Short on cash? Can’t get a loan? Want to sell that stereo, television, or peg leg? There’s always the pawn shop. Stop by Jerry’s Pawn Shop on the corner of Prior and Decatur. Dave Adelman owns Jerry’s Pawn Shop at the corner of Prior and Decatur streets downtown.

Where are you from originally and how did you get into the pawn shop business?

Originally from New Haven, Conn. I moved here in the 1970’s. How I got into the Pawn business was I got married in 1975 to my present wife, and her father was in the pawn business. But I never thought about getting into the pawn business — I had never been in a pawn shop before. I was in between jobs, and we were offered jobs in other cities but we wanted to stay here. So he had an employee in the hospital, and he needed somebody in the store just to help him out. So he asked me to come down and help him in between my job search and the rest is history. I kinda just fell in love with it. That was 30 years ago. It will be thirty years in ’09.

What’s a typical day like for you?

It is never the same. The most satisfaction I get out of this industry is being able to help people. This industry has notoriously had a bad rap or bad reputation for whatever reason — back from the early days before people even got to the U.S. So I’ve been trying to correct that bad rap that we take or the bad reputation. We do a lot more good than bad for the community. We help people financially, those people that probably have nowhere else to go, to make ends meet from month to month.

What are your top sellers?

Jewelry, jewels, stereo equipment, DVDs, CDs, anything of value.

What are typical items people pawn?

Televisions, stereo equipment, same thing we sell.

What is the most unusual thing you’ve ever seen someone pawn?

I was waiting for that question. We’ve had two very unusual things. One was a peg leg. Another one was a glass eye. And when the individual got another glass eye we made a ring for him out of the old one.

How has the current state of the economy affected your business?

Well obviously people are in need of more money to survive, to get by month to month, so our loans have increased. I believe the gas shortage has probably entered into the fact that they need funds to get by. Other than that, I mean, I really don’t want to get into the state of the economy now and pawn broking, because I just don’t feel as though it would — it’s not a true representation of what is going on right now our country, in our industry. We feel it like everybody else and we may feel it in different ways. The fact that there are a lot more loans and people are not redeeming their goods as readily as they might normally — or they might not redeem them at all because our loans are collateralized, non-recourse loans. We use the collateral to secure the loan. If they don’t pay the loan back then we take possession of the collateral. We don’t go after them in the courts or anything. So our inventory got more people that may be leaving stuff but not picking them up. So I bet the drawers are getting a little, a little heavy. I imagine some stores might be having a cash flow [problem] at times because the redeems are not coming back as readily as they might normally be. So we feel it like everybody else. Most of our customers, a percentage of our customers – this is a highly repeat and repetitive business, people do the same thing month after month – so it’s not real different for them. We have seen a wider variety of clientele. A broader base of clientele all the way from white collar down to those who are unemployed.

Has the state of the economy changed what people buy or sell?

Our sales are not as prominent now as they might be. I would assume it’s gonna change close to the holiday season. This is an excellent opportunity for people to get good deals — in a pawn shop. If they are looking for a deal, pawn shops are the place to go nowadays.

How, in your opinion, has the current state of the economy has affected Atlanta residents?

I’m sure it’s affected everyone in a different way, just depends on what their economic makeup is. I think it’s affected everybody. Everybody gets affected all the way from the most prominent to the least prominent, or less prominent.

Do you have any other anecdotes from working in the pawn shop?

We had a guy come in one time that wanted to pawn his Timex watch. It wasn’t working so, you know, we wouldn’t take it. He got upset and took it off his arm and threw it down on the floor. He really threw it – it broke into a thousand different pieces and he blurted out – um, I’m trying to think of what the Timex slogan used to be — something like: “It takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’!” or something like that. And then he walked out. It was funny. But, on a serious note, the pawn industry is really an industry that responds well to the community and their needs. We often get – you haven’t asked about stolen property showing up in pawn shops – but that’s part of the bad rap I was talking about. But the national average of pawn shops getting stolen jewelry is less than one tenth of one percent. In Georgia we have to get legal ID, driver’s license or legal ID, plus a fingerprint.

So you’ve never seen any instances of stolen items?

Very little. Somebody would have to bring pretty stupid to bring it into a pawn shop knowing that it is going to go on report to the police; we take a report to the police everyday. It goes on the TCIC and up to the NCIC, which is the prime network. We don’t knowingly take stolen merchandise. Sometimes it happens but that’s why we report everything to the police on a daily basis. We have to comply with 13 federal laws, the U.S. Patriot Act, Truth and Lending, Bank Secrecy Act, IRS regulations, privacy provision, just to name a few. We are heavily regulated, both at state and federal level. A lot of times, we are criticized for the rates we charge but if you compare them to other fees that have charged people for let’s say a bounced check, or a late credit card fee, or a late utility fee, our fees are under that.

Final thoughts?

I don’t want to project it like, we are rolling in money. Everybody thinks we’re doing so well. We are not. We feel the pinch just like everyone else. We kind of feel it in different ways than other people. Some stores feel it more differently than other stores. As an industry, we’re helping a lot of people right now. Where else are they going to go to get money? The banks aren’t going to give them the money. Certainly, not the banks. Who else is going to give it to them? If a person has to lose their ring because they can’t pay their loan back, it is certainly a lot better than losing their home or losing their car. I don’t feel as bad taking somebody’s ring as I would if I were taking their house or their car or something like that. They can still survive.