ABSTRACT
Eddie Antar should have been a rich entrepreneur. When “Crazy Eddie” opened his first retail electronics store in 1968, he entered the right business at the right time. The consumer electronics market grew exponentially during the next 20 years as new products such as microwave ovens, VCRs, CD players, and personal computers became must-have items in U.S. households. In the early 1970s, electronic appliances were sold primarily by department
stores or by small retailers acting as licensed dealers for one or two brands. Eddie Antar’s idea was to create an electronics “superstore” stacked to the ceiling with hundreds of products from all the major manufacturers. Eddie Antar’s stores offered far greater selection than other retailers. Crazy Eddie’s volume allowed him to negotiate discounts from manufacturers and underprice his competitors. After Crazy Eddie’s demise, Best Buy and Circuit City built multi-billion-dollar national retail chains using Antar’s business model. Such could have been Antar’s fate if he had been a more honest merchant and a more faithful husband.
