Crazier Eddie

It’s a hell of a time to get back in the business. P.C. Richard & Son, 47th Street Photo, and the clumsily named Nobody Beats the Wiz have proven what a tough buck discount electronics can be. And in the years since the turtlenecked Crazy Eddie pitchman first screamed his way into our consciousness, his once-strident tag lines have taken on the reassuring cadence of folk wisdom: Prices so low he’s practically giving it all away, and, of course, Crazy Eddie, his prices are insane. These days, the name (which had to be repurchased at auction by the founder’s cousins) is as likely to summon images of gross financial impropriety as it is to suggest a nutty deal on a boom box. But if entering a collapsed market with a tainted name seems like the business strategy of someone who’s not all there, well, you can’t say he didn’t warn you.

Crazier Eddie