GOOD GRADES EQUAL VIDEO RENTALS AT HARPS

DAN ALAIMO

SPRINGDALE, Ark. -- Harps Food Stores promoted video rentals with a program rewarding kids for good grades. The "Kid Vid Cash" promotion was part of a "Kids Week" circular run by Harps in early June. It offered children in kindergarten through sixth grade 25-cent coupons good toward video rentals. "The response rate from the kids is way up there," said Randy Weddington, video specialist at Harps.

The promotion has become an annual event for the retailer. "This is one of our community services. We like to give as much as possible," Weddington said.

The retailer gave three 25-cent coupons for each A on a report card, two coupons for each B and one coupon for each C, with a limit of 12 coupons per child. Rental rates at Harps are $2.48 for new releases and $1.48 for catalog titles. A Tuesday special features every title for 98 cents. Many stores run a five videos for five days for $5 special, Weddington noted.

Rental rates will soon be going up, he said. "We are going to go a little higher on new releases, but with two-day rentals. Then we will be quite a bit lower on catalog titles, offering weekly rentals on those."

This is a response to competition, he said. "We are just following the market."

In the same advertising box, Harps also promoted Warner Bros.' western sell-through titles for $13.99. These movies, which included titles like "Pale Rider" and "Unforgiven," have suggested retail prices of $19.98. The promotions were not related, said Weddington. "With our sell-through program, we've now got new titles to advertise each week. For about the last three months, we've been really pushing sell-through."

Results from the sell-through ads have been good, but erratic, Weddington said. "I wish it were more of a science. It's very hard to predict which store is going to do well with which title," he said. "Some stores will do great on some titles and then die on others. It seems like there is no rhyme or reason to it."