HARMON'S NEWEST VIDEO SECTION ROCKS WITH A '50S THEME

DAN ALAIMO

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah -- Harmon's here has opened its ninth video rental department in a new store that takes a 1950s theme as the inspiration for its decor.

A 1950s feel suffuses the live-inventory, 2,000-tape department, called Harmon's Drive-In Video. Category signs look like car windows at a drive-in movie, and a replica of the back of an old Cadillac sticks out of the wall into the main store, said Wanda Munsell, video specialist.

"The whole store has a '50s theme. They even play old rock-and-roll music over the speakers," she said.

The 72,000-square-foot Orem, Utah, store opened in mid-June.

This is Harmon's first store to use a themed decor, she said. A second, with a "New York, New York" motif, is planned for a September opening in East, Utah. "It immediately creates an exciting atmosphere for customers as they walk in the store," Munsell said.

All Harmon's stores have video rental departments, with inventories ranging in size from 1,500 to 2,000 tapes, she said. The 1,000-square-foot Orem department is the retailer's third to display live inventory.

About 25% of the rental tapes are on the new-release wall, Munsell noted. New free-goods, copy-depth programs from the studios have helped the retailer improve customer satisfaction, she said.

"For the same price, you get more copies than you did before. [The programs] have worked really well for us," she said.

"The customers like them too because now they have more choices. We are not out of new releases as frequently as we were before."