CUB UNITS LEAD PACK IN SPARKING 'CINDERELLA'

DAN ALAIMO

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Cub Foods Stores led all other retailers in this market with the size of its merchandising efforts on behalf of the video sell-through release of "Cinderella" Oct. 3 and 4.

Three of the four Cub Foods stores in the Columbus metropolitan area built large displays including Disney shippers as well as products from tie-in partners Kodak and Mattel, all positioned in front of a giant castle constructed of Pepsi and Dr. Pepper 24-packs. The presentation greeted customers as they walked in the main entrance. The Meijer combination stores and Phar-Mor drug stores in Columbus also featured large displays and cross-merchandising campaigns with the Kodak products. But other supermarkets, like Kroger Co. and Big Bear, did little to merchandise the title besides bringing in the big display units. The merchandising efforts of mass merchants like Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target also were small in comparison, SN found in store visits. Meanwhile, the Cub Too stores of Supervalu, Minneapolis, which has two of the smaller format units in the Columbus area, had the large display units from Disney in the shape of an arch, SN found. One of the stores cross-merchandised the Kodak and Mattel products with the Disney display. Prominent signs highlighted the mail-in rebate offer from General Mills. Calls for comment to the Cub division office in Columbus and to Supervalu's headquarters were not returned by press time. The Cub Foods store at 6599 Tussing Road, in the southeastern part of town, went all out with an all-day "Cinderella" event on Saturday, Oct. 7. A sign in front of the massive display invited customers to "Celebrate fall with Cinderella and Cub Foods." The sign detailed a full agenda, including breakfast with Cinderella from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.; photos

with Cinderella, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; free popcorn, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; a clown, noon to 4 p.m.; a three-piece string quartet, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a pumpkin pie eating contest at 1 p.m. Prizes for the contest included a Sony disc player, "Cinderella" tapes and dolls for younger children, and gift certificates of $15 to $40 for older kids. Cub promoted "Cinderella" for $16.95, the Mattel Cinderella dolls for $15.97, and four-packs of Kodak film for $8.97 to $12.59, depending on film speed. Mattel and General Mills offered $5 mail-in rebates to consumers making qualifying purchases, while Kodak offered a $5 instant savings coupon. Disney also offered a $5 mail-in rebate coupon to consumers buying "Cinderella" and one other Disney Masterpiece Collection title. These include movies like "Mary Poppins" and "Dumbo" and "The Lion King." Cub Foods included these titles in its display as well, pricing them at $16.99. Signs in the stores and Cub's weekly circular emphasized that when all the rebates were combined, the net cost of "Cinderella" to the consumer was $1.95. Stores of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer Inc. had large displays of "Cinderella" up near the photo departments, apparently to take advantage of the Kodak tie-in. The photo sections are located near the video rental departments, and both are on the general merchandise side of the large combination stores. Phar-Mor, Youngstown, Ohio, with four stores in the Columbus market, also cross-merchandised shippers of "Cinderella" with Kodak products. Phar-Mor offered two-packs of Kodak Gold 200 for $7.27. There was a main display outside the video rental department area and smaller secondary displays near the video rental racks. Phar-Mor also sold the video for $16.95. Another retailer making a big splash in the Columbus area with "Cinderella" was Media Play, a division of the Musicland Group, Minneapolis. Media Play is an entertainment software superstore chain offering video, music, books and other related products. This retailer had a very large array of "Cinderella" products right inside the main entrance. These included the video, other Disney Masterpiece Collection videos involved in the rebate program, video discs, gift sets and books. The products were merchandised on a table-top display, a freestanding gondola unit and a "Cinderella" arch display from Disney. Plus, copies of the video were stacked up on the floor. The two biggest supermarket chains in the market did little to cross-merchandise "Cinderella" with the tie-in products. Both the Columbus Kroger Marketing Area and Big Bear Stores, Columbus, relied mostly on shippers to sell the title. The larger Kroger stores visited by SN each had six 36-piece shippers of "Cinderella." While a Big Bear Plus combination store had a large "Cinderella" display in its music and video area, which was located in the general merchandise part of the store, Big Bear supermarket-only stores carried a small amount of the title. Kroger sold the title for $17.99, one of the highest prices in the market, while Big Bear offered it for $16.95. For most other types of retailers in Columbus, it was mostly business-as-usual when it came to merchandising "Cinderella." Wal-Mart and Sam's Club put out mass quantities at the lowest price in the market, $13.87. A Kmart in Hilliard, Ohio, featured the title on a large display unit inside a 1,800-square-foot store-within-a-store music and video section adjacent to the main entrance. A Target Greatland store displayed the title on a front endcap, but did little else with it. Most other retailers in the market displayed the title using Disney-supplied shippers. Among them were Blockbuster Video, Drug Emporium, Suncoast Motion Picture Co., electronics retailers Best Buy and Sun Television. Toys 'R' Us had the title on a front endcap, while specialty retailer Mammoth Video had just six copies of "Cinderella" at the highest price seen in the market, $19.95.