LADUE, Mo. -- An appearance by television talk show host Regis Philbin at the Schnuck Markets unit here recently brought customers from hundreds of miles away and generated store traffic and video sales for the locale.
His April 9 visit was part of a promotional tour to support the new fitness video, "Regis Philbin: My Personal Workout," supplied by Parade Video, Newark, N.J.
"We had people calling from hundreds of miles away," said Schnuck's spokeswoman Sue Kunstmann, who said store employees estimated the crowd at about 500 people, despite the fact that the event was not promoted far in advance.
"An ad did run in the St Louis Post-Dispatch the week before on Thursday," Kunstmann said. "And I know Regis was talking about it on his show."
The presence of Philbin, star of the offbeat morning show "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee," generated additional sales of his fitness video and products in other departments throughout the store. The event was sponsored by Schnuck's Video Club and Parade Video.
"A lot of people who came to see Regis went shopping throughout the store. And for many of them, it may have been their first visit to that store [in Ladue], which is one of our newest and most beautiful stores," Kunstmann added.
Philbin spent his morning visit autographing videos and greeting fans, many of whom were "middle age to older folk," Kunstmann said, adding that the Ladue site was chosen because "the store is in an upscale area and it is also next to a concentrated business area. It was also a very convenient place to have it because the store is right off a major local highway." "Customers had a good time. The event was a lot of fun and it did increase store traffic," said Kunstmann.
