Charles Winokoor 

 

NOTE: This is subscriber-only content, reprinted with permission to Pawnbroker Network. 

 

 

FALL RIVER — Daniel Jaynes says contrary to what some people might assume, pawnbrokers haven’t been making a killing as result of the nearly year-long pandemic.

“That’s what people might think, but we’ve seen considerably less (foot) traffic,” said Jaynes, who runs Pawtucket Pawn Brokers Too at 302 South Main St.

“People think business must be booming, but I talk to pawnbrokers around the country, and everybody is down,” he added.

Andrew Jaynes, Daniel’s father, opened Pawtucket Pawn Brokers Too in 1993 with his late brother Howie in what once had been a jewelry store.

New England Pawnbrokers at 407 South Main St. since 2007 has been owned and operated by Andrew’s brother-in-law, Jack Frank.

“It’s a friendly competition,” Frank said. “We help each other when we can and see each other at holidays. We try to behave ourselves.”

Fewer loans and a layoff

Frank says he’s been forced to tighten his belt in terms of staffing.

Before a COVID-19 state of emergency was declared in March 2020 he employed two full-time and two part-time workers. He eventually reduced store hours and in early summer laid off a full-time employee.

“I want to bring him back,” Frank said, although he can’t predict when that might happen.

He says short-term, secured loans using a customer’s personal property as collateral accounts for 70 percent of his revenue; the other 30 percent comes from sales of items that cash-strapped customers have sold to the shop.

Frank said the U.S. government’s 2020 stimulus package — which provided a lump sum of $1,200 to individuals earning up to $75,000 a year and an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits from March through July — cut into his loan business.

“Everybody was picking up their loans at that point, which was not good for me,” he said. “They were picking up but not coming back.”