Tom Peterson
Thomas Howard Peterson (February 23, 1930 – July 25, 2016) was an American retailer, pitchman, and television personality from Portland, Oregon.
Peterson opened his first store in 1964, which grew to a regional consumer electronics, home appliance, and furniture chain in the 1970s.
His memorable television commercials and unusual promotions made him a widely recognized personality in the Portland area by the 1980s, leading to several cameo appearances in the films of Gus Van Sant.
Peterson was born outside St. Paul, Minnesota, where he grew up on a farm,[1] the son of a federal government worker.
Peterson met his future wife Gloria, also from the St. Paul area, at a Lutheran church camp at Green Lake in northern Minnesota at the age of 14.
[1] Peterson spent ten years working at the Jolly Green Giant Co., rising to eastern regional manager in charge of 17 food processing plants in the United States and Canada.
However, the western regional manager was the son of the company's president, so in 1963 Peterson obtained a franchise from Muntz television, sold his home for $10,000 USD, which he put into the business,[4] and moved with Gloria to Portland on the advice of friends.
[1] In September 1989, Peterson outbid two challengers to acquire Stereo Super Stores, whose parent company had filed for bankruptcy the month before, paying $940,000 plus another $1,000,000 for inventory.
Peterson explained that the original stores were performing better than the newly acquired outlets, so he decided to combine them.
[9] At Gloria's suggestion, immediate subsequent television spots referred to the bankruptcy, spelling out the troubles and asking customers to please buy today.
A crisis manager took control of operations, leaving Peterson to work the sales floors[10] until the stores closed in March 1992.
Condon raised a portion of the new venture's seed money from the sale of Tom Peterson memorabilia, having bought hundreds of wristwatches and alarm clocks from the bankruptcy trustee, then reselling them at a profit.
[5] As of 2002, Peterson was working "part time" 44 hours per week, half of what he once had put in, and booking $4 million in sales per year.
[13] In the mid-2000s, the Petersons sold their last remaining property at the corner of Southeast 82nd and Foster and moved the store to a side street a block away, just off 82nd Avenue.
The new commercials parodied daytime soap operas, featuring a housewife named Monica whose domestic problems are solved by merchandise from Peterson's stores.
[13] In July 1986, Peterson offered a free flattop haircut to anyone who attended the opening of his third store at 82nd and Foster.
Peterson said of the promotion at the time: "If you can put your face in 5,000 homes in Portland, it certainly can't hurt.
and the couple's fiftieth wedding anniversary in September 2002, Peterson offered customers coffee mugs with photos of Tom and Gloria, fifty years ago and present day.
Peterson also appeared in a small role as a parade commentator in Mr. Holland's Opus, which was filmed in Portland.
[14] Peterson served as the best man at a wedding planned by the "Morning Zoo" of radio station KKRZ (Z-100) FM in 1989.
"[21] He also played bongo drums on Where's the Art?, a public-access television cable TV show with Stephanie Pierce, proprietor of the 24 Hour Church of Elvis.
The station sold 5,000 copies of the single, donating the proceeds to charity, and continued running the song into the 1990s.
