To Our Customers, Suppliers, Investors, and Prospectors of Pawn Shop Gold Everywhere, Greetings!

Welcome to the Summer Issue of Pawn Talk. In this issue we have chosen to feature our New Bedford, Massachusetts store, located on the once-and-future historic Acushnet Avenue, and which has been open since 1996. Indeed, our spotlight this issue is more broadly on the city of New Bedford, once the whaling capital of the world, once the wealthiest city with the highest per-capita income in the continental United States, opportunity-magnet for successive waves of people seeking a better life from Portugal, the Azores islands, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Africa, with its textile and seafood processing plants, which for now has seen better days, but which someday we hope will rise again, perhaps as a host to newer knowledge-based industries.

You will glean from the article “Acushnet Avenue Walkabout” that our little corner of New Bedford is “in transition,” with much ethnic and cultural displacement occurring right before our eyes. The older groups of Portuguese, Polish, French, and Haitian settlers are moving out to the suburbs, or moving to other towns altogether, and in their place are moving in new arrivals, primarily from Central and South America. This is a process which started as far back as the 1960’s, and is not unique to New Bedford. Acushnet Avenue looks a lot like Boston’s South End did in the 1970’s. We at Empire Loan are endeavoring to invest in the neighborhood over the long term. Indeed, as we see it, businesses like Empire Loan can serve as anchors in this type of environment, and our commitment to the community is strong, and will remain so.

There is no denying that this summer of 2009 is a tough one for many people. Unemployment nationally is at a 26-year high, gas prices are back on the rise, our young Administration has been making unprecedented bold moves to ameliorate and improve economic conditions for the populace, with the jury still quite a ways out on how effective and salutary these moves will be. For us, however, business remains strong, as more people are realizing the value and benefits of our services. We wish to put this strength back into the communities that are hosting us, and we know better than most that doing good is the best and most reliable way to do well.

We encourage you to take a second and third look at our stores, where you will find great deals and great value, which in these times mean more than ever to those among us who need to make every dollar count.

All the best for a happy and safe summer!

I cross to the other side of the street for the third time in two blocks, seeking to avoid a trio of louche looking hooded characters in baggy jeans, heads down and hands in pockets, advancing with what appears to be a curious combination of menace and aimlessness. Welcome to Acushnet Avenue, city of New Bedford, state of Massachusetts. Read the rest of this entry »

The Thursday, April 2nd edition of The Standard-Times featured Empire Loan’s New Bedford location. Read the full article here.

New England Cable News has a report on the increase that area pawn shops are seeing in business in which they talk with Michael Goldstein of Empire Loan. You can see the video and read a summary of the report here.

Welcome to the Empire Loan Spring newsletter. We’ve put together a few articles that should get you even more familiar with Empire and some of the great people who work here. Each edition, we’ll highlight one of our many valued employees. We’ll start this feature with Abby Levine. She’s been at Empire Loan in Boston since 1988. 21 years!! Abby’s an assistant manager who handles customer correspondence and many other day to day tasks. She’s well known as a problem solver and our customers know that she’ll be there to help when they need her.

Bob has put together some interesting items in Bob’s Pick and make sure to click on the Guitar talk button on the newsletter for the cool stuff happening in our Providence location.

It’s been a very busy winter here at Empire, as the gold fever continues to drive people to sell unwanted jewelry. We’ve seen growth in all 5 locations. Our website is currently getting ready to launch our online merchandise center to help augment this growth.

Finally, it looks like the economy may be turning a very small corner. Credit may begin to flow soon which should help stimulate some consumer spending and get this huge ball rolling in the right direction again. Well, here at Empire, in good economic times and bad, we’ve managed to maintain our market share and provide good service at a good price. We’ll be here if the Dow Jones goes to 20000 or if it sinks to 5000. Empire Loan will keep to the fundamentals of what has helped build our strong business. Our hope continues to Spring Eternal!

All the Best Wishes for a Great Spring!

Michael Goldstein

President, Empire Loan

In a recent report on local jewelry exchange shops, Susan Wornick of Channel Five’s Team 5 Investigates found that Empire Loan offers the best price for gold! See the video here.

Walk just a few doors down from Empire Loan’s Washington St. flagship jewelry and lending outlet, enter a discreet and unassuming brownstone doorway, and step into the world of Duggan Hill and City Lights, which for nearly 30 years has been providing professional-caliber dance (ballet, tap, hip-hop), theater, music, film editing, and fencing training to kids from the neighborhood and well beyond. It is no exaggeration to say that some serious international talent learned its first steps and got its first professional entrees right inside these modest doors. From the pop start Bobby Brown, Jordan, Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block, Tanille Pritchard of New York’s Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, to Racino Mugica, who is making waves as a bright young choreographer in Las Vegas. What they have in common has been the keen and disciplined nurturing of one Duggan Hill, former choreographer for the Hugh Hefner and Disney Corporations, dancer, choreographer, and teacher extraordinaire. Empire Loan shows how one local pawn shop, is innovative and community-orientated by making a significant annual contribution to the school.

But wait, there is more! Duggan is completing work on a state-of-the-art multi-track recording studio which he has been designing and building pretty much single-handed but with a significant financial assist from (among others) our philanthropist extraordinaire, Michael Goldstein of Empire Loan. A more shining example of local private profits being put back to work into and for the local community, one would be hard pressed to find. This gives an entirely new meaning to the idea of “pawnshop gold,” especially once Duggan’s recording studio will have produced its first hit record! Certainly Duggan feels that way, and after giving us a tour of the facilities, which include a large performance area complete with state, lighting, and props galore, he sat us down to give us an introduction to the artistic activities City Lights has been and is currently involved in.

City Lights provides professional dance training to over 100 kids a year, and boasts some very serious teaching talent, including Ashley Richardson, formerly with the legendary Ballanchine’s New York City Ballet. Duggan’s Dancers provide performing opportunities and puts on performances at Wellesley College, Boston University, and every other year Duggan takes 10 kids to Paris, France, where they team up with top French choreographers to create unique new works. Some of which are brought back for viewing by local audiences. And speaking of which, Duggan plans on presenting some of these Paris-originated works for his annual Christmas Show, which is coming in December. These performances are open to the public and all are heartily invited to attend.

December 23 will mark the Grand Opening of the new City lights recording studio, which Michael has been instrumental in helping to organize. Duggan would like to make a special nod to Boston Sand & Gravel, who donated the concrete foundation of the studio.