Several readers have noted that TV Warehouse has spruced up their space on Packard Road. The fresh coat of paint went up over Memorial Day weekend and has alleviated the “they’re a front for something” vibe I heard from a couple of area residents.
TVW originally opened a few years ago on South Industrial, right next door to the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop, in a large building of many small storefronts and office spaces. You could be forgiven for thinking they were the TV department of the PTO shop. Their sets aren’t donated, though, they buy returned sets in bulk from big box retailers, test them, and sell the good ones.
The original location sold only sets and HDMI cables (cables were cheaper than big box stores, but still not as cheap as, like, Monoprice). They did not have complementary items like game consoles or bluray players, though I’ve heard their sister stores do. This new location apparently also offers open-box appliances.
Out television is a 40″ Samsung I bought six years ago. We were hooked on “LOST” from the very beginning, and I pledged we would watch the ending in high definition. (I thought the ending was fine, but let’s debate this over a beer somewhere if you disagree.) I sweated the details and comparison shopped for weeks, and finally picked up our set from Sears at Briarwood Mall, for about $800 after tax (which was a pretty good deal for a name-brand set in 2011).
Our set still works almost perfectly – I correctly decided that set top boxes would supplant “apps” shipped in the TV’s firmware and that they weren’t worth the money. I’m still trying to stave off the notorious Samsung logic board problem by occasionally taking it apart and reseating connectors, but at some point this won’t be fixable, and at least I know a much larger and clearer screen will be a fraction of the price when I finally give up on this one.
This space used to be an auto parts store, part of Carquest, one of those association chains where the local stores have their own identity. I think this store had a machine shop and could fulfill other special orders. Carquest was acquired by a conventional chain of auto parts stores who already had a location around the corner on Carpenter Road, so this store was declared redundant and closed.
It’s getting difficult to find locally owned aftermarket parts. I think S-G on Liberty might be the last one. Not like I buy car parts all that much (maybe I’m part of the problem).