Business: Disc Replay
Address: 556 S. Route 59, Naperville
Phone/website: 630-420-1100; www.discreplay.com
Owners: Tom and Laura Cialoni, of Naperville
Years in business: 20
What does your business do? “We buy, sell and trade video games, consoles, electronics, Pokemon cards, CDs, vinyl (albums), DVDs,” Tom said.
How are CDs doing? “We have 10 bins now. We used to have 42 CD bins. This is back when Napster came out. CDs were dead for years. … Now, just like vinyl, which is popular again, CDs are coming back,” Tom said.
“We have them priced right. We have an offer, buy two, get one free. People come in four days a week looking. They find one here for $3.99, see it on eBay for $25. That’s great. The treasure hunt,” Laura said.
How about DVDs? “With the increase in pricing in Netflix and all these streaming services, people are starting to buy DVDs again,” Tom said.
“We’ll have an overstock of DVDs and then the next week there’s only two left,” Laura said.
Do you sell many vinyl record albums? “We sell a fair amount. I was amazed at how vinyl has come back. You see them selling vinyl at Target. Blows my mind,” Tom said.
And electronics? “We’re buying iPads, IPhones, smart watches, laptops. All that stuff,” Tom said.
“When we bought our first store in Skokie, Mario Kart was a $1.99 game and now it’s like a $50 game,” Tom said
What’s your background? “Skokie was our original store, then we sold it,” Laura said. “Our second store was Naperville. We were in Bolingbrook for more than 10 years and merged it here.”
How did you get started with Disc Replay? “There was another owner, the gentleman who started the Disc Replay franchise, John Chesny. He started in Westmont,” Tom said. “One day (Laura and I) went out to lunch with her sister and she said, ‘Let’s go to Disc Replay.’ I thought, ‘This is interesting, something I can do.’”
“We had the store in Skokie and then we bought this store. And here we are,” Laura said.
What did you do before this? “We both worked for American Airlines at O’Hare,” Laura said.
How large is this store? “About 3,700 square feet,” Tom said.
How’s business? “Going good. We keep plugging along,” Tom said.
How does it work when someone comes in? “We offer a cash price and a credit price. We pay 30 percent if you take a store credit. … It’s their decision if they want to sell,” Tom said.
“With the discs, we check the condition. We have a top-of-the line resurfacing machine. If that machine doesn’t get your scratches out, your scratches will never come out on CDs and DVDs,” Tom said.
Any memorable surprises? “We had an original pressing of Led Zeppelin’s first album. There were only 2,000 of them. The story is Jimmy Page borrowed money from his parents to get these pressed. We bought it. A regular always wanted to see the good stuff when it came in. He bought it. We paid a grand for it and sold it for $1,700. The value at that time was around $2,500,” Tom said.
“Our most expensive Pokemon card was $700,” Laura said.
Are your customers loyal? “We have customers who come in every day, look around the store,” Tom said.
What sets you apart? “Our staff is so good. They love their movies,” Laura said.
“That’s one thing we can’t stress enough, how much we appreciate our staff. … I’ve got workers who started here in high school, left for college and their career and still work here one day a week. They love it. That’s what makes us special, our staff,” Tom said.
Why do you love your job? “It’s different every day. Our customers are the most loyal and knowledgeable,” Tom said. “It’s a labor-intensive business. I guess it’s a labor of love.”
What’s been a key to success? “We’ve always tried to pay more and sell for less. … We sell a lot. You’ve got to be fair,” Tom said.
“Another thing that makes us different is we live here, we know the customers’ names. … They know when the new stuff comes out. They’re like a bloodhound, they get a scent,” Tom said.
What’s your advice for someone starting a business? “Be prepared to do a lot of work. It’s not glamorous. It’s hard. You have to love it. It must come first before everything else,” Laura said.
“You have to be passionate about doing it. … You have to be committed 100 percent to doing it … It’s hard. It’s difficult,” Tom said.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. If you know of a business you’d like to see profiled in Down to Business, contact him at metschmsfl@yahoo.com.
