BIG BEAR PLANS TO GIVE PARTY MUSIC A WHIRL

CHAPIN CLARK

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Big Bear Stores here plans to embark next month on an 18-store test rollout of party-music compilations in compact discs and cassettes.

Jukebox listening stations, measuring 3 feet by 7 feet with five shelves holding a total of 312 pieces of inventory, will serve as front endcaps in the stores' party sections, according to Drew Matilsky, president of Turn Up the Music, Kenilworth, N.J., the company supplying the product.

Julie Sutter, a senior buyer at Big Bear, would not comment on the rollout except to say that it was under consideration.

The tapes and CDs, marketed under the Drew's Famous label, come in about 30 variations, designed for different age groups and specific occasions like children's birthdays, weddings and Halloween parties.

Drew's "Over the Hill at 50," for example, includes such songs as "Chantilly Lace," "Johnny B. Goode" and "Duke of Earl." Some of the songs are by the original artists, Matilsky said, and others are versions of the originals. Suggested retail price is $10.99 for cassettes, $12.99 for CDs.

Big Bear, Matilsky said, will expand the rollout or drop the listening stations depending on their performance at the initial 18 units. He added that he guarantees retailers $2,500 per square foot in retail profit over a year period and credits his customers' accounts for any remainders.

Big Bear has not committed any promotional dollars to support the rollout, Matilsky noted.

Other supermarkets with units displaying the listening stations include Hy-Vee, Bi-Lo, Nash Finch's Econo Foods and Wakefern's ShopRite, Matilsky said.

"We sold the hell out of the CDs; now we're selling the tapes well," said Bob Hall, drug center manager at a 65,000-square-foot, food-drug combination Hy-Vee in West Des Moines, Iowa, that installed a listening station in April.

The station initially was located at an express checkout line, Hall said, where it "probably did a little better" than its present location, the camera and video department.

Hall put his gross profit margin on the product at 40%.

"I think if you can give it exposure, it'll do well," he said. "You're always looking for added impulse sales; you're always looking for that niche.

"We don't really sell music in these stores, so this is just one more way to make some extra money."

Hall added that, given its performance since being installed, the station at his store "probably" fulfills Matilsky's $2,500-per-square-foot guarantee, "but that depends on where you have it."

"It's done better than any other tape or CD promotion we've had," said Jim Rossetti, manager of Bi-Lo's store No. 218 in Meadville, Pa. "We're usually lucky to get one turn. This product has turned about seven or eight shippers full."

Rossetti said the listening station was installed near the service desk at his store five months ago."That's not even one of our higher-traffic areas," he noted. "We haven't had to move it around. It's been selling in one place the whole time."