The Player Family on Governance, Growth, and What Comes Next For Queen City Homestore

Woody Player started Queen City Television Service Company in Charlotte in 1952, driving a van and charging about five dollars a service call. In this episode Dana Alligood sits down with three generations of the Player family Woody’s son Roddey, CEO and second generation, along with Roddey’s children Kate and Roddey Jr, to trace how a repair shop became a top-25 appliance retailer with 17 stores across the Carolinas. The Players are candid about both directions the economy can move. The Great Recession took the company from 16 stores to four as the housing market fell 75 percent, and Roddey Sr. credits survival to three groups sticking with them: customers, suppliers, and employees. The pandemic ran the other way, and a deliberate bet on inventory led to a 100,000-square-foot consolidated warehouse and a run of quarter-over-quarter growth. Kate and Roddey Jr. explain why they each built careers elsewhere before coming back, so no one on the floor had to wonder how they got the job, and Roddey Sr. talks openly about what he still needs to put in place: a real process for decisions when consensus among three owners no longer holds. As Queen City Homestore heads into its 75th anniversary, the family discusses their thinking on how to implement an AI strategy year without losing the personality that keeps guests satisfies.