NEW DIERBERGS UNIT TESTS SELL-THROUGH AREA

DAN ALAIMO

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- Dierbergs Markets here is testing a planogrammed section for sell-through videos in a new store in Warson Woods, Mo. The 8-linear-foot section is in the new store's 1,898-square-foot video department, said Jamie Molitor, Dierbergs' director of video operations. This is the chain's first new store in six years, and its first in-store department with a separate entrance, she said. It opened at the end of January. Dierbergs, which consistently ranks in volume with video rental chains many times its size, offers video rental in 14 of its 15 stores, including one that is a stand-alone shop adjacent to a supermarket, she said. Except for the sell-through program, an outside drop box and the separate entrance, the new department is similar to Dierbergs' other 4,000- to 5,000-tape departments, she said. The other departments range in size from 800 to 2,500 square feet. The new department now has about 4,000 rental tapes. Plans are in the works to expand the new release selections in all stores, Molitor noted. All Dierbergs stores have sections for remainders of sell-through event and promotion titles, and another area for previously viewed tapes. The new store devotes 4 linear feet to promotional remainders and has 50 to 100 previously viewed tapes. The number of previously viewed tapes will grow in time as the store's rental inventory is updated, she said. For the new store, "I wanted a section where a customer could find a good children's movie, or a good adventure or comedy. I wanted people to know that if they needed to buy a movie for a gift, they could get it there every day and not just when something was on sale," Molitor said. "We have sell-through in all the other stores, but a lot of it is just leftovers from promotions and often it looks like leftovers. I wanted something different here," she said. Early results from the test have been promising, she said. "If the program is successful, we will roll it out to all the other stores," she said. The section has about 200 tapes. While the rest of Dierbergs' video operation is supplied by ETD Entertainment Merchandising, Houston, the planogrammed section is handled by Sight & Sound, St. Louis. The distributor will give the store a computer-generated planogram that will show store personnel exactly where to put product and what to reorder. "We will change the selection monthly or every six weeks, depending on what's hot," she said. "It is actually a wide variety of titles. We have a lot of Disney, because that always sells well. But we also have titles like 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and 'Fried Green Tomatoes,' " Molitor said. The selection skews toward family titles. "The grocery market is a family environment. We try to gear everything in that direction. That isn't to say I wouldn't stock 'Silence of the Lambs,' but I wouldn't put anything really risque in there," she said. With sell-through prices on many top titles between $10 and $15, more customers would rather buy than rent. "A lot of people have started their own video libraries and are in the process of building them up," Molitor said. "It's gone beyond Disney and children's titles. There are a lot of people who would like to have a good collection at home to watch when there is nothing on television and they don't feel like going out to get a rental," she said.