Appliance king Jack Roberts retires

THE OWNER of a local chain, famous for his mantra of `I won't be undersold!!' and his pie-covered face on TV ads, has sold his stores.

Jack Roberts, whose chain of local appliance stores was built on goofy costumes and commercials in which he promised, loudly, "I won't be undersold!!" has done something completely out of character - he has retired, quietly.

Roberts, who is undergoing treatment for advanced prostate cancer, officially cut his business ties with the company Feb. 1, when Kaye and Jack Brundage opened the latest Jack Roberts Appliance store on Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline.

Although the area's three remaining stores will bear his name for the foreseeable future, Roberts' only connection will be through several coming commercials similar to the ones that made his name and face - usually covered with a cream pie - famous.

Consistent with Roberts' marketing genius, the people who now own his stores plan to exploit his departure, even over Roberts' objections.

"Now that the secret's out that he's retiring, we might as well take advantage of it and have a retirement sale," said brother-in-law Gordon Robinson, who bought the chain's Tacoma store from Roberts in 1995.

As part of the sale agreements, Roberts, 62, said he promised to continue producing his commercials at no charge to the new owners. And although he initially balked at the retirement theme, given a moment to consider the sales potential, he quickly changed his mind and said he'll do the commercial in March.

Roberts yesterday acknowledged he has inoperable prostate cancer, which he said he is treating with a combination of conventional and naturopathic medicine.

"The treatment's going great, but it's really up to the Lord," said Roberts, a member of Overlake Christian Church and a longtime minister to local prisoners. "If the Lord wants to heal me, I'll be healed. If not, I'll move on to heaven a little sooner."

Roberts was 19 and working at a factory in Waukesha, Wis., when his career in appliance sales began. On a lunch break he went downtown to buy a washing machine. The owner of the store offered him a job on the spot. Three years later he was selling appliances wholesale for a small manufacturer. The job often put him on the road, and he visited Seattle for the first time.

Eventually he settled here, taking a job as a sales manager for Westinghouse. His original intention was to climb the corporate ladder, but that got in the way of his afternoon basketball games. He found the schedule too stifling, but it was the company's dress code that ended the relationship. Six years after going to work there, he quit when the company demanded he shave his mustache.

Shortly after leaving Westinghouse, Roberts opened an appliance store in Lynnwood in 1973. It would be a decade before he produced his first television ad.

"All this new competition was coming in - Silos," he said. "I was lying in bed, meditating and praying, and the Lord said, `Go on TV. Be a pitch man.'

"I wasn't very good at first. I was scared. But there was an immediate change. Business picked up, and we started opening new stores."

By 1990, Roberts owned five stores from Everett to Tacoma and was making plans to expand to Olympia and the eastern half of the state. But the retail appliance business was growing and becoming more competitive. A variety of megastores came and went during the early '90s, and in 1995 Roberts began cutting back, closing stores in Everett and North Seattle and selling the Tacoma store to his brother-in-law.

The sell-off was completed last year when Roberts agreed to sell the Lynnwood and Renton stores to the Brundages.

"We had a good run, 26 years," Roberts said.

While Roberts is leaving the appliance business, he said it would be a mistake to refer to him as retired. He has a boy in high school and two elementary school-aged children. He is in the process of cleaning out his old Lynnwood store, which will become a motorcycle dealership. When that's done, he plans to write a funny book about the business of selling and says he will step up his jail ministry, perhaps expanding it to radio.

"You see, I gotta stick around," he said.

To increase his odds, Roberts has become something of a health nut, getting lots of moderate exercise and sticking to a diet made up almost entirely of veggies, fish, megadoses of vitamins and green tea. No alcohol, meat or sweets.

Well, maybe one last cream pie in the face when he tapes his retirement commercial next month.

"I've taken lots of them - I'll bet 500 pies," he says, referring to the concoctions his wife, Linda, throws in his face during most commercials. "I'm a pie drunk."

Robert T. Nelson's phone message number is 206-464-2996. His e-mail address is rnelson@seattletimes.com.