More People Pawning Valuables To Deal With The Pinch Of The Economy

NBC25 NEWS - The economy is hard on just about everyone, but one business is thriving right now: pawn shops.

Robert Griffith is pawning his radio and putting the cash into his car.

Just getting rid of a few things, get some gas money, things are tight," he explained.

He's not the only one. Richard Epple, who owns the Trading Post Pawn Shop, says its happening at his pawn shops across Maryland.

"We have people who come in and say they cant afford to buy their prescriptions, we have people come in and say they have to buy diapers for their kids, we have people come in and they have to make their car payment, Epple said. We have people come in and say they have to go to work next week and they dont have the gas money in which to make it because the gas prices are so much higher."

About 75 percent of the people coming in here now are actually saying, I have to get gas. I mean, I need 15 bucks, I need to get gas to get to work today," said Charles Scanlon, who works at the Trading Post.

Epple added, We understand that some of these things are personal heirlooms to them and its probably worth more to those people because of the emotion attached to the item than it is to anyone else."

Workers at the Trading Post say that the desperation they see in their customers faces lets them know that they wouldn't be selling the meaningful merchandise if they didn't have to.

We see people actually taking the wedding rings off their fingers to pawn them to get gas to get to work," Scanlon said.

Its embarrassing, but if you dont have a choice youve got to do what youve got to do," Griffith said.

With gas prices approaching four dollars a gallon, the pawn shop's business doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Read more atyour4state.com.

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