A combination of economic, technological and international forces are driving Burke Electronics to close shop at its Burke Centre location and take its business to the streets. On the weekend of Feb. 15, the staff will say goodbye to its last customer and switch to a mobile operation.
Vincent Burke stood behind the counter among the aging VCRs, televisions and stereos that people left through the years because instead of paying to get them fixed, it was cheaper to buy a new one. With cheaper electronics available — VCRs priced at $49.99 and DVD players priced at $53.99 at Best Buy — there's less incentive to get them repaired. Burke hears it all the time.
"'I can buy one for that.' If I had a nickel for every time I heard that," Burke said. "More people need someone to come out to their homes. The mathematics just isn't adding up anymore."
One thing that adds to the lower prices is the overseas market. A Sony VCR from the 1990s has a "Made In Japan" label on the bottom, but later models are made in Malaysia. Quality suffers when that happens, Burke said.
In the home, it's not just a television, but a home entertainment center. The television's hooked to VCRs and DVD players, then routed through the stereo, and getting more complicated with every new gadget. Video-conferencing in the business world is one aspect that they are seeing more and more of.
"More people need someone to come out to their houses. Technology is forcing us to go out," Burke said.
Burke will continue to operate the shop in Lake Ridge, though, run by his brother Michael.
Jan Sommers came into the Burke Centre shop with her VCR, toting granddaughters Tyler, 8, and Jordan, 6. She wasn't aware they did house calls or that they'd keep the shop in Lake Ridge open.
"I did not know that [house calls], but now I do," she said. "The service I had in the past, I'd go there."
Other tenants in the Burke Centre shopping center are going to miss them as well. Nina Buhl works in Five Star Hair and Nail a few doors down. When their lights go out in the manicure boards, Burke helps them out.
"They fix our light boxes all the time," she said.
"That's what people are going to miss. We used to hook people up," Burke said. "The folks in this shopping center are going to miss us. I'll miss all the people."
Burke's rent is going up as well, so it would cost him more and he'd have to charge more. Currently, Burke Electronics does about three to four house calls a day.
"I'm trying to get it up to eight to 10 a day," he said, with no extra charge on certain calls. "It's free with repair on 27-inch [TVs] and up."
BURKE ELECTRONICS, run by Vincent Burke in Burke, is just a coincidence. There is no connection to Silas Burke, the namesake of the community. Michael Burke, father, opened the store in Rolling Valley Mall in 1975. He got experience with electronics overseas as a former general manager of Panasonic's Germany division. He helped construct two German television stations.
Vincent Burke got his electronics training at Edison High School electronics program, which is now called "Edison Academy."
"I pretty much helped out since I was 14 or 15. I used to go to Edison," he said.
On the shelves in their Burke store, old VCRs and stereos collect dust. These antiques are twice the size of current models. Vincent Burke can't seem to throw them away. It's a nostalgia thing.
"I have a lower garage where I store some of this stuff," he said.