Electric shaver guys survived long enough to thrive

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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star

Some facial hair reportedly has the tensile strength of steel wire. That’s tough. Making a living repairing electric shavers is even tougher.

Behind the counter of Electric Shaver Service, Carroll and Gary Burns can tell you why.

For one thing, box retailers sell cheap shavers made in China, the father and son say. Why repair something that costs less to replace?

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Carroll Burns solders a connection between a shaver motor and pc board. (Robert Becker)

Carroll Burns solders a connection between a shaver motor and pc board. (Robert Becker)

What about guys who own $200 shavers? Surely they’ll fix such an investment.

Problem is, a high-dollar shaver runs better than a Tommie Frazier. Back in the early 1970s, Remingtons, Schicks, Ronsons and Sunbeams malfunctioned with a regularity that allowed a shaver repairman to pay his mortgage, clothe his kids and even take in a Cornhusker game or two.

“They don’t break down like they used to,” says Carroll Burns, 75, the father who learned the trade and inherited the business from his father, Howard Burns.

Don’t even get them started on the throw-away mentality of today’s consumer. Suffice to say, modern times have been unkind to a shaver repair business that started in 1939.

Except a defining phenomenon of modern times has been very, very good to the them.

In 1995, Gary Burns bought a Web site for Electric Shaver Service. Boxes containing broken shavers trickled in at first, but deliveries picked up steadily.

Now, the site generates 80 percent of their business. Each week, dozens of packages from across the country arrive at their 11th Street storefront. Because of their extensive inventory, they even get international orders for parts.

“We wouldn’t be open if we didn’t have the Internet,” says Gary, 48.

Seems the Internet arrived just in time for Electric Shaver Service.

Just in the nick of time.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.