Electronics Expo Adds Home Fashions
By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 7/12/2004
ROXBURY, N.J.— Electronics Expo, the eight-month-old New Jersey A/V specialty chain, has added home furnishings to its assortment, allowing customers to order a coffee table, love seat or sofa along with their DVD-Rs and flat-panel displays.
The broadened product line is the result of a unique partnership between the dealer and Levitz, the multi-state furniture retailer, which handles inventory and delivery, and pays Electronics Expo a commission on sales of its goods. The CE stores have access to 95 percent of Levitz's assortment, including sectionals, chairs, lamps, vases and wall units — some of which have been integrated into home theater vignettes — and sales staffers can see local warehouse inventory in real time.
"We're offering a total electronics and home furnishings solution," said founder and principal Leon Temiz.
Sales associates received additional training in home furnishings from Levitz personnel, and all furniture sales are processed directly into the Levitz system, making for a seamless transaction for customers, Temiz explained. Electronics Expo shoppers can also share in any Levitz sales events, and both companies will participate in cross-promotional activities, he said.Temiz, former CEO of 6th Avenue Electronics, launched Electronics Expo last October with two stores, and recently soft-opened a third unit, in the upscale Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, N.J. The two-floor, 38,000-square-foot former The Wiz location was scheduled to officially open on July 11.
The Electronics Expo/Levitz deal is the third electronics/furniture pairing in recent months. During the spring, Toshiba announced plans to create one-stop home theaters starting this summer in the 35 Drexel Heritage stores nationwide. Toshiba will offer a variety of televisions and digital home theater systems with cosmetics that complement the furniture designs.
And Monster Cable has just begun rolling out the Monster Reference Home Theater Music Experience (TWICE, June 7, 2004, p. 1), which is built around the company's first audio components and first home theater furniture line. Both the electronics and the furniture are upscale.
