Akin's takes on the big guys: Moorhead firm stresses service, quality over high volume

By Jonathan Knutson
The Forum - 06/19/1999

Running a family business in the face of tough chain-store competition might faze some. But not Glenn T. Akin - an ex-Marine who stormed five Japanese-held islands in World War II. Akin, along with his wife, Elaine, and son, Mark, operates Akin's Electric at 320 Highway 75 N. in Moorhead. The 81-year-old business sells, services and repairs major appliances. Glenn Akin said the business targets customers who are willing to spend a little more to get high-quality products and good service. Chain stores that buy in bulk and offer low prices are tough competitors, he acknowledges. "But give me a few minutes with a customer and I can make a pretty good case why he should buy from us," he says.

Akin's father, Glenn E. Akin, started the business in 1918 after returning from military service in World War I. The business, then known as Akin's Auto Electric, rewound electric motors and sold and repaired tires and batteries. Later the business branched out into appliances. Glenn T. Akin joined his father in the business after returning from service in WW II. He took complete control of the store after his father's death in 1967. The store operated at several sites in downtown Moorhead until moving to its current location in 1972. The store was expanded three years later. Akin's Electric was one of the first businesses in Fargo-Moorhead to sell such appliances as radios, TVs and microwaves.

TV sets were first sold in this area in the early 1950s. Those early black-and-white models sold for $299 to $399 each - at least a month's wage for most would-be buyers. Akin remembers being contacted by a rural Moorhead family that had purchased a set from him. "They said it wasn't working. They couldn't get a picture. Well, it had worked just fine in the store. But I drove out to where they lived and took a look. I found it wasn't working because they didn't have electricity!" he says. Akin offered to take back the set since they apparently couldn't use it. But they told him they were moving to Texas and had electricity in their home there. He also remembers an intoxicated customer who mistook a front-loading washing machine for a TV set. "The guy came up to me and said, 'Sure got a big screen on that TV set.' I had to tell him it was a washing machine," Akin says.

Akin, 74, said most consumers once were interested mainly in quality. "Now, it's price. They don't pay so much attention to how well something was made or how long it will last. They just want to know how much it costs," he says. People generally have become less patriotic, too, he says. "I don't want to tar everyone with the same brush," he says. "But it just seems a lot of people aren't as proud of being Americans as they used to be." Akin enlisted in the Marines in 1943. He spent 31/2 years in the corps, three of them in the Pacific. He took part in five separate invasions of Japanese-held islands. He has plenty of stories about his experiences. Here are a few:

He and a few Marine buddies made Japanese flags out of parachutes. They'd sell the bogus flags, or trade them for food, to unsuspecting servicemen. "Never did it to a fellow Marine, though. We'd never do that to one of our own."

He was among the first U.S. soldiers to set foot in Japan after the Japanese surrendered. "I still remember how the (Japanese) people turned their backs on us when we got ashore." He was aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri when the peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed there.

The worst experience of Akin's life had nothing to do with the war. Son Glenn R. Akin, known as Skip, died of a heart attack 11 years ago. "That's the hardest thing I've ever gone through," Akin says. "You never get over it, but you learn to live with it." The loss of Skip, who was active in the family business, clouds the long-range future of Akin's Electric, Akin says. "But Mark is still here and involved and so are we," he says.

In the past 81 years Akin's Electric has seen its share of change: new locations, different products. But one thing remains constant. "The thing I got from my father was, offer the best products available and provide the best service you can," he says. "That's what we've always done here."