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Music promoter makes career change to computer doctor
By Charles Erickson
CHAMPION
In the Champion Plaza, which many people call Pizza Joe’s Plaza after one of its tenants, the focus is on medicine over food.
An obstetrician/gynecologist occupies one of its storefronts, surrounded by a specialist in internal medicine on one side and a podiatric office on the other.
A physical therapist’s office is at the far end of the plaza, next to a seller of medical supplies.
And then there is the Green Computer Doctor. “Whenever anybody comes in with their computer or laptop, we’ll joke about it and tell them we’re breaking out a gurney to go out there and get it,” said Joe Pirtz, owner of the computer sales and repair shop, at 4447-B Mahoning Ave. NW in the plaza.
Pirtz, 41 and a father of two young children, opened Green Computer Doctor five years ago to bring a 12-month income to his household. He had been making money by promoting music festivals, an enjoyable but seasonal job.
Starting a computer store was an easy commercial choice for Pirtz. For years, he had repaired and improved the performance of desktops and laptops.
“Instead of just doing this for friends and myself, I started the business,” he said. Besides the owner, one other person is on the payroll.
Pirtz is a proponent of installing open-source software on personal computers. Instead of being a property that users must pay for the privilege of using, the computer code, or source, is made available for others to freely develop and distribute. LibreOffice, which has word processing and spreadsheet applications, is one of his favorites.
“We’re providing them with software that doesn’t require being purchased with a license,” Pirtz said. He also prefers free antivirus programs over paid ones requiring a subscription. When customers still want Microsoft Office, Symantec antivirus or some other paid software, Pirtz loads it on their machines and charges them for it.
“We could be making 20, 30 bucks per installation,” he said about the financial incentives of pushing licensed software. “But we’re not nickel and diming people.”
The Green in the company’s name reflects the recycling of electronic components. Pirtz believes he interprets the term differently from his competitors.
“Most of your recycling stores? They just ship everything over to China, where it’s all being broken down and processed,” he said.
Whenever traded machines can be fixed, Pirtz will resell them or donate them. He calls the process “re-communizing.”
Other machines are stripped of parts. Pirtz hesitates to discard usable components because he knows, from experience, that someone will call him with an obscure request the moment he throws out a part. The inventory includes parts for IBM personal computers made in the early 1980s.
“We have customers that’ll drive 30, 40 minutes because we’re keeping the weird, odd things,” he said.
As a computer doctor, Pirtz’s shop was launched to fix and upgrade machines. But he always has sold new models. The owner is frustrated whenever people who have used his repair services assume he does not sell machines right out of the box. When they think about buying new, many of them head for the chain stores.
“Everybody is in a fast consumer pace,” Pirtz said. “And they don’t have time to check three or four stores.”
Old radios, old typewriters and other outdated hardware are displayed around the store. Pirtz referred to it as an eclectic mix, which complements the owner’s personality. Skydiving is one of his hobbies. At last count, Pirtz said, he had jumped out of an airplane 430 times.
On one of the typewriters, made by Royal, he likes to type sayings, photograph the words hammered to paper and then post it on his Facebook page. The result is a melding of something archaic with contemporary communications.
“Business has been growing steadily, and most of it is word-of-mouth,” Pirtz said. “We’re keeping the lights on.”
Pirtz was raised at the family’s Champion dairy farm, now closed, on property about 5 miles from the store. He believes his ability to mend computers results from the tinkering and repairs he did when the family was involved in farming.
“I’m extremely resourceful,” he said. “I used to go to school and sell candy.”
Located on a wall behind the shop’s service area, large letters illuminated in red- orange spell C O M P U T E R S. Pirtz, looking to reuse things whenever possible, drove his family to Ann Arbor, Mich., and bought the sign from the owners of a computer-repair business that had gone from four stores to one. They made an adventure out of it, stopping at a water park before loading the letters for the trip back to Warren.
“Isn’t it great?” Pirtz asked a visitor. “I love the glow on that thing.”