GENUARDI'S VIDEO DEPARTMENT TARGETS CD-ROM

DAN ALAIMO

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Genuardi's Family Markets here is focusing on CD-ROM and sell-through in a new store's video department.

The store, which opened last month in Springfield, Pa., offers CD-ROM for rental, two lines of CD-ROM for sale and nearly as much sell-through inventory as rental product, said Tim Ambrose, video specialist. The selection is mostly children's products, but also includes theatrical hits like "Apollo 13" and "Batman Forever," as well as previously viewed tapes. "When 'Waiting to Exhale' comes out, we'll have that, too. But the majority of our sell-through is the kids' titles," Ambrose said. Genuardi's has about 50 units of CD-ROM for rental in the new store. Rentals of the titles are not as strong as some movies "but they are doing better than Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis right now," Ambrose said.

He said rentals of the compact disc-based software for the Sony PlayStation game system are doing "real well. A lot of people said it wouldn't rent, but we have it and it's renting."

The CD-ROM sell-through offerings include a children's program from SoftKey International, Cambridge, Mass., and a three-pack from Sirius Publishing, Scottsdale, Ariz., which was designed specifically for the supermarket trade, said Ambrose. Both are supplied by video distributor Ingram Entertainment, La Vergne, Tenn.

Priced at $9.95, the three-pack "is flying out of the store," he said. The program is made up of older titles that would have sold for $50 to $70 each a year ago, he said. Genuardi's also is looking at CD-ROM titles from other companies.

"Once everybody gets Windows 95, which makes computers easier to use, I think CD-ROMs are going to take off like a rocket," he said. The rental inventory in the new department is about 1,500 titles, he said. It is a secured inventory section, with the empty boxes displayed on racks in the middle of the shopping pattern. Genuardi's now has 22 video rental departments in its 26 total stores. Two other stores carry sell-through only, said Ambrose. Three new stores are planned for later this year and probably will all have video rental departments, he said.