Media Play tries second take - closes stores and adjusts merchandising strategy

Discount Store News, July 15, 1996 by Pete Hisey

MINNEAPOLIS - Media Play, staggered by parent Musicland's financial loss of $136 million in 1995 and its own aggressive expansion schedule, has pared its store base (closing all of its Houston stores) and shifted its focus to making its 85 existing stores more profitable and friendlier to shoppers.

In the past, the megastore concept (48,000 sq. ft. of books, music and computer software) was almost sterile compared to competitors like Borders and Best Buy

"I'd say that's a fair way to describe it," said director of visual merchandising and store planning Mark Stone. "But the changes we're rolling out are really showing terrific results."

Those changes, unveiled in the chain's Southland store on the outskirts of Minneapolis, include re-setting fixtures to make departments more inviting, shifting adjacencies to appeal to core shopping groups, extensive cross-merchandising throughout the store, more interactivity (including a listening bar) and the introduction of a new children's area called Media Playground.

According to Stone, the only dramatic change in merchandise occurred in the sports collectible area, which has been expanded and moved from a gondola presentation to a feature wall on the left-hand side of the store, supplemented by fixtures resembling award cases containing the most valuable cards and sports memorabilia, like autographed bats, balls and uniforms.

The wall contains individually packaged cards, "grab bag" packs of re-packaged cards, plaques, mounted photos, team T-shirts and caps and sports celebrity posters.

The major change in the store comes from angling all gondolas at 45 degrees. "The 45-degree angle allows easier access and entry to each department," Stone said. "And it gives us much better endcap and promotional possibilities. The previous [parallel] setup was too restrictive."

The chain had been haunted by the tendency of customers to visit only one department in the store, but with the newly angled aisles, Stone said, it's not uncommon to see our music customers browsing through books or software."

The new configuration is now set in Minneapolis, Denver, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Detroit, Stone said, and will be chainwide soon, with refits taking approximately two weeks each.

The company has also adjusted its adjacencies. Video games was moved slightly to the left, making it more a part of the Collectors Comer than of the computer software department, its previous home.

Similarly, the apparel department, formerly a store-within-a-store presentation, was split up to bring it closer to its core shoppers. "I'm not sure that the average shopper thought of us as a source for apparel." Stone said. "But when a Metallica fan comes in for the new CD and sees the T-shirts and posters, we've got a good shot at a sale."

Cross-merchandising has become a way of life at Media Play. The newly angled greeting cards department makes what was formerly a low-key business a focal point in the store. Plus. spinner racks of greeting cards have been placed throughout.

Books, both sheet music and music biographies, have been moved to toppers in the music department, and the "Dummies" series of computer books has now found a home in software. Media Play has also invested heavily in a new interactive kids, area, Media Playground, located behind the Kids Castle performance stage.

In books, reading nooks have been enhanced with musical listening posts featuring reading-friendly CDs like light classical, world beat and Celtic titles.

Listening posts as a whole have been beefed up, with a listening bar (similar to Blockbuster Music's) added and about HO titles available either as samples or in their entirety. The posts are configured with 10 new releases each, chosen by category.

Computer software has been enhanced with the new Demo Desk, which features four preloaded PCs, with titles rotating through on a daily or weekly basis. The department now includes roadblock fixtures highlighting a single new title (most recently, Duke Nukem), as well as more aggressive end@ capping. Of all the departments, the angling effect is strongest in software, which had previously been merchandised in a mundane canyon approach.

While Stone said that it was too early to judge what, if any, effect the reset has had on productivity, he noted that the real intent was to establish a better relationship with consumers, to make them feel more comfortable shopping and to assure that the majority is seeing the full store, not just a single department. "But so far the results have been great. We've really liked what we've seen," Stone said. "It's still early [planning began early in 1996, and full implementation at store level is only two months old], but we have some real success stories in some markets."

The front of the store has seen big changes as well. "We want to send a very clear message that we are a discounter," Stone said. "And we enhance that image with impulse items like film and batteries and doorbusters like 99-cent CDs and $4.99 movies."

Stone said there have been few changes in merchandise, apart from trading cards and collectibles and tests of pagers and cellular telephones. "The mix is almost identical," he said. "I take it as a compliment that many customers are just now noticing that we're selling greeting cards or film, when we've been in those businesses for at least a year."