WINN-DIXIE TRIES DISPLAY FOR PRODUCTS SOLD ON TV

JOEL ELSON

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- In a bid for higher nonfood volume, Winn-Dixie Stores here is merchandising products once sold exclusively on home-shopping TV programs in eight test stores in its Jacksonville division.

The chain is displaying tabletop porcelain collectibles, giftware, licensed T-shirts and beauty care products on a 4-foot three-sided front-end endcap. The displays went into stores last month. Most items retail from $5 for a "Precious Moments" collectible magnet to $70 for Ivana Trump perfumes.

"We believe these items will give us a competitive advantage. If they perform well, in three to six months we'll roll the program into other divisions," said Mike Nelson, the Jacksonville division's general merchandise merchandiser.

Nelson added the three-sided displays "will help us capitalize on the proven success of direct-TV merchandise and give our consumers the opportunity to see, touch and test popular products that were once available to them only through television shopping."

The mix works on 15% to 25% margins and is changed monthly. Offerings include assorted Enesco Collectibles and licensed products such as Connie Stevens' Forever Spring Beauty System, Loony Tunes and Batman T-shirts marked at $12.95, and Sweet Simplicity, an all-natural hair removal system retailing for $19.95.

A TV monitor positioned on the display plays continuous infomercials, ads and product demonstrations.

The fixtures and products are supplied by Home Shopping Showcase, New York, a joint retail marketing venture between ML Direct, which sources the products, and Home Shopping Network Direct, according to Alan Kerzner, HSS president and chief operating officer.

During the first few weeks the endcaps were up at Winn-Dixie, religious collectible figurines priced under $19 were the best movers, according to Nelson.

"The Home Shopping Showcase allows tangible, hands-on shopping for supermarkets so that they can start getting their fair share of the TV and specialty general merchandise market," said Kerzner.

"The exposure these products get on TV home-shopping programs should carry good built-in demand for these items," said Nelson. Suppliers drop-ship the items to individual Winn-Dixie stores that outside merchandisers stock and maintain, he added.

According to Kerzner, the nonfood program works best at higher traffic stores operating in areas with middle- to upper-middle-income shoppers.

Customizing the product selections according to store demographics also has been a sound strategy, Kerzner added.

For example, HSS supplies a larger amount of inspirational collectible figurines to Furr's Supermarkets, Albuquerque, N.M., which has had the endcaps at four test stores for about seven months, he said. "Products of a spiritual nature do well at those Furr's stores," he said.

"This has been a very exciting product in tests at Furr's. And there's very little price sensitivity with new products like these right out of the box," asserted Kerzner.

In May the endcaps also went into 12 Supervalu Laneco stores in Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem, Pa., and Clinton, Whitehouse and Phillipsburg, N.J. Five Hy-Vee Food Stores in Omaha, Neb., are slated for the program in June, according to the supplier.

Kerzner said he believes the excitement of purchasing merchandise from TV home-shopping programs can to some degree.