NEW B&R UNIT TO FEATURE METAL WALL FIXTURES FOR VIDEOS

DAN ALAIMO

LINCOLN, Neb. -- B&R Stores will open a new unit here in its headquarters city this month with a 4,000-tape video rental department, said Bob Gettner, video buyer/coordinator.

The selection will include hardware and software rentals for the new video game format Sega Dreamcast, about 120 DVD rental units and about 20% of the tape inventory in new releases, said Gettner. Located along the front wall of the store, in front of the checkstands, the inventory will be kept behind a service counter that is dedicated to video, he noted.

The main difference in the new department is the fixtures, Gettner said. Instead of the grid racks used in the chain's other 11 video departments, this one will have metal slot wall fixtures from JD Store Equipment, Manhattan Beach, Calif. B&R has a total of 14 stores. Its other rental departments have between 2,000 and 5,000 rental units.

Grand opening promotions will likely include special pricing on new releases and drawings, he said. "We'll be giving away a DVD player, an AM-FM home receiver and a year's worth of movie rentals," he said.

Sell-through also will be featured in the store, primarily in shippers close to the video department, or nearby. "We will have anything that will be out there for sell-through, such as 'The Mummy' and 'Wild, Wild West,"' said Gettner.

For DVD rentals, "We will probably have 120 units when we open, and will probably grow that," Gettner said.