The High Cost of Watching the Super Bowl

Mark Winston Griffith

The High Cost of Watching the Super Bowl

Sorry to be a kill-joy, but as you're kickin' back on your easy chair this weekend, watching the Super Bowl festivities, you might want to give some thought to the price of that flatscreen that you're enjoying so much. A New York City Council investigation found that "New Yorkers who buy televisions from rent-to-own stores to watch the Super Bowl could end up paying an extra 300%.... The investigation, Kick-Off to a Rip-Off: Loose Laws Lead to Inflated Prices for Rent-to-Own Consumers, compiled the prices of three common products at New York's 38 Rent-A-Centers and compared those prices to other retail stores. "

The investigation compared prices between retail stores and Rent-a-Centers and found that while, on average, a thirty-seven inch LCD Flat Panel HDTV television goes for about $1300 at a common retailer, the cost of the same item at a Rent-A-Center goes for almost $2500, if you were to pay for it in full, cash up front. If you were to use one of Rent-a-Center's typical "rental" plans, it could cost you - get this - $5200!

There ought to be law. Oh wait, there is. It's called New York State usury law, which caps the cost of credit at 25% annual percentage rate, a rate that is simply obliterated by Rent-a-Center fleecing. Unfortunately, there is another New York State law which provides a loop hole that a Rent-a-Center truck can drive through, virtually giving rent-to-own centers a free pass in ignoring usury laws.

The real scandal of this practice is vividly captured by maps created by the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP), which document how Rent-a-Centers target low-income neighborhoods of color.

Bills introduced by Chuck Schumer at the federal level, and Assemblyman James Gary Pretlow at the State level, would begin to curb these abuses. Of course, buyers should beware. But the bottom line is that lawmakers should run predatory companies like Rent-a-Centers out of town. Now THAT would make watching the Super Bowl fun.

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Posted at 11:03 PM, Feb 01, 2007 in
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Maybe Schumer should step back and look at the bigger picture (no pun intended). The real scandal is how much TV people watch, not that low-income communities of color are getting ripped off. His efforts would be better spent elsewhere.

While the rent-a-center model is clearly exploitative, there is something to the idea of temporarily renting a furnishings or electronics you don't really use every day. If you just want a big screen t.v. to watch the Super Bowl, you should be able to rent one just for the big game. Similarly if you just want a huge dining room table for Thanksgiving Dinner (or Groundhog Day dinner -- believe it or not, some of us celebrate it) you should be able to rent one just for that occassion. While these short-term rentals are possible now, they're not encouraged by public policy. Yet I suspect such rentals are more economical for families and better for the envirnoment (fewer production costs -- although possibly more transportation) than purchasing big items you only use a couple times a year.

Um Mike. Are you proposing that Sen. Schumer work to make television illegal?

I think its great that he is fighting against predatory lending.