
Building those relationships over time, whether months or years, is key to Coast Electronics’ success, he said.
“We are catering to people who want customer service,” Weiss explained, “people who want competitive prices but still want some advice on what to buy. We have people who come in all the time—they’ve researched on the internet, they have an idea of what they want, but they still don’t know. They’ll come in and we’ll answer those questions.”
Weiss said his business is able to compete with larger corporations like Best Buy because of low overhead.
“Look at what we are dealing with,” he added, before gesturing around the small shop at 1336 Madonna Road in San Luis Obispo. The small, rectangular space is around 1,000 square feet and packed wall-to-wall with wires, speakers, and gadgets of all shapes and sizes.
“We’re definitely stuffed, and we’ve got more in the back to bring out,” Weiss said.
Coast Electronics has a generous return policy, although Weiss admitted he and his dozen or so employees try their best to limit that scenario by staying dedicated to excellent service.
“The incentive is to sell them the right item the first time,” he said, “because we don’t want them to come back unless they need something else.”
Now in its 39th year as a business, the electronics company has expanded to three stores: its headquarters and original location in Morro Bay, the San Luis Obispo space, and another store at 225 McMurray Road in Buellton, which is approaching its one year anniversary in October.
“It is exciting,” Weiss said of the Santa Barbara County shop, “anytime you can make anything a year, that’s a big deal.”
The biggest celebration however, will come next August, when Coast Electronics turns 40 years old.
Weiss admitted he hadn’t given much thought on how to mark the occasion, but he did hint that whatever the company chose to do was going to be memorable.
“I think we should do something spectacular,” he said.
Highlights:
• The Santa Maria Valley Humane Society was selected as one of 100 shelters in the United States to partner with Purina pet food as one of the company’s Shelter Champions. The program will provide Purina food to local homeless animals fed by the Humane Society, will send adopted animals home with a free bag of Purina pet food, and offer a 15 percent discount in the society’s Paws & Claws pet supply shop when they adopt a dog or cat. For more info, visit smvhs.org.
Staff Writer Spencer Cole wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, mail, or email at spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 7, 2017.