CANDLE TRIBUTE LIGHTS UP NONFOOD SALES

CHAPIN CLARK Additional reporting: Joel Elson

LOS ANGELES -- Supermarkets scrambled along with other retailers across the country to keep up with the demand for Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997," declared the fastest-selling single ever by SoundScan, a music tracking service.

Nonfood buyers surveyed by SN reported phenomenal movement on what they view as a fundamentally in-and-out item.

According to releasing label Rocket Records/A&M Associated Labels, based here, more than 12 million advance orders were placed for the single, which streeted Sept. 23. The company estimated that in the first week of release nonmusic retailers sold 500,000 copies.

"We had shippers of the compact disc priced at $3.95 at photo counters and blew them out in two to three hours," said Gary Schloss, vice president of general merchandise at Carr Gottstein Foods, Anchorage, Alaska. "We'll probably get more in when new ones are printed."

Leeann Dias, buyer/merchandiser at Cambridge, Mass.-based Star Market, said the chain has sold "several thousand" copies. "I've already gotten calls from stores saying they need replenishment stock."

Twenty Star locations have CD sections, which are serviced by Fresh Picks, Richmond, Va. However, Star is selling "Candle" chainwide -- near the service department in stores without music sections -- as well as in its Wild Harvest natural-products stores. Fresh Picks is supplying copies of the single, said Dias.

"Everyone is buying it, kids to elderly people. It transcends all boundaries. But [demand] is going to peak and then drop."

"It's hot now, but I don't think it will last," agreed a source in Cincinnati-based Kroger's Houston KMA, who added that some stores on second orders were waiting for a strapped supplier to come up with enough product to fill them.

Indeed, finding supply seems to be the most pressing problem for stores looking to capitalize quickly.

"We tried to get them, but our supplier didn't get them to us in time," said Dan Black, managing nonfood buyer/merchandiser at Raley's Supermarkets, West Sacramento, Calif. "They said they sent most of them to the record stores."

Paul Sunberg, vice president of new business at Dart Distributing, a Minneapolis music, video and software distributor, said Rocket/A&M temporarily stopped taking orders from Dart and other customers "to catch up."

Sunberg said he personally had taken orders for "Candle" from more than 500 supermarkets in the Midwest and South. All told, he added, Dart had sold to supermarkets "hundreds of thousands of pieces in just a few days" following the single's release.

Dart has also shipped "tens of thousands" of copies of a CD called "English Rose: A Tribute to Elton John" to retailers including Supervalu, Minneapolis. With a suggested retail of $5.99, "English Rose" features 12 Elton John songs, among them the original "Candle in the Wind," sung by unknown artists.

"We had that piece already in production several weeks ago," said Sunberg, explaining that the CD was meant to celebrate John's 30 years as a performer and was not a quickie release designed to piggyback on the success of "Candle in the Wind 1997."

Bob Hall, drug center manager at a food-drug combination Hy-Vee in West Des Moines, Iowa, said strong sales of the single benefitted from tickets going on sale at the store's Ticketmaster booth for an Elton John concert to be held in Ames, Iowa, Oct. 24. Elton John began a national concert tour last week.

"Candle" tapes and CDs, which bring Hy-Vee a 24% margin, are displayed next to the Ticketmaster booth, Hall said, in the camera-video department at the front of the store. Nearby, "in a high-traffic-flow area," is an endcap display filled with special issues of magazines commemorating Princess Diana.

Dias said Star Market, for one, is donating all its profits from the single to the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund.

Supervalu retailers are deciding individually whether to donate anything to charity, said Pat McGivern, Supervalu's vice president of wholesale nonfood.