By Jeff Olsen
Frank's TV is top shelf in treating its customers
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February 5, 2022
by Jeff Olsen
Jackie Poell knows the family business going back to when she was a young teenager.
"Frank's TV has been a staple in our town for 35 years. My parents started the business in '87, and I think I was 14-years-old."
She recalled writing a letter to Radio Shack when she was 15.
"My mom and dad had five console TVs on the floor when they started. They basically had nothing, and I wrote to Radio Shack that my dad hates chain stores but if he can't beat them, he should join them."
She laughed.
"My folks got a call from Radio Shack in Fort Worth, Texas, and that's kind of how Radio Shack products ended up being part of their store."
It takes some spunk to write a letter to a major corporation and get such a quick response.
In 2007, Tanya Hanson and Jackie bought the store from her parents.
"Tanya has been like a sister to me my whole life. In 2010, I went my own direction, and the opportunity came up for Tanya to sell the business to Verizon in 2021," she said, again laughing.
"I told her to take the money and run and enjoy her life. When Tanya got out, Dad and I started talking about reopening," said Jackie, noting that she has been working with her dad for a year and a half installing satellite dishes and doing service calls.
While discussing reopening Frank's TV in the same location just east of Northland Tire, her dad had remarked, "Roseau needs another option. Anytime, you take a business away from your hometown, it affects all the other businesses."
Jackie grew up being instilled with shopping locally and supporting the local businesses.
"This is another option to buy things they need locally. We're not here to get rich. We just here to offer another service."
They have all sizes of TVs, Smart TVs, and a lot of cellphone accessories.
"We don't have the phones at this time. We also have the cables for TV hook-ups."
They sell and they service.
When Tanya and Jackie bought the store from Frank, he had insisted, "As long as my name is on the front of that store, you will treat every customer with the utmost respect and great customer service."
They never faltered.
"It's the mainstay in our store to go the extra mile for our customers," said Jackie, saluting Tanya Hanson for being great to all of her customers when she became a sole proprietor after Jackie sold her share.
"That's what we want to carry on - the legacy of great customer service and going the extra mile for our customers and providing the service behind the sale."
Mainstay Frank
Standing inside his store, Frank Poell, a mainstay in this town for over 50 years, knows TVs like Wayne Gretzky knows how to shoot a puck.
"I do satellite work. The grunt work I call it, and we're in the same location," he said recently while talking about his business partner, his daughter Jackie.
"We want to keep our little, home family business going because that's what I am. I offered this opportunity for Jackie, who has experience working in sales," he said, underscoring that she is unique at sales.
He added that they have a very small inventory and are still selling satellite dishes and satellite programing, per Dish Network.
"We have a lot of televisions and cellular accessories, but we can't sell Verizon cellphones because Tanya sold it as a non-compete clause," said Frank.
If they presently can't sell Verizon, they have the cellular accessories along with TVs and Radio Shack parts.
"It's the odds and ends that maybe nobody else in town has," said the Middlebro native.
"I grew up in Canada," he said, adding that his wife, Carol, is a Roseau native. Frank was born in the Warroad Hospital in 1950.
"That's why I have dual citizenship. I moved to Roseau when I was 21 and started working for Prior Electric."
While acknowledging that he is a good TV repairman, he only does Dish Network satellite work now.
Then came another revelation.
"I'm not too interested in putting them up when it's cold. I've had to do some maintenance when it's cold, and it's no fun to be out there anymore. When I was younger, that's all I did day in and day out was put up satellite dishes whether it was cold or hot."
That has changed now that they have fiber optics in the area.
"But there are still some that we're installing, and it's a good product that we have."
It's been 40 years since he began working with Clifford Fevold installing big monster dishes.
"I started my own business 35 years ago, and Roseau has been a really supportive community for the 50 years I've been here."
For a 1950 model, he's still top shelf when it comes to service and customer satisfaction!
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