Milwaukee Talks: John Flanner

Home entertainment has changed a lot in the past 10-20 years.  But, it’s changed enormously since Joseph Flanner, a successful New Orleans music retailer, moved to Milwaukee in 1891 to open his own store.

Today, John Flanner, Joseph’s greatgrandson, owns and operates Flanner’s Home Entertainment in Brookfield. Over the years, Flanner’s has had to alter its product mix and displays to meet the changing needs Milwaukee’s home entertainment consumers. 

Flanner sat down with OMC’s Jeff Sherman recently to talk about his family, his business, consumer electronics, a possible Downtown location and more.  It’s all in this latest edition of “Milwaukee Talks.” 

OMC: Please give us the brief  “John Flanner story.” 

John Flanner: I grew up in the western side of Milwaukee in Wauwatosa and Elm Grove.  So, I was born in raised in the Milwaukee area because of the family business being here. I’m actually the fourth generation of Flanner to be involved with the company.  So, we have roots here.  Went to Brookfield East and then off to the University of Wisconsin, studied marketing there.

In the ‘70s (1975), I had an opportunity to come back and get involved in the family business.  I wasn’t exactly sure it was what I wanted to do, but thought I would try for a year and here we are 31 years later I guess. So, obviously it worked and I was interested in it.  I found the industry really interesting and enjoyable. 

OMC : Was the first store Downtown?

JF: The very first store was Downtown, yes.  My great-grandfather started the business in 1891.  He worked for a music store, a retail music store, in New Orleans and he and his wife used to take the train up from New Orleans to the Waukesha area. 

There were a lot of large hotels out there then.  It was famous for its waters and it was an opportunity to get away from the heat of New Orleans summers.  And, they liked it a lot and found Milwaukee interesting; had some German background in his life.  So, they decided to open a store here and did in 1891. It was on what was then called Grand Avenue, and now is Wisconsin Avenue. 

So, I like to say we were always in the home entertainment business because in 1891 if you wanted home entertainment you had to kind of supply it yourself or hire someone. So, they sold musical instruments and pianos and he was a publisher of sheet music -- relatively small-time publisher of sheet music. 

Eventually, they moved the store from Grand Avenue to Broadway just north of Wisconsin Avenue and we were there -- well, then I guess just to continue the story -- around 1915 he merged his business with another music retailer Downtown called Eric Hafsoos.  He had a piano business and was actually I think on the same street.  Broadway used to be called Music Row.  I guess because of a lot of music retailers back then.  There were, at that time, a lot of people playing instruments and things, as I said, because that was a major form of home entertainment.  They merged together, created Flanner and Hafsoos and that was the company’s name until 1994.

In 1960 my dad opened a second store in what was then the new Mayfair Mall; and they quickly found that was the future of retailing at that point in time. A lot of people were not shopping in the downtown areas in the 1960s. The store in Mayfair became the primary store and they eventually let go of the Downtown store (in 1963).

OMC: When did you move to Brookfield?

JF: We had a store in Mayfair until 1994 when we moved out to Brookfield because we needed more space to accommodate what was then the new world of home theater technology.

In 1994 we changed the name to Flanner’s Audio and Video. A little over a year ago we moved to this new larger store because, once again, it seemed the industry and the market we were in had evolved quite a bit.  We were seeing the convergence of computer in audio/video technology and felt the need to re-merchandise and show what we do and the products we carry in a different light.  And so, we moved over to this new space that we’re in now. And, at that point, we decided it might be appropriate to further evolve our name to Flanner’s Home Entertainment. 

OMC: Almost back to your roots?

JF: Yeah.  It’s kind of a history.  But, as I said, we’ve always been in home entertainment.

We have musical instruments back then, phonographs; wind up phonographs, and then electric radios, and consoles, and eventually component audio and video, and now the world that we’re in today.

OMC: What have been the biggest three changes in the last five years?

JF: Well, one certainly has to be the explosion of new product ideas based on the fact that we’re in a digital world today.  Like I said, there’s just an immense amount of creative work going on in laboratories around the world because so many -- there’s so many ways you can do things in terms of transporting and showcasing audio and video technology.

Probably the biggest one in the last several years has been the price of digital television becoming more affordable; flat-screen digital television, and high-definition television really coming of age and becoming a mainstream product.

Especially in the last year, year and a half.  You just kind of see that we hit the tipping point and that’s really driving the industry right now is video technology.  That’s what’s bringing people out to shop the most.  And, I guess just from a retailing standpoint, another big change that we’ve seen is, with all this new technology which can be intimidating to people to understand and incorporate into their home and their lifestyle, is the need for us to provide more services.

We’ve always been a place that’s known to give good service and support the products that we sell.  That just seems to be an ever growing, ever more important part of what we’re doing.  And, a very high percentage of what we sell today we get involved with in the home in some fashion.  Either helping get it there and then wiring it and setting it up, programming it, so hoping people integrate it into their home.

OMC: With a lot of low cost leaders out there and so many more choices to buy electronics, how do you compete?

JF: Every company has to find its niche, and find some way of approaching the business they’re in, and do it better than any of their local competitors. That’s been the thing that we’ve held onto I think most intently over the years. First of all, we want to have staff that’s trained and knowledgeable and can help people.  And secondly, we want to provide whatever level of service they need in order to make it easy for them to buy and use the products that we carry.

OMC: I’m one of those consumers that haven’t upgraded my TV mainly because the information out there is so overwhelming. What are some easy steps?

JF: Well, there’s of course a lot of information on the Internet, but it requires time and effort to sit through it all and you’re never quite sure what you can trust.  One easy step that we’ve provided for people here at Flanner’s are our technology seminar series.  We probably have about a dozen seminars every month.  And, the most popular of which is one on how to buy a TV today, what you need to know.  And in that, we explain the different technologies and what advantages and disadvantages they each have and just lay out the information.  It’s a completely non-threatening, non-intimidating, no expectations, free seminar.  And, anyone’s invited. 

OMC: Do you have any favorite television shows that you DVR and anything that you watch on a regular basis that you really like?

JF: Well, I’m a big fan of TiVo and DVR.  It ..

OMC: Kind of changes your life doesn’t it?

JF: It absolutely has changed my life.  For the better, you’re right.  There are shows I watch now that I wouldn’t watch if I didn’t have it.  It’s a really convenient way to watch them.  And, I can watch them more quickly and sort of work my way through a real time show with all the commercials and breaks which may or may not fit into your schedule. 

I enjoy watching “The Office.”  That’s a big favorite.  And, I TiVo. I like the news so I’ll record the BBC news broadcast and try and catch that in the evening.  And, I can kind of get through it.  If there’s something I’m not interested in, zip through that part; skip over it.  I like to look for stand up comedy shows on Comedy Central and things like that too.  Plus, it gives you something to do when you’re on the treadmill and it makes the time go.

OMC: Do you have an iPod?

JF: I have an iPod.  Another technology that I found changed my life.  It’s such a tremendous tool to reconnect you with your music collection.  Like a lot of people … you’re busy and just taking the time to sort through that stack of CDs that starts at the floor and, you know, goes up about five feet, and they’re here, and they’re in that room, and they’re in that drawer, and all that. 

So, I’ve slowly got the majority of my favorite music collection, about 3,600 songs or something like that, on my iPod and I can take it in my car.  I love traveling with it on an airplane; and just put that thing on shuffle mode and, ”Oh yeah!  That.  I haven’t heard that in years, and a great song,” and it’s so easy to sort through it and I can carry the whole darn thing in my shirt pocket, you know.  So, it’s terrific.  I love it and I use it on a regular basis.

OMC: What’s your definition of success?

JF: I think on a personal level the definition of success is finding fulfillment and enjoyment in what you do.  So, frankly, I think that applies a lot to what’s necessary for business success.  Of course, growing your business and making some profit is essential in order for business to continue on into the future.  So, that’s important to us.  But, we went through an exercise recently where we sat down and wrote down things that are important to us and it (profit) really became an add-on at the end.  It’s like, do you think maybe we should include that?  Yeah, I guess.

So, success in a business is I think getting the group to work together towards one goal and focus as one team although there’s multiple teams within the team or divisions.  And, helping people. We’re a very service oriented culture here and we feel like that’s what we get enjoyment from doing and what we do.  What distinguishes us best from a lot of our competitors is how willing we are to go the extra mile, or take the extra steps, to make sure somebody’s really content, and happy, and enjoying the purchase they made.  So, we know that, if we do our job well, that the things that we offer people can really enhance their lives.  And, there’s a lot of terrific stuff.  Yeah, you can spend way too much watching TV. I don’t spend a lot of my time watching TV but  what I do watch I really enjoy.  And, it does make my day better.

OMC: Do you think for those reasons that’s why you guys have been able to compete with the Best Buys and the Wal-Marts of the world? 

JF: Absolutely.  Yeah.  All of our salespeople -- this is a career for them it’s not just a job.  It’s a point in their life.  I can’t even tell you how many of our team have been in this business 5, 10, 20, 25 years even.  So, they have a lot of passion for music.  They enjoy music.  They enjoy movies.  They talk about them all the time.  They read the magazines.  They do it in their free time.  So, that passion provides a lot of energy and a lot of the impetus for us to, you know, weather the changes and the challenges.

OMC: Please tell us a little bit about the recent consumer electronics show and kind of what’s cool now and kind of what’s coming up and what you’re really excited about.  Were you at the show?

JF: Well, probably the one thing you take away from the consumer electronics show is the size and the energy surrounding it and how much it’s grown in the last 10 years or so. 

It’s really, as I said a convergence between two industries; the computer industry and the home entertainment/consumer electronics industry.  The big thing this year was a lot of talk about new digital TV technology.  Larger panels and the highest possible video quality and definition, 1080P’s a big thing. 

So, there’s kind of a race among the manufactures to have the biggest possible 1080P panel, 100 inches, 100 plus inches we were seeing this year.  They’re extraordinary.  The pictures are incredible. 

The other one is the bringing together the computer content, both video and audio content that people have on a hard drive computer now, and enabling that to be enjoyed over your home entertainment system.  So, those are two separate technologies in a lot of people’s home but they’re slowly … merging together and talking together.

The other day for some reason I didn’t catch “The Office” and somehow it got erased from the TiVo.  We went and watched it on the computer.  And, I have a lot of music on my computer that I transfer to my iPod.  I’ll also be able to just listen to all that music from the computer onto my stereo system.  Soon,  we won’t have to stream that stuff from the computer to the TV.  The computer’s going to be in the same room with the TV.  That’s the next big thing from companies like Apple is to move the computer into the living room, family room, from the den or the home office where it’s at now. 

OMC: In terms of Apple, do you guys service Apple products or do you just an authorized retailer?

JF: We’re an authorized reseller for the Apple iPod products.  It took a lot of work for a small, independent retailer in Milwaukee to get recognized by Apple.  But, we finally got some of their higher-level people to come out and see our store and what we’re doing here.  They were duly impressed and understand that where they’re going in kind of where we’re going and, you know, trying to bring that Mac computer, which I have one, into the home entertainment technology of the home.  And so, they see a store like us will be able to help them do that. 

OMC: Do you think there’ll ever come a point where you’ll have another Downtown location?

JF: Another good question.  I don’t have any immediate plans to but I think it’s something to think about.  Wouldn’t that be an irony? I think there’s probably a very good possibility of that at some point in the future.  We’ve chosen to be a one-store operation for much of our life and probably it was because of the level of service that we’re trying to provide.  So, we’ll see.  But obviously, there’s a lot of energy and vitality Downtown, a lot of people living there … our whole thing is making it easy for people.

OMC: And my final question I like to ask everyone is if you had a chance to have a beer or a cup of coffee with anyone who would it be and why?

JF: Wow. My goodness.  Geez.  I’ll tell you one name that pops up into my mind, I’m not sure why, is Jimmy Carter.  I’ve been reading a little bit about the Carter Center.  He’s a little controversial right now because of his new book, but I am so impressed with what he’s done in his post-presidential life. 

To deal with sickness and health issues and political issues around the world, it’s a pretty amazing little think tank.  And, it isn’t just a thinking but actually a doing group that he’s set up there and it really intrigues me.  I had a chance to travel to Africa with my two sons a few years ago and it was a very eye opening experience.  It helped me realize some of the challenges that the world faces and we as the wealthiest, most successful country in the world need to accept our responsibility for leading some of the changes that the world needs.