RED FOOD IS OPENING 9TH VIDEO RENTAL UNIT

DAN ALAIMO

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Red Food Stores is opening its ninth video rental department this month.

The live-inventory department will be in a new store and will carry 4,500 to 5,000 tapes, said Mike Bryson, director of health and beauty care and general merchandise. Red Food is committed to putting video in all its new stores, but has no definite plans for further expansion this year, he said.

"We don't know where video is going to be in five years, but right now it is a good business," he said.

"Video helps bring customers into the store and then it brings them back because they have to return the tapes. Video is hot right now," he said.

The new department will be in a "rail car" configuration along the front of the store, he said. This long, narrow design is used by retailers throughout the industry, including H-E-B Grocery Co., San Antonio; Smith's Food & Drug, Salt Lake City, and Schnuck Markets, St. Louis.

"It's a store within a store. You have to go through a door inside the supermarket to get to the video area," Bryson said.

The selection in the new department will be similar to Red Food's other video areas, he said. Besides new-release rental movies, the section also will carry children's movies and games for rental, and sell-through tapes, he said.

The retailer owns its video inventory and operates its own departments, said Bryson. Its principal supplier is video distributor ETD Entertainment Merchandising, Houston.

Red Food's departments range from 1,200 tapes to a 6,000-tape freestanding video store. The retailer has no plans to expand the specialty store concept "because we are doing pretty well with the video departments inside our supermarkets.