Iconic Midwest retailer, Car-Fi, Springfield, MO has been sold to the owner of a competing 5-store chain, Creative Audio, Ozark, MO, also a leader in the Midwest car audio market.
Car-Fi owner of 35 years, Rick Snelson is retiring after 50 years in the industry. Those who “grew up” in the industry with him say he helped put car audio on the map in the Midwest and was a legendary marketer that helped establish how the industry promotes.
Industry members including Car-Fi store manager Tim Bumgarner said the two Missouri Car-Fi locations will retain their name and personnel. For now, the plan is business as usual, he said.
Don Fleury, owner of Creative Audio, did not respond to our inquiries. Fleury is also considered a leader and first-rate promoter and businessman by his peers.
The outpouring of praise for Snelson upon word of his retirement and selling of the store is almost unprecedented. Two of those who knew him said, using nearly identical terms, that if there were a car audio hall of fame, he should be one of the first inductees. One said there should be a statue of Snelson in front of CES’s Las Vegas Convention Center location.
Snelson helped further hundreds of careers in the industry, one of whom was Ron Freeman, former President and CEO of AAMP of America (now AAMP Global) and current President and CEO of ISS.
Freeman was one of Car-Fi’s initial employees. “In the early days, there was no real footprint for a 12 volt store… in those days it was mostly home audio stores who had a little display of a couple of car audio [products].” Car-Fi was one of the first, “beautiful,” all-car-audio shops.
In terms of promoting, Snelson would literally go up on the store roof via a scissors lift for days during a sale and refuse to come down until the store reached a certain sales goal. TV news and radio station crews would come by, and drivers would honk as they passed. This became “the manager on a roof sale.”
He launched or embellished the idea of working on a car over the course of many months and then holding a huge combination sale, sound off contest, and car show and giving away the car, often filled with Rockford Fosgate equipment. Snelson was one of the first to install car audio in Jaguars, Rolls Royces, and as Springfield was a huge town for limo builders, limousines as well. “He was one of the only stores that had both Alpine and Kenwood in one store at the time,” said Freeman.
Elettromedia VP Rob Wempe said, “Rick Snelson is probably the most innovative advertiser and marketing of car audio that I’ve ever seen. When I was growing up in this industry everyone in the Midwest had a Car-Fi tee shirt. My installers, in Kansas City, 300 miles away had Car-Fi tee shirts that they wore to work. He helped put car audio on the map in the Midwest.”
Manufacturer’s rep Brett Phelps of Team Progressive said, “He impacted the entire electronics industry….tent sales, garage sales and private letter sales. All of those things, if he didn’t start them, he certainly perfected them. In a town of 150,000 people his tent sale did $160,000 in car stereo at decent margins.”
Snelson is a founding member of the Mobile Electronics Specialists of America (MESA) buying/marketing group.
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What an awesome story and achievement! Congrats to both parties on a successful transaction! And huge congratulations to Rick on a successful exit!!