Pawn Stars
Season 13 History (*186) 20:15 Lifestyle
Rick Harrison, his dad “Old Man” Richard and son Corey, along with Corey’s friend Chumlee, are the faces of reality show Pawn Stars (2009-current), but the real star of the series is their shop. Here are some fast facts on the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop…
1 The series only films in the purpose-built “show shop” – there’s an entirely different section where the actual pawn business is run.
2 There’s also a hidden gym that Rick built in 2011 for the extra 30 staff members he had to hire to cope with the 1 000 customers a day on the set. Before the show started, he was only getting “about 70 clients every day”, but now the main pawnshop and the set are visited by an average of 4 000 customers daily.
3 The building has been remodelled 10 times by the Harrison family since they opened their doors in 1988 – the most expensive was the $400 000 (R5.2 million) overhaul for Pawn Stars.
4 The business’s storeroom holds about 15 000 pawned items at any given time – it’s the same size as the main store: 1.25km2.
5 You won’t find Rick and the show stars in the main store if you visit. They’re too busy filming in the set store from 6am to 5pm daily.
6 Keep an eye peeled for product placement around the show. The production crew often puts Subway sandwiches in scenes with Chumlee, for example (Subway is a show sponsor).
7 And open while“24 hoursthe shopa day,”is officiallysays Rick, that’s not entirely accurate. “The main floor operates from 9am to 9pm seven days a week. Any other time, we have a buy/pawn/sell window that’s literally just a window.”