patrick.net

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2012/04/13/title-loan-lender-tmx-hits-the-gas.html?page=all

The fastest-growing financial company in Georgia is fueling its boom on the backs of the states most desperate borrowers. TMX Finance LLC, the Savannah-based owner of TitleMax and other branded short-term loan businesses, made 36 percent more title loans in 2011 than a year earlier, and rising gas prices are liable to drive up its business further in 2012, executives said in a call to investors on March 29. TMX had $490 million in title loans outstanding at the end of 2011. Last year it opened 166 new stores across 12 states and now operates 796 under the TitleMax, TitleBucks...

I realize the story above is a bit aged, but I was in my childhood hometown last weekend, and was STARTLED how many pawn shops there were. Not tucked away in the back of a cheap strip mall somewhere, no siree. As many as 3 in the same block at, here's one such on Google Maps:

http://goo.gl/maps/wnPFD