Doing things differently since 1974
For 50 years, we’ve worked to elevate the retail electronics experience by providing helpful advice, unparalleled information, and lifetime support for every product we sell. Look back with us and discover how we built a very different kind of company.
Founder's story
Drawing on a lifetime interest in electronics, Bill Crutchfield launched a car stereo mail order business, using his family name to ensure his own emotional investment in its success. However, in its first year, his new company faced bankruptcy if Bill didn’t do something drastic. Based on customer feedback, he reimagined Crutchfield as an information resource. The business took off, and today Crutchfield is an award-winning online and catalog retailer of premium consumer electronics, serving customers in the United States and Canada.
Join Bill Crutchfield as he shares his 5-decade journey as founder/CEO.
Only a handful of companies have remained in business for 50 years. An even smaller number remain under the same ownership for this length of time. And a tiny, tiny subset remains under the same ownership and management for 50 years. That makes Crutchfield an exceedingly rare company.
– Victory
History
Explore our interactive timeline to see photos and milestones from our five decades helping customers find the perfect A/V gear. Reexperience the cultural impact of iconic gear like the Sony Walkman® and discover how we’ve cultivated successful partnerships with the biggest names in the industry like Sony, Alpine, Samsung, Pioneer, and so many more.
Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1974Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1975Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1976Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1974Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1975Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1976Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1974Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1975Bill Crutchfield founds our company, based out of his mother's basement, and creates the first car audio mail order catalog. Read it here and explore the products we offered back then, like under-dash 8-track players, in-dash cassette players, CBs, and more.
1976
Basic beliefs
In 1983, after seven years in business and a period of rapid growth, our sales began to suffer. Crutchfield was undergoing a period of crisis and culture change. Employees had lost their direct connection to Bill Crutchfield’s founding values, and so he decided to write out his core beliefs.
Bill met with each employee to explain how important they were to Crutchfield. While some didn’t initially subscribe to the new approach, most welcomed it, and the business took off again. To this day, we follow these Basic Beliefs in all that we do.
Exceed
our customers’ expectations by providing a truly exceptional level of integrity, courtesy, service, and helpful information.
Value
each of our coworkers and provide a work environment that promotes dignity, team harmony, and personal satisfaction.
Respect
our business partners and maintain mutually rewarding relationships with vendors who demonstrate high professional standards.
Maintain
a passion for excellence through a commitment to continuous improvement.
Promote
a culture of innovation through the acceptance of change and risk, generation of new ideas, and decisive, responsible leadership of new initiatives.
Awards we've won
We’re honored by the recognition we’ve received over the years. For us, it reinforces that our Basic Beliefs are as relevant and essential today as the day Bill Crutchfield first shared them with our company.
Bizrate’s “Circle of Excellence” Platinum Award for performance and customer service (24 years in a row).
Named one of the “Best Places to Work in Virginia” by Virginia Business magazine (2015, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024).
Rated “A+” by the Better Business Bureau®.
Named one of “America’s Top Online Shops” by USA Today.
Our company today
What separates Crutchfield from everyone else? Our expertise, our belief in a premium customer experience, and our true passion for the gear. Bottom line — we’re all about providing the info and guidance you need to find what’s right for you.
Exceed
Crutchfield has more car audio DIY knowledge than anyone. Our Vehicle Research Team is a big reason why. Their in-depth info makes it easier for you to find the gear that fits and install it in your vehicle. They’ve collected all this the old-fashioned way — by taking apart dashes and doors of all types of vehicles. Each step in the removal and replacement process is documented with detailed, step-by-step notes and photos.
Hands-on research
Our product research team opens the box for almost every one of the thousands of products we sell. Why? It’s all to make sure you — and your Advisor — have the most accurate info possible while shopping. We provide these specs on our website and use the data to inform our product recommendations. This is how we match TVs with the right wall mounts, or properly pair speakers and amps. And we combine the info we collect on car audio products with the info we collect on vehicles.
Training
Before our experts ever talk to customers on their own, they go through extensive classroom and on-the-job training. Beyond the classroom, the training class gets hands-on with the stuff we sell, often in real-world situations. They travel to a professional recording studio, fly drones, and install stereos in their own vehicles. “They live with the product,” says JR, the head trainer at our Charlottesville headquarters, “so they can speak from experience when they talk to customers.”
Sustainability
No polystyrene packing peanuts here! Instead, we make our own starch-based, biodegradable peanuts. They readily dissolve in a compost pile or landfill. And making our own has reduced diesel exhaust, too — one truckload of our raw material creates the equivalent of 22 truckloads of finished material.
Our Packsize boxing system optimizes each box for the items going into it. By reducing how much corrugated cardboard we’re using and creating smaller truckloads, we conserve natural resources, reduce diesel fuel usage and exhaust, and give you less material to recycle.
