Thank you for sharing this. This is the first coherent post since the story broke that sheds light on what happened.
I do have some questions if you don’t mind. I live in CH and have passed by Sterling almost every day for the last 20 years. I remember when they were selling a lot of actual electronics like cameras, video cameras, cell phones, watches etc and they sold many appliances to the CH community as well.
I would say that for the last ten years or so, with the exception of Tishrei and Erev Pesach, the store never looked busy to me. In fact, the store was sub-leasing space to an Esrogim dealer during the busiest season of the year. (Did the owners of Sterling have ownership in that esrogim business?) Why would a profitable business need to lease their space for extra income?
Now, at any given time the store (at least appears to) have on hand quite a bit of inventory. I also assume that what is on the shelves is only a small fraction of the inventory with the rest being kept in the basement or in a warehouse. Even on the retail side of the business, were they making enough profit to offset the cost of this inventory? For every Shabbos urn or microwave they sold, didn’t they have 100 sitting in a warehouse?
I also noticed that they were heavily peddling prepaid sim cards, which is not something you normally see a thriving business doing. Prepaid sim cards are typically your corner bodega side-business. For the last five years or so, the store looked like a giant mess. The store itself had like five aisles. One of which was basically just picture frames. Other aisles had overpriced ancient cordless phones, alarm clocks, old cables and other garbage that nobody buys anymore. They seemed to slowly transition into housewares, but it still looked like a giant tornado had swept through the store whenever I did happen to set foot in there.
I never understood how a business like that can be profitable. I always assumed that the store was just a front for a profitable online business. My point is not to C”V speak ill of the store or the owners. I just want to understand how a business like this operates, and why anyone on the outside would believe the owners to be worthy of a large investment.
Ok I will answer what I know:
The main seasons were Kinnus HaShluchim, Kinnus HaShluchos, and Pesach. They carried stuff with foreign voltage for that reason. Esrogim was finished by the time I got there.
There was no warehouse for the store, just the basement and a garage. I don't think they were overstocked, maybe just a disorganized look.
The SIM cards were a good product, as CH attracts a lot of foreigners. An Israeli or Frenchie who comes for Tishrei to 770 is getting one from Sterling, not a bodega.
It wasn't a huge operation, and the owners were real small business shopkeepers. It wasn't a "front", it was just were it started from. In my time, there was no investor for the store itself.
I hope this meets
@Password criteria.