This Shop Continues to Rock Black Friday

By Rich Truesdell

Marking its 38^th Black Friday sale, Outrageous Audio in Portland, Oregon continued to pack in customers with this year’s pre-opening line of over 200 people stretching around the building.

“We’ve been doing this event since 1986, the year my partner Rob Blank and I opened our shop,” said owner Blane Hartleb. “What started as a bunch of guys building custom speaker enclosures has grown to the biggest single-store mobile electronics operation in the Pacific Northwest. We like to say we’re not doing too badly for a bunch of enthusiasts that started building speaker boxes for the Suzuki Samurai.”

The first person at the shop for Black Friday queued up at midnight the night before. There was a wait of several hours to enter throughout the day as only one set of customers was permitted to enter per each of the six salespeople.

Door busters included $300 headrest monitors for $88, and Focal speakers that usually sell for $200/pair at $48. There were remote start systems for just $58. The first 300 people that purchased something got to choose either a 1200-watt monoblock amp, a 12-inch subwoofer, or a $300 set of components for free, said Hartleb.

“We stayed the night before repricing the store, and I arrived at 3 AM. Once we open, I greet all of the people in line. They love it because I am the guy they see on TV,” Hartleb said.

He advertises on all the traditional TV channels as well as cable. All of the staff arrives at 4:15 AM.

This year Crossover Marketing owned by Rob Sutton and Paul Pilat along with some of their staff were at the shop for the full day. “I have never had a rep firm step up like these guys have. They are my Kicker, Pioneer, Voxx, and Dynamat reps. They helped man the door and helped carry out products on every sale to the customers’ cars so my sales guys could stay focused. Also, Rob Sutton is a master entertainer at the front door while people are waiting. He kept the line excited and engaged,” said Hartleb.

Sutton described the day like this, “I’m at the door when the first person enters at 5 AM. They’ve got it down with the sales guys. It’s a well-oiled machine. We help get the customer’s needs while they are waiting and convey this to the sales staff. We can banter with the customers, many who are repeat customers. Blane has the right recipe to build his business. And it works. For us, it was a 17-hour day. I left my house before 4 AM and left the store at 7:40 PM on Friday. Blane has built a great team. And he does a Black Friday in May Sale that is very successful.”

Hartleb won’t give out exact sales numbers, but says he does a month’s worth of business in three days over Black Friday weekend.  He spent $15,000 in marketing the event, broadcast TV, cable TV, and streaming on multiple platforms like Amazon Prime, Hulu, Roku, Apple TV, and banner ads.  The shop posts every day on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. No print, no radio.

When asked about manufacturer support, Hartleb said, “The manufacturers that really helped us were Focal, Audio Control…and hands down the best company in the car audio industry Kicker. We are the Number One Kicker dealer in the world for a reason. This company cares.”

He adds, “I want to say one thing to all other stores in the United States. You must start carrying 15- and 18-inch subwoofers in your store and demo them. Most stores that I see do not show off what can really be done. Remember the 1980’s? The kids nowadays have never heard of two 15-inch subwoofers with good power. You demo that and it is game over.  This weekend we sold out of all of our Kicker SOLO X 15-inch Subwoofers and the Warhorse 3600-watt amplifiers. If you don’t have it in stock, you will never sell it.  It is time to get back to the 1980’s and 1990’s. Go big or go home.”