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2024-11-09 00:30:06

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

J&R Electronics Inc. is the largest home entertainment/computer superstore completely based in New York City. This privately owned company includes J&R Computer World and J&R Music World. J&R's retail outlets are all located on one short street in downtown Manhattan.

The business was founded as an audio equipment store in 1971 by Joe Friedman, an electrical engineer, and his wife Rachelle, a chemistry student at Brooklyn's Polytechnic Institute of New York, who later described herself and her husband as "two newlyweds who really knew little about business." Founding the company with money they received as wedding gifts, they located it in a 500-square-foot storefront at 33 Park Row, on the northern edge of Manhattan's financial district and just to the south of City Hall Park. "I would set up experiments, come down to the store for two hours, stay there alone, then rush back, and finish my experiments," Rachelle Friedman reminisced in 1995. "My husband used to come down on his lunch hour. If we both weren't there, the store was closed."

The Friedmans soon learned that their audio customers also were seeking phonograph records. They rented a space in the basement of the building and began taking orders, quickly developing a reputation as a source for hard-to-find classical and jazz records. Whether selling audio equipment or records, it was not uncommon in J&R's early days for either husband or wife to hop in their car and drive to a distributor to pick up a single item for a single customer. They spent their first Christmas Eve in the business gift-wrapping items people had placed on hold or purchased with a small deposit.