Appliance Distributor Goes Viral

Eastern Marketing’s Marty Friedman, with BrandSource member Albert Lee III, was 95 years young at the 2024 Convention.

At 96, Eastern Marketing’s Marty Friedman is a social media sensation  

By Alan Wolf, YSN 

It all began with a TikTok post. 

Marty Friedman, still kicking it as founder and Grand Poohbah of luxury appliance distributor Eastern Marketing, agreed to share his 96 years of business and life lessons with his granddaughter Izzi … on camera. 

The resulting video, posted on the young content creator’s TikTok channel, immediately took flight, garnering more than a million views since May. In it, Friedman talks about career choices, including his own first misstep in the 1950s, when he became a licensed optometrist. 

Finding the profession ungratifying, he left his practice and took a job as a salesman for a TV and appliance wholesaler. “It was the only business that would take me,” he told Newsweek, in a profile that chronicled his meteoric rise on social media. 

The Answer Man

More videos followed, in which Friedman offers advice on everything from staying young and maintaining brain health to career opportunities in the appliance industry. His reflections are also captured in two books he authored — an inspirational tome called “You Can Too” and “Great Opportunities,” an autobiography.  

In the meantime, Friedman continues to manage New Jersey-based Eastern Marketing with his son Craig, who together represent BrandSource LUXE partner Bertazzoni, EXPO exhibitor XO and Beko sister brand Blomberg. In the process, Friedman has earned the distinction of oldest attendee at an AVB show, a badge he wears proudly. 

“After 70 years in the appliance business, I still love it,” he said. 

YSN publisher AVB BrandSource is the nation’s largest merchandising and marketing co-op for independent appliance, mattress, furniture and CE dealers. 

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