MORE RETAILERS TO MAKE EAST COAST SCENE

DAN ALAIMO

With attendance climbing steadily and exhibit space set to double this year, more retailers are making the East Coast Video Show a regular stop on the video convention trail.

Especially for those near its Atlantic City location, it is a convenient show and an opportunity to involve people from all levels of the company in a major video event. The East Coast Video Show will run Oct. 1 to 3 this year.

Last year, for example, Genuardi's, Norristown, Pa., brought several store managers and some headquarters personnel to the show, said Tim Ambrose, video specialist. "They had a good time and found it very interesting," he said.

"It's a valuable show," said Ambrose. Last year, it was even more important to him than the Video Software Dealers Association convention, which had an off year in its Dallas location, he said.

"We got some ideas for fixturing and signage from companies that we had never dealt with before," said Ambrose.

The Movie Exchange, Oaks, Pa., which racks about 200 supermarket rental departments and supplies sell-through to 1,000 stores, brings its entire staff to the show, said Shellie England Tibbitts, president.

"The show allows all our office employees to gain insight into the industry and to meet all our suppliers," she said. The Movie Exchange staff goes in shifts to assure coverage at headquarters, Tibbitts noted.

The show is important to her because "we are able to see everyone in the industry and get ideas on other items to sell or on how to improve our business," she said. VSDA remains the primary video show for Tibbitts, but the East Coast show is an important supplement.

Peggy Disney, video manager at Lauer's Super Thrift, Pasadena, Md., attended the East Coast show for the first time last year. "It was a learning experience. Listening to other retailers talking about how they run their video operations gave me a lot of ideas," she said. The seminar program was the most important aspect of the show for her.

This year the East Coast Video Show will nearly double its exhibit space, going from 93,000 square feet at the Taj Mahal to 180,000 square feet at the Atlantic City Convention Center, said Diane Stone, show director, Expocon Management Associates, Fairfield, Conn. The show is about 70% sold out already, she said.