AN AUTO ACCESSORIES SHOP IN eAST l.a. HAS BUILT A REPUTATION WITH CELEBRITIES AND STREET CRUISERS ALIKE AS ONE OF THE BEST AROUND AT CUSTOMiZING CAR STEREOS
It’s tough to miss A & G; Custom Sound and Auto Accessories on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles. The purple building with bright yellow trim and two giant tires on the roof makes a big statement about what has steadily emerged as one of the major installers of custom stereo and auto accessories in Southern California. Among other things, A & G; specializes in huge wheels with fancy rims, DVD players, global positioning systems, tinted windows and low-riding suspension. Customers include boxer Oscar de la Hoya and rappers Coolio and Ice Cube. Popular morning rap deejay Big Boy went there to have his Suburban decked out with $30,000 worth of custom work, including five sound monitors inside. Commercial real estate broker Luis Valenzuela took his Lexus to A & G; to have it outfitted with security and navigation systems, and high-performance tires.
“It’s state-of-the-art technology in terms of workmanship, the features and equipment,” he said. “These are not just luxury items, they’re a convenience.” That kind of praise has helped A & G; grow rapidly. Revenues are expected to hit $3.8 million this year, up from $2.8 million last year and way up from 10 years ago, when the shop pulled in about $450,000. Despite A & G;’s healthy revenue growth, the business in general has become tougher, as several big outfits compete for business, said Alfred Delgado, A & G;’s 34-year-old majority owner. “The pie is smaller but we’ve been taking more of it,” said Delgado.
Also boosting A & G;’s fortunes is the fact that its average invoice has grown considerably since it opened in the late 1980s. Back then, each customer spent around $1,000. Now the average job exceeds $3,000. Helping to drive customer tabs upward is the exploding popularity of 20-inch wheels, which run up to $6,000 to buy and install. Delgado got into auto customizing while attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and working part-time at a car stereo shop. He had always been into customizing vehicles. Even as a kid, he and his older brother Gilbert (now a part-owner of A & G; who heads up the installation department) were souping-up mini-bikes and go-carts, which they entered in shows.
Setting up shop
After college, Delgado moved back to his parents’ house in Commerce and got a job at the L.A. Department of Water and Power. He also sold car stereos and speakers that he bought wholesale at weekend swap meets. Customers would often ask if he could install the items, which he and his brother did at home on weekends. The city frowned on such activity in a residential neighborhood, prompting Delgado to find a 1,600-square-foot commercial space on Whittier Boulevard, a couple of blocks from his current location.
A & G; opened its doors in 1987 after Delgado, then 22, quit his DWP job and scraped together $20,000 in start-up capital to cover rent, utilities and minimal inventory. Risky as it was, Delgado wanted to be his own boss.
He sent notices to his previous weekend customers to drum up business. But with no money for advertising, the first year was tough. Delgado ran the shop full-time, with one other worker who handled the front of the store while he did the installations. His brother would help in the evenings after he got off work. “It was hard,” Delgado said. “By the time we opened the doors, I had exhausted all my capital. It was important for the first few months to turn inventory to profit and keep going. I was real close to throwing in the towel a couple of times, but I kept pushing.”
The competition was stiff, with four other car stereo shops within a two-mile radius. But the quality of A & G;’s custom work made it stand out from the crowd. “We went beyond basic installation,” Delgado said. “We would focus not only on the components, but on the installation being creative, with custom amplifier racks and enclosures. Back then, shops would buy pre-made boxes and slap them in the car.” Delgado’s shop, however, took pains to mold and install the boxes so they looked like they were part of the interior and not just slapped in. “That really caught on,” he said.
Works of art
Along with drawing new customers by word-of-mouth, A & G; also took cars that it had customized to shows at local high schools, where the Delgado brothers could reach several thousand people at minimum cost.
An article in late 1988 in Low Rider magazine also gave A & G; a big boost. The magazine featured a customer’s Corvette, which had been outfitted with $12,000 worth of custom stereo work, including 24 speakers. “After the article, business started picking up momentum,” Delgado said. A & G; steadily grew through the 1990s. Delgado hired more people and doubled the store’s space by leasing the property next door. Meanwhile, three of the four nearby competitors went belly up.
“We were delivering something different. They were selling boxes. We took it a step further,” Delgado said. “We consider ourselves audio specialists. Nobody is a direct threat or competition.”
