Tandy opens reformatted stores

Discount Store News, Sept 2, 1996 by Jennifer Negley

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT -- Tandy closed the book on its 1996 Incredible Universe store openings last month, but also opened a whole new chapter for both its gigastore chain and Computer City.

For Incredible Universe, August marked the unveiling of its latest prototype and hinted at the direction Tandy is moving in attempt to reinvigorate the 17-store chain. For Computer City, the month brought the debut of two new formats: a double-sized urban prototype and a store-within-a-store concept inside Incredible Universe units.

The changes got underway in early August with the opening of Computer City's downtown Chicago store on Ohio Street at the northern end of The Loop. At 40,000-sq.-ft., the store is nearly twice the size of Computer City's standard 24,000-sq.-ft. suburban super-store. The store also has a no-fee parking lot than can accomodate more than 100 cars.

The opening of a second urban store followed in the third week of August on the Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Also a 40,000-sq.-ft. store, the two-story unit divides its space nearly equally between the selling floor and the business/training center, as does the Chicago store.

Each downtown training center has a slightly larger offering of business-oriented merchandise than suburban stores, and its four training rooms can handle up to 40 people simultaneously. Computer City president Matthew Howard told DSN the chain expects the business centers in the downtown stores to have a strong appeal. "I wouldn't be surprised if in these stores it grows to 40% of the store," he said.

Both downtown locations have moved software, upgrades and accessories toward the front on the assumption that urban-center consumers, many of them mass transit commuters, are more likely to be shopping for portable merchandise. Due to join the front-of-the-store mix by early September, according to vp, North American sales Bob Gellman, is "a section devoted to the Internet where customers can test-drive the merchandise." Other features:

* Kids Stuff, which in suburban superstores consists of three or four workstations in the children's software aisle, has been broken out into its own 16-linear-ft. area at the back of the store, although the number of workstations has been pared to two.

* The height of the shelving has been lowered to 8 ft. to improve sight lines across the store and make it easier for shoppers in need and store associates to spot each other, a move rival CompUSA began implementing in its new stores last year. Computer City will use the lower shelving in all stores going forward, Gellman said, and it will convert shelving in some existing units.

* A seven-register, centralized checkout is set against the left wall of the store, with a single, coral-style line for customers. The customer service center, located on the wall opposite checkout, can be converted to a backup checkout station during peak times like Holiday.

Although noting that urban markets are enormously attractive, Howard said Computer City will evaluate the downtown stores "through the rest of the fall season and make some decisions" about where to take the concept next.

In the Incredible Universe's case, the decisions about where to go next have already been made. IU, which Tandy chairman John Roach earlier this year noted had failed to meet the company's sales expectations, opened a 184,000-sq.-ft. superstore in Elizabeth, N.J., in late August, and on the same day took the wraps off renovations to its 1-year-old Westbury, N.Y., store. Both are located in the New York City metro market. The new prototype's features:

* The Music and Movies area, which was formerly operated by Trans World Entertainment, is now operated by Coconuts, the Northeastern music chain owned by Trans World. Music CDs occupy a good portion of the rotunda at the center of the store and bleed back into a 13,500-sq.-ft. Coconuts Music and Movies area, giving it a store-within-a-store feeling. The archways that previously had guided shoppers into music and movies have been knocked out to give the area a more open feeling. "We've just blown open all the walls," IU president Henry Chiarelli told DSN.

* A 2,200-sq.-ft. version of Tandy's Radio Shack, called Radio Shack Unlimited, features accessories such as cables, antennae, satellite dishes, camcorder rewinders and adapters.

* A 14,000-sq.-ft. Computer City store occupies the area off the rotunda that had previously been devoted to movies and music. "Computer City has a little bit of a different type of demographic than Incredible Universe--more of a business demographic," Chiarelli said, "so it brings in new customers." As is the case with freestanding Computer City stores, those inside IU feature business equipment/training centers.

* A separate 2,000-sq.-ft. store-within-a-store treatment off the rotunda is now reserved for Computer City's Kids Stuff department.

As for the future, Chiarelli said that IU remains intent on becoming the purveyor of telecommunications, satellite and Internet services, as well as the equipment that makes them usable. "We're transitioning toward it," he said.