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MURRAY -- A small computer store was burglarized and damaged by a thief just before Christmas last year. Though it was a big hit to the company's bottom line, its president decided to move forward.
ExperCom, which specializes in selling and servicing Apple computer products, shut down its Murray store for more than a month, losing out on the all-important holiday shopping period of December.
Dec. 18 is a day that Roger Smith, the president of ExperCom, would like to forget.
"Everything was just torn apart," he said. "I couldn't believe the carnage when we walked into the store. It was unbelievable."
Everything about moving forward felt great.
–Roger Smith
Surveillance cameras at the Murray store show a truck plowing through the front glass doors. Then, a man runs in and starts grabbing thousands of dollars worth of computer products and tossing them into the back of his truck.
Besides the loss of products, the store was heavily damaged, forcing Smith to shut it down.
But things are much better now. This past Monday, Smith opened a brand new store at 80 E. 10600 South in Sandy.
ExperCom certainly fits the definition of a "small business," with just two stores -- the new Sandy location and a flagship store in Logan -- and a total of 10 employees.
Not only did the robbery at the Murray store cause a financial hit, it was an emotional one also.
"With the economy the way it was there's obviously the concern of, well it's been difficult already, is this the time to just call it quits?" Smith said.
But, his longtime customers refused to go to other stores to buy their Apple products, telling Smith they would wait until he was back. He has loyal employees and has always been optimistic about the economy making a comeback.
So quitting was not an option.
"You look at the doing nothing side of it as opposed to going for it and nothing felt right about doing nothing. It's all a downer," Smith said. "Everything about moving forward felt great."
The burglar was caught about two months later. Investigators found a storage shed in West Valley City filled with about $300,000 worth of electronic items. Smith's Apple computers were there too.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
