The Consumer Electronics Association has announced that our store’s founders, the late Jewel and David Abt, have been inducted into the CE Hall of Fame, which “honors leaders whose significant contributions make the consumer electronics industry a vibrant, dynamic, and vital part of our nation and its economy.” The CEA is recognizing Jewel and David for having “founded Chicago’s Abt Electronics in 1936, one of the Midwest’s largest electronic retailers. This mom-and-pop store is still family owned and operated.”
David, Robert, and Jewel Abt
The Hall of Fame inductees were announced Wednesday at the CEA’s Washington Forum conference. The CEA, with a membership of more than 2,200 companies, is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $161 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. The Abt’s will officially be inducted into the Hall of Fame during an awards dinner at the CEA’s Industry Forum in Las Vegas in October.
Jewel and David Abt married in 1934 and two years later opened a small electronics store in the Logan Square section of Chicago. Now located on 37 acres in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, Abt Electronics has grown into one of the most successful family businesses in the United States and currently has more than 1,000 employees. The recently opened Jölane’s Café & Wine Bar. located in Abt’s new Design Center just south of our main building, is another tribute to Jewel (Jölane) Abt, commemorating her many years of dedication to the store and her family, employees, and customers.
“This is a great honor for my parents,” said Robert Abt, the store’s current CEO. “My family and our employees are ecstatic about the announcement. This is a richly deserved tribute to all the great work my parents did to create this business and nurture its growth throughout the years. They would be so proud.”
For more Abt history and current store information, click here. –by Graham W.
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