'JURASSIC PARK' A SELLOUT AT FOOD GIANT

DAN ALAIMO

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Food Giant Supermarkets presold all the previously viewed copies of "Jurassic Park" it earmarked to be sold off during Thanksgiving week. The promotion was themed, "Take T Rex Home for Thanksgiving Dinner." "It's been an amazingly successful program," Tim Harrison, video supervisor, told SN prior to Thanksgiving. "We've already made our return on investment and we are still looking at another three weeks of rental revenue on the title," he said. "We're looking for this program to build excitement in the store during Thanksgiving and to kick off the official opening of the Christmas shopping season. It's an attention-getting device," said Harrison. The retailer's plan was to presell 24 of the 48 rental copies in each of the company's four freestanding stores. The used tapes sold for $8.99. Customers signed up for the tapes and paid a small deposit during October and November, and were expected to pick them up and pay the balance during Thanksgiving week. Rental stock will be replenished as necessary from what remains of the 96-piece shippers put in the stores for sell-through, said Harrison. More of the new products also will be brought in if needed, he said. "We want to be able to satisfy demand for rental, [new-product] sell-through and previously viewed tapes. We have been increasing the breadth and quantity of titles on our previously viewed tables, and that has proven to be very successful," he said. One store manager presold 40 copies of "Jurassic Park," many on an availability basis, he said. "Promotions like this depend on the managers in the stores. Fortunately, our managers have been aggressively campaigning to get their customers signed up for previously viewed movies, as well as to get customers to buy brand-new movies from their sell-through racks," he said. The promotional activity also drew attention to the title and boosted sales of new copies of "Jurassic Park," which are priced at $17.99, said Harrison. "We didn't try to lowball the price and we still had pretty good results with it, even with the mass merchandisers in every one of our towns," he said. "I'm hoping that the promotion will remind people that 'Jurassic Park' is out there and is a major contender for the Christmas sell-through season," he said.