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D
uring 82 years on this
planet, Rhudy Phillips
managed to collect
many friends but also
a few detractors. In
fact, when the Army veteran-turned-
accountant decided to open his own
pawn shop at 2410 Murchison Road in
1962, several of those critics made it
known exactly what they thought.
"Everyone told him he was crazy,"
said Joe Brunais, manager of what
is now known as Rhudy's Jewelry
Showroom. "He borrowed $1,000 and
went into the pawn shop business in
a small portion of a building that, at
that time, was a school, (and) in what
at the time was considered the worst
location you could get. He did it part-
time for the beginning and aer a few
years, in the late '60s, he decided to go
full-time."
Brunais went to work for Phillips
in the mid-1970s, but when the shop
first opened it wasn't like any business
Brunais had ever worked for. He has
stuck around for 42 years as a result.
A unique policy helped Rhudy's
gain favor in this military town in
those early years. Unlike other pawn
shops that cashed soldiers' checks for a
fee, Phillips decided against charging
soldiers for the service and instead
required only that they buy an item at
the pawn shop valued at $1 or more.
e move boosted business.
"We sold a lot of music back then
and we sold a lot of electronics back
then but the check cashing was the
beginning, and it wasn't until 1979 that
gold was deregulated, and business
went way up," Brunais said. "And
that's when we branched out into the
jewelry."
In 1979, Phillips purchased $10,000
in jewelry chains, which he would sell
at his shop from a cigar box behind the
counter.
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