Art Handler's Company History

Art Handler's Appliance Center opened its doors in 1946 at the corner of the Albany Avenue and Atlantic Avenue. Back then, however, it was Art Handler's Good Year Tire and Appliances. Art Handler had already spent twenty years in the tire industry and wanted to open a store in the Atlantic City area to serve his friends and customers. Art Handler also operated the Park Furniture & Bedding store at Ohio and Atlantic Avenue during that same time.

Art Handler stayed a family run business in Atlantic City with several stores until 1978 when Art and his son-in-law Melvin Parlin made the decision to move and consolidate the stores to Pleasantville, NJ at the old Bennett Chevrolet showroom and concentrate on just Appliances, Televisions, and Furniture.

Since 1978, Art Handler's Appliance Center has been one of the largest General Electric appliance dealers in the area. The showroom in Pleasantville has featured many brands of televisions and furniture, but has always been known for its appliance selection in General Electric and Hotpoint Appliances.

Art Handler retired in 1984, leaving the business to Art's son-in-law, Mel Parlin and his granddaughter, Michel Sacks (nee) Parlin. Mel stayed with the same business philosophy that Art started many year's earlier, “It Must Be Right or We Will Make It Right”, and has tried to live up to the reputation that Art had set for the business.

In 1988, Art Handler's exited the furniture business and focused the business on appliance and television sales featuring more choices such as Whirlpool, SubZero, Thermador, RCA, Zenith and more. The showroom expanded to over 9,000 square feet of appliances and televisions.

During the 90's, Mel invited his son-in-law Scot Sacks, Michel's husband, to join the business. Scot ran a successful shoe repair business in Margate and was ready to assist Mel in the day-to-day operations of Art Handler's. Scot added more appliance lines to Art Handler's such as Maytag, Viking, Dacor, Wolf and Frigidaire to name a few.

July 2000, Mel and Scot invited Gary Press to take over the sales and marketing of Art Handler's Appliance Center. Gary worked with Art Handler's for over 5 years working with Maytag Appliances and Electrolux Home Products (Frigidaire) and was very familiar with the location and area.

Today, the team of Mel, Scot, and Gary, has expanded the showroom to over 12,000 square feet. They have added DCS, Miele, Elmira, Marvel, Uline, Scotsman, LG and more in appliances with full size live kitchen displays featuring Dacor, DCS, Miele, SubZero/Wolf, Icon and Viking appliances. They have also added Sony XBR, Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba, Samsung, Pioneer and more to television/electronics with a full showroom of the latest technology in Plasma, LCD, LCD Projection, and DLP in High Definition Television.

Art Handler's Appliance Center is the 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 recipient of the “Best of The Press” award for appliance showrooms in Atlantic/Cape May Counties and now features the largest appliance/television showroom in Southern New Jersey with over 30 employees.

Since 1946, Art Handler had a vision of a family run appliance store to serve Atlantic and Cape May counties and today it is in its third generation of family ownership with the forth generation in the wings.

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