Aaron Rents Celebrates Opening of 500th Store; Expects to Open Over 80 Stores in 2000

Jul 12, 2000

ATLANTA, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Aaron Rents, Inc. (NYSE: RNT), the nation's leader in the rental, rental purchase and specialty retailing of residential and office furniture, consumer electronics and home appliances, will celebrate the opening of its 500th systemwide store on Thursday. The landmark Aaron's Rental Purchase store is located in Cartersville, Georgia.

"This historic event marks the doubling of our total store count in four and a half years," said R. Charles Loudermilk, Sr., Chairman and Chief Executive Office of Aaron Rents, Inc. "We now expect to open more than 30 Company-operated and 50 franchised rental purchase stores this year, our fastest growth rate ever in store count."

"During the first six months of 2000, we opened 18 Company-operated and 25 franchised rental purchase stores, a total of 43 new stores," Mr. Loudermilk said. "At the end of June we had a total of 411 rental purchase stores open. We are very excited about Aaron's strong growth, and we look forward to another record year in 2000, which would be our ninth consecutive year of record performance."

The grand opening activities at the 500th store on Thursday in Cartersville will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony with former Georgia Gov. Joe Frank Harris, Cartersville Mayor Sam Smith, Aaron Rents CEO Loudermilk, and Aaron's Rental Purchase President Ken Butler participating.

Aaron Rents, Inc., based in Atlanta, currently has more than 500 Company operated and franchised stores in 39 states for the rental and sale of residential and office furniture, accessories, consumer electronics and household appliances. The Company manufactures furniture, bedding and accessories at ten facilities in four states.

Note: Forward-looking statements in this news release are based on current
expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results
may vary materially from the expectations due to such factors as changes in
general economic conditions, competition, pricing, customer demand and other
issues.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this news release regarding Aaron Rents, Inc.'s business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 1999, which discussion is incorporated herein by this reference. SOURCE Aaron Rents, Inc.

CONTACT: Gilbert L. Danielson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Aaron Rents, Inc., 404-231-0011/