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Standard of Beaverdale buys Beckman's [The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa]
[November 09, 2014]

Standard of Beaverdale buys Beckman's [The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa]


(Hawk Eye, The (Burlington, IA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 09--Beckman TV & Appliance has set high standards in quality and service for 51 years. Now, those standards will be carried on by Standard of Beaverdale as Ron and Joanne Beckman have sold their Burlington business to the Ace Hardware store as of Nov. 1.



"We never ever wanted to just go out of business, because people rely on our service," Joanne said.

The Beckmans wanted to sell their business to somebody local and the opportunity presented itself a few months ago. Standard of Beaverdale ran a large advertisement in The Hawk Eye's Sunday edition touting kitchen cabinets.


"It's too bad they don't have appliances," Ron thought at the time. "That was on Sunday. I stopped out there on Monday." The Beckmans were familiar with Ken Schwenker, owner of Standard of Beaverdale, and respected the way the lumber/hardware store did business.

"He said, 'I'm interested,' " Ron said of Ken's response at that initial meeting.

"It is quite upsetting that Tom's Market and Billups Tire closed, two long-standing businesses that couldn't find anybody to buy them," Schwenker said, and he didn't necessarily want to see that happen with Beckman TV & Appliance. "Beckman's was a very good fit." Schwenker said Standard of Beaverdale tried selling appliances years ago, but didn't do a proper job of marketing them.

"We have been expanding our kitchen department," Schwenker said, which made him interested in buying Beckman TV & Appliance.

"The ultimate plan is we are going to go through a major remodel at Standard," Schwenker said of the immediate future.

The plans include a remodel of the interior to better utilize available space. The second floor will be rearranged and more kitchen displays set up, while an elevator will be installed for easier access.

Eventually, Schwenker wants to move the entire Beckman store to Standard of Beaverdale at 11194 Twin Ponds Drive.

That will mark the second move for the television and appliance store, which was founded on Main Street in Danville on March 22, 1963.

Ron graduated from Valparaiso Technical Institute in Valparaiso, Ind., in 1958. He put his education in electronics to work for several southeast Iowa companies, including the U.S. Gypsum plant near Sperry.

Ron decided he wanted to start his own business and had been looking at locations in Mediapolis and elsewhere. Joanne's mother convinced Ron to set up shop in Danville, and he did originally under the name Beckman Electronics.

His original inventory included Winegard antennas, small appliances such as radios, and six television sets -- two black and white sets, three black and white console TVs and one color TV. Zenith and RCA were the store's television models at the time.

In looking back at old call books, Ron discovered he charged $4 for a service call back then.

"We did it honest and fair," Ron said of his store.

The RCA representative convinced Ron to sell air conditioners in the summer of 1964, and Beckman Electronics stocked six right off the bat. That same year, the store started carrying refrigerators. The store sold two refrigerators that year, one to Joanne's sister and the other one to her parents.

In the Beckmans' first year of business, the store did between $22,000 and $25,000 worth of business.

"I knew I could make it," Ron said.

Joanne said the Danville store did good business with televisions, and the color models became a hot item.

In 1983, the Beckmans opened a second store in Burlington at the current 2621 Mount Pleasant St. location. For two years, the Beckmans operated both stores.

A daughter, Joan McCulley, started work at the Danville store during her Danville High School days. McCulley has worked at Beckman's ever since, and has done most of the sales and ordering for the Burlington store.

McCulley and four other employees will keep working for Beckman's under Standard of Beaverdale's ownership. Ron and Joanne have agreed to stay on for awhile to help smooth the transition. Schwenker already has hired one employee and plans to hire another for the store.

"They are going to do a good job," Ron said of Standard of Beaverdale's continued plans for the TV and appliance business.

___ (c)2014 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) Visit The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) at www.thehawkeye.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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