Ollie Fretter, founder of Fretter Appliance, dead at age 91

His iconic ads made him a household name in metro Detroit

Before Best Buy and Circuit City dominated local chains, before Amazon rendered so much brick-and-mortar obsolete, and before Apple combined virtually all of your electronic devices into the iPod, Fretter's was the place many Detroiters turned to for their TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines.

While the retail appliance chain closed its final stores in 1996, its owner, Ollie Fretter, became an something of a local icon with his tv commercials that promised nobody could "better Fretter."  He backed up those claims by offering five pounds of coffee to anyone who found a lower price.

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Fretter died Sunday at his home in Bloomfield Hills. He was 91.

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