Erin and Kerry Toscano met in 1992, when Kerry bought a used refrigerator, washer and dryer from Erin’s dad. Erin made the delivery, and said that when he left he kept the kick plate to her refrigerator in the truck so he would have an excuse to come back and talk to her. “Somehow I got the gumption to ask her on a date,” Erin said. They married a year later.

Erin had been in the appliance business since he was 13, working with his dad. After he and Kerry married, they started fixing and selling appliances, working out of their garage. Two weeks later they moved the business to a warehouse in back of a boat yard in Rio Linda. Soon after, they came to Auburn Boulevard as Appliance Warehouse.

“When we first started we had no kids so we put in very long hours,” Kerry said. “Our whole business plan was really just to stay in business and make a good name for ourselves. In this industry there are so many (with) bad business morals and ethics. We just wanted to be good to others and conduct our business with honestly and integrity.”

The couple has three children, 13-year-old Vincent and 9-year-old twins Max and Grace. The twins were born four years and four days after Vincent’s birthday, so they have always celebrated the three birthdays together. Last year the Toscanos celebrated with a large party at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour. Not wanting to have guests bring presents for all three kids, the Toscanos asked for nonperishable food for the food bank instead. As a result they “had the van full in the back and then the back of my truck full, and then the back seat of my truck full,” Erin said. This year, the parents gave the kids the choice of doing the same or not.” The kids were unanimous in voting for the food bank. “Mom, let’s save the world!” Max said.

Appliance Warehouse is run with the same kind of attention to service. “Good customer service is the one thing a business can’t survive without,” Erin said. They treat their employees as family, which some of them, in fact, are.

“We pay our technicians the best in this industry, with vacation and sick time,” Kerry said. “But our friendship and being a family on the personal level is what keeps us all together.”

The couple said that over half of their business is from repeat or referral customers. “You know you’ve got a loyal customer when they’ve had three generations buying from us,” Kerry said.

The Toscano’s business sells used household appliances that they have rebuilt and refurbished. Their second most important role is in recycling. Whatever can’t be rebuilt is fully torn apart and recycled. There are always a lot of parts and miscellaneous items left over and for that reason in 2014 they opened a small store on the property named Anything and Everything. In that store, they put to good use the diverse assortment of “stuff” that comes into their hands. This includes such things as pumps, tools, various appliance and equipment parts as well as repaired small appliances and equipment. Customers can also find miscellaneous used furniture, Christmas trees and decorations, and too many things to even start to name.

“I try to get everything and the kitchen sink,” Erin said. For do-it-yourselfers, a stroll through the shop can be like looking through a treasure trove.

You can find out more about Appliance Warehouse, which is located at 4914 Auburn Blvd., Sacramento, at their website ApplianceWarehouse.biz. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.