A New Lease on Life Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership has a new look, new loan terms--and openings for new franchisees.

Once you've had a car with power windows, it's prettyhard to go without. The same goes for any number of the luxuriesmany of us take for granted. For instance, imagine life without awashing machine. For most of us, pounding our clothes on rocks in astream is just not an option. At any socioeconomic level, it'shuman nature to want more. Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership(franchised by Aaron Rents Inc.) capitalizes on this fact by makingit easier for those with lower-than-average incomes to havemore-now.

Aaron's has found its niche among consumers who, on average,have annual household incomes of less than $35,000 andless-than-ideal credit ratings. Typically, Aaron's customersalso shun debt but are looking for good offers. Accordingly,they're jubilant to find that they can "rent"furniture, computers, consumer electronics and householdappliances, and-after making monthly payments for 12consecutive months-own the articles. That's a sharpcontrast with rent-to-own industry norms, which typically requireweekly payments for 18 to 24 months.

This modern version of "buy now, pay later" has caughton, and the income and store count for this company has grownsteadily. Yet it's been a somewhat quiet success story,probably because franchisees who came into the system years agokeep adding locations. Most of the chain's recent growth hascome from existing franchisees, as consumer preference for the newprototype store-which is larger, has a cleaner image and hasbetter loan terms-has compelled current franchisees to openadditional prototype units.