CBS’s longest surviving appliance man lays down his wrench

By Craig Westcott

He’s a small business success story twice over, though definitely not the type to crow about it.
Gord Murphy, who retired earlier this month at the age of 78, is also nearly as well known as some politicians, given the number of homes he’s been summoned to throughout the Avalon Peninsula over the years to fix broken appliances.
The Kelligrews native says he won’t miss running the appliance shop so much as he will miss the people who dropped in for business, or oftentimes just a chat.
The father of seven started early in life making his way in the world. At 17 he joined the Canadian Armed Forces, serving first with the medics, and then transferring to the service corps, spending some seven or eight years all told at Camp Borden and Petawawa, Ontario.
Following that hitch, Murphy went to work at a rubber factory for a while and then decided to go back to school, taking an appliance repair course at Conestoga College in Kitchener-Waterloo.
“And then I set up a company there,” said Murphy, referring to his first appliance repair business.
After about 10 years he decided to move back to CBS and sold the business to a friend who was in the same industry.
“I think the company is still going, so they tell me,” said Murphy.
“In ’77, I came back to Newfoundland and set up the company in Kelligrews on Gully Pond Road,” Murphy said.
Over the next couple of decades, Murphy built All Appliance Service into a thriving business, despite the industry being really competitive with other companies, including Al Kearley’s repair business in Chamberlains and one owned by Dave Power, also from Kelligrews, who operated in St. John’s, and then eventually Ken McDonald, who split off from Al Kearley and started his own business.
Murphy’s business, which he sold this month to longtime employee Justin Taylor, who is continuing to operate from the shop’s headquarters at 653 Conception Bay Highway in Kelligrews, is the only one continuing.
“We used to put in a lot of hours,” said Murphy, “and travel. We used to go far out of the CBS area to Carbonear, places like that. I had three employees at one time who did service, so we could send guys over who would pick up different calls.”
Is there a secret to surviving in business so long?
“I really don’t know,” said Murphy, laughing. “But if you give good service and you’re honest with people, you’ll get a good name.”
The nature of the business certainly changed over the years, Murphy allowed.
“It’s a different ball of wax,” he said. “The appliances have much more electronics, but there’s a lot more garbage in them too, they’re almost disposable now. They haven’t got the quality that they used to – as if we don’t have enough crap already going into the landfill.”
The thing about appliance repair men, like plumbers, is that they often see people in their own homes and sometimes in difficult situations. Everyone has to do laundry, after all.
“We met some real characters,” Murphy admitted, laughing again. “There was a lot of strange stuff.”
Murphy and his employees fixed everything – washers, dryers, stoves, ovens, dishwashers, anything that counts as an appliance.
With so few competitors left in the field, Murphy is passing on a business that is in high demand.
“We can’t handle all the work we’re getting now,” he said. “We just don’t have enough people really.”
Murphy doesn’t have anything special planned for his retirement years, except to enjoy life. As a small business owner, his vacation days were few and far between.
“I’ve got some health issues, but they’re not too serious,” he said. “I am going to do a bit of travelling and stuff like that. I’m not going to stay home all the time.
As for managing to build two successful businesses during his career, Murphy is modest.
“It’s just the luck of the draw, I think,” he said.
Murphy’s customers, many who grew to become his friends and liked to drop by the shop for a chat, would probably disagree.