Adray’s Suddenly Pulls the Plug
Adray’s appliance and electronics store, an institution in Orange County for 30 years, has unexpectedly closed its doors in the middle of the holiday shopping season.
It was not immediately clear why the store, which sold goods ranging from cameras and refrigerators to lawn mowers and cigars, was shutting down.
A telephone recording at the store says Adray’s is no longer in business. On Thursday, would-be shoppers who arrived at the Chapman Avenue site in Orange were greeted by a handwritten sign on the front door reading: “Closed for good.”
One source said the store conducted a liquidation sale in recent days, but another said Adray’s simply shut its doors. Indeed, some store shelves still appeared loaded with appliances.
“Something happened very abruptly, or if it was planned, it was not shared with anyone,” said Steven Weiss, an outside sales representative for Victor’s Lighting near Adray’s. “There was no, ‘going out of business next week, buy now and save.’ There was none of that going on.”
Owner Lou Adray could not be reached for comment. But retail experts said Thursday that it has become increasingly difficult for family-owned businesses to survive in a consumer electronics industry dominated by such big discount retailers as Circuit City Stores and the Good Guys Inc.
In addition to offering a wider array of products and lower prices, the larger retailers have more advertising, industry experts say.
Both a Good Guys and Circuit City are operating within a quarter mile of family-run Adray’s.
“It’s a case where the big are getting bigger and the strong are getting stronger,” retail analyst Mark Mandel said. “You have deep pockets and well-capitalized companies that are expanding.”
Adray’s was a frill-free operation that one former customer described as having “a New York attitude, take it or leave it.” For decades, locals say, it was the place to go for anyone looking for products such as cameras and appliances at discount prices.
“They were one of a kind for many years,” said Orange Mayor Joanne Coontz, who learned of the closure on Thursday. “They will be missed.”
Word that the Orange store had shut down stunned even some who had known the owner.
“Holy smoke,” said George Bednar, who manages Adray’s Appliance Photo & Sound, which is owned by Lou Adray’s niece, in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. “I’m shocked. In all honesty, I thought Lou was doing well.”
Adray’s closure comes less than two years after the business regained the right to use its name throughout Southern California after an 18-year battle that fractured the family. The turmoil involved another chain that had operated under the same name in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The Adray family in June 1997 settled its trademark-infringement lawsuit against Adry-Mart Inc., a Van Nuys company that at one point operated 10 Adray’s stores but later went out of business. Lou Adray said at the time that Adry-Mart and the confusion over the name had done more to hurt his business than the competition from major chains.
On Thursday, customers continued to stop by the Orange store, peering inside. Three delivery trucks were parked outside the building. A white Rolls-Royce Corniche occupied the slot next to the front door.
In a half-hour period after lunch, almost a dozen would-be customers drove into the empty parking lot, got out of their cars and walked expectantly to the front door, to be brought up short by the closed sign.
“I can’t believe it! When did this happen?” said Marybeth Beck, who had driven from Cypress to find a waffle iron and shop for gifts for family members. “This is frustrating. I thought that after they’d won that suit against the L.A. stores they were doing pretty good.”
Beck described herself as a longtime Adray’s customer and said she “relied on their prices. I never even shopped at other places for my appliances. I’ve bought them all here. Our televisions, the dishwasher, all of our cameras, everything. Now where will I go?”
Another customer, Orange resident Naomi Mason, said she’d been coming to Adray’s “for at least 20 years. I’d come about once a year to buy appliances or do Christmas shopping. I’m really surprised to see them closed.”
Lou Adray’s nearly two-decade battle with Adry-Mart had its roots in the family.
At one point in the 1960s, four Adray brothers owned separate Adray’s appliance and electronics stores, three of them in Southern California.
The first store was opened in 1950 in Dearborn, Mich., by Mike Adray. When he died, his daughter took over.
The other brothers moved to Los Angeles. Andy Adray opened a store in 1965 and Sam Adray set up his business in Van Nuys a year later. In 1967, Andy and a cousin opened the Orange store. When Lou moved here in 1968, he bought out Andy’s--and later the cousin’s shares--of the Orange store.
At some point, Sam and Andy closed their stores and, for a while, Lou had the name to himself. In 1976, Lou helped Andy’s son, Richard, open a store in Los Angeles.
Three years later, Richard decided to sell to a group of investors who created Adry-Mart. The final contract allowed the investors to use the Adray’s name in the northern half of Los Angeles County and points north.
As relations worsened, lawsuits ensued.
A jury ruled in Adry-Mart’s favor in 1992 and a judge issued an injunction designating each company’s market and restricting advertising mostly to those markets.
Lou Adray, who was given the Orange County market, appealed and won a reversal in 1994. Before the case could be retried, the parties reached the settlement.
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Librarian Sheila Kern contributed to this story.
