When I started @ CE in 1975, we had 3 stores. I was in the B'klyn store @ 1117 Kings Hwy. Receivers, Amps, Tuners (mostly Kenwood) were upstairs. Turntables (mostly Dual) were in one basement outside and Speakers (mostly AcoustiPhase) were in the other basement. So pulling a complete "system" was a pain in the ass. Mitchell was at the register and MC was the Manager. Steve Russo (Eddie's cousin) brought me in. I figured I'd be there a couple of months....I was with the Company for 14 years.I've got more stories than you could imagine. When Eddie opened the Bronx store (DNS) he shipped me out to run "Stock". I was there during the "Blackout" and what a night that was. The Looters didn't get a damn thing. Why?....Because we were crazier than they were (thanks Moe and Brodsky). I started the softball team there and then Brooklyn (ULS) and 6th Avenue (SND) followed suit. From there I moved to the Warehouse to run the operation with Dave Neiderbach (because it sucked....too many Qualudes (Lot 714)). Shout out to Roy Glorioso, Dom Filangeri, Josh Falstein and so many others who sacrificed their bodies and their time.
Then I went out to the stores to re-design the stockrooms and install racking overnight to double their storage space and monitor the "stockroom" operations.
When Eddie started opening stores at a fevered pitch I went out and measured the stockrooms and prepared for the arrival of the merchandise. The setup team was called "The E-Team" and we were awesome. Shoutout to everyone who worked so hard, partied so hard and got those stores opened on time under tremendous pressure (Hi Ray Navarrete, Steve Pasquariello...my good friends. Hell, I got served my divorce papers at the Flushing opening.
Well that's enough for now. Hope to hear from other "old friends" soon.
John "C"