How did it all begin? Steve Chafitz talks about e-End^USA and how the consumer’s love for “anything electronic” fuses with the millions of tons of electronic waste ending up in the right place—reused and recycled.

Interviewer: Steve, Forbes magazine called you a marketing dynamo that “set up a business to bring American’s ballpoint pens with built-in calculators, the first computerized chess sets and dozens of other gadgets.” In the early 70’s electronics were not as we know them today. Back then, you were an engineer for Gillette. Tell us what the electronics world was like?

Steve: In the early 70’s there really wasn’t an electronics world at all. Most of the devices that people are familiar with today were mechanical. Typewriters, adding machines, even calculators were mechanical. When the integrated circuit was developed for consumer use, it changed the world—everything became smaller, lighter, and required less power.

I: You were quoted as saying “that large scale integration…shrank that 5 pound calculator to the size of a credit card, priced it for $6…and put it into the supermarket.”

S: But even back then, the first calculator was not pocket sized, was not credit card size, it was maybe the size of a book. It took years for the technology to make the chip small enough and we are seeing that today with computers.

I: How did you and your wife Arleen create a cutting edge electronics retailing empire with just $75.00?

S: I’ve always been a tinkerer and I had an idea for an invention and I needed to use some space in an office machine dealer’s store. I ended up running the store and selling used typewriters and adding machines and his business philosophy wasn’t anywhere close to the customer service thoughts I had. So back in 1971, my wife Arleen and I found ourselves buying old machines, fixing them up and advertising them in the paper. When we got a call, I drove to the customer and showed the equipment out of the trunk of my car. Later, I started traveling to NY to buy equipment and one day this man on Lafayette Street said, Stevie, I want to show you something. And he took out this little box that had display tubes on it that lit up when you pressed the buttons and it instantaneously divided 146 by 3 and you got your answer. Mechanical machines would literally take minutes to do that! I brought it back and started marketing them. I made a very small profit, sometimes just dollars, but I kept buying more products. The key was marketing and keeping up with the fast pace of electronics—I read everything I could.   "Recognize opportunity, creatively educate our clientele, provide the best service they can get and do it honestly, while always trying to exceed their expectations."

Steve and Arleen Chafitz, as appeared in the December 3, 1979 issue of Business Week.

I: By the 80’s you had built the Chafitz electronics empire, with a DC metro “Space Age Fantasies” store and a very successful mail order business that was written about in Business Week, Forbes, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Computer Merchandising and others. Your radio jingles were hummed on the streets of DC and you built an incredible following.

People lined up outside, came in limos, and called from overseas. It's hard to believe that early on, electronic board games were the wallflowers of the games industry. But by the 80’s your company had pioneered the most advanced and intelligent computer games available anywhere, at any price. Highlights of the June ’79 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago read: “Chafitz corners the market on artificial intelligence”. You actually had a stable of programming experts, tell me about that?

S: Just to rewind a bit, one evening when I was home having dinner, I got a call from Bobby Fischer. He was excited about our electronic chess game “Boris” and I realized that if he was interested in our electronic chess game that there was a major market out there. We increased our development of electronic games and yes, we hired the brightest and the best programmers in the country to develop programs for our games.

Customers line up outside of Chafitz's "Space Age Fantasies". As appeared in the September 1982 issue of Merchandising.

I: Steve, you staged some pretty exciting events using Boris your computerized chess game and Aristotle your Backgammon game.

S: Yes, our electronic games were the best on the market and our electronic Backgammon was the first ever to beat a world champion player. That was at the world championships in 1979 held in Monte Carlo. That was big news. And just like Bobbie Fisher was interested in our electronic chess, the world Backgammon champion Paul Magriel was excited about our Backgammon game and he joined our team to endorse and showcase our electronic games.

Paul Magriel, former Backgammon World Champion. Magriel endorsed Chafitz's electronic Backgammon.

I: When you started selling computers and consumer electronics you were chosen as an exclusive distributor by so many of the big manufacturers. Why did they trust Steve Chafitz?

S: Simply, when we said we were going to do something, we did it. We made sure that all our business dealings were done honestly. When we marketed their products it was in the most professional way possible. We always did the best job we could and we created relationships.

I: Some of the headlines from the 70’s and 80’s are: “From 1 Man Show to Multi-Million Dollar Retail and Mail Order Electronics Business”, “A Special Look at Steve Chafitz and his Personal Touch”, and “The Personal Touch Pays Off.”

S: Yes, very personal and professional, that’s how we built Chafitz, and my philosophy is still the same today. Recognize opportunity, creatively educate our clientele, provide the best service they can get and do it honestly, while always trying to exceed their expectations.

I: Yes, when I talked to people about Steve Chafitz, these same values and convictions kept popping up. The first was your ability to think ahead of the market and second, your concern and personal touch for your customers.

In the early 70’s you said that electronic devices would be created that were not in even in people's heads. Now you’ve looked ahead and started e-End^USA, why?

S: Arleen and I like to say we’ve come full circle. We obviously introduced a large variety of products which are commonplace today. Integrity, responsibility and our love for nature has just compelled us to do the right thing. When we saw how much electronic equipment was being discarded carelessly, it was shocking how it was hurting the environment and it was evident that the opportunity was there to be at the beginning of a new business wave. It gives us a chance to give back. Some of these products we helped create and we want to make sure that they don’t hurt the environment

I: The press carried legendary stories of fantastic customer service…fixing digital watches, serving customer’s coffee, escorting them, and wrapping packages. This was first class wooing of customers, which was way, way ahead of it’s time.

S: That’s how we stood out. The basic thing is you have to be responsive to the needs of the customer, you have to know a lot more than your clients about what you’re doing, and you have to be transparent. If they have a problem, you say, that’s not a problem; we’re here to fix it. My philosophy is to always give them service above and beyond what they get with others and they always know that if we tell them we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it.

Here’s an example. A phrase used today in retailing which I coined was “counselors.” At Chafitz we didn’t have sales people. We wanted to counsel them, educate them, find out what would solve their needs and they would make the decision. At the time we called our sales staff “calculator counselors”, since electronic calculators where our first major electronic product.

Steve Chafitz, as appeared in the March 28, 1983 issue of Forbes.

I: Steve, you began your career by educating people on new, interesting and unique electronic items, equipment people didn’t even understand. Many people, corporations, organizations, don’t have a concept of what to do or even if they should do anything with their end of life electronics. So once again, you’ve found yourself in a very specific spot in time.

S: Yes, I know that there is a need for recycling and for destroying data, even if there weren’t any legal regulations but most professionals don’t have any knowledge of what to do. There’s a difference between educating someone and trying to sell someone something. I like to think of myself as someone who can educate and solve problems.

When I explain what they need and the potential risks and problems if they don’t dispose of their electronic waste properly, they are able to make an educated decision. And I’m a business man, the last thing I want to do is to get myself in trouble and I know other professionals don’t either. Trouble comes when you don’t dispose of obsolete electronics properly.

Something as minor as getting data taken off a computer which seems so innocuous can put a company out of business. I have to explain that carefully, they can have other people come and cart their e-waste away but I’m confident that my background, track record, reputation and the systems we’ve put in place, should convince them that e-End^USA can do it better and safer than they or anyone else ever could.

I: Thanks Steve.