Made In Chicago: 20th Century TV And Stereo Center
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Walking into a shop on Montrose near Ashland is walking deep into the 20th Century.
20th Century TV and Stereo Center repairs and sells electronics, machines they haven't made in decades.
"Right now we have reel-to-reels, which has huge demand," said Ursula Lewczuk. "We have customer who later we find out was prince from Dubai."
Ursula is co-owner of the shop with her husband Mitch.
"We never been on vacation for 30 years," he said.
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They've been married for 30 years. Mitch is 77. Ursula is 74. The store opened in 1970.
It is crowded. With old electronics.
"We don't make money here," Mitch said. "We barely survive. There's no money here. Especially today, all these electronics change completely. I have no customers look in my windows anymore. They keep walking."
And now Ursula says their new landlord is charging them 50 percent more.
"It's like they are buying empty building," she said. "It is not. People's life is here."
Mitch has been robbed a few times over the decades.
"Two bones were broken with the hands," he said.
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"They tortured me. They dragged me to the back room, tied me with the electric cord to the chair. And I begged for my life. I said, 'please.'"
And he says once he was almost shot.
"He tripped here," he said. "He fell and we started fighting. All of a sudden he managed to pull the trigger. Shot something but not me. Somehow he missed me."
Why do they stay in business?
"I love the job that I do - and I will say maybe more than anything else," Mitch said.
