Retailing Briefs

By TWICE Staff On Apr 4 2011 - 4:01am

World Wide Stereo Holds Back-To-Back Events

MONTGOMERYVILLE, PA. — March was a busy month for Bob and Ron’s World Wide Stereo. First the Philadelphia-area A/V specialty chain helped raise more than $610,000 for its local Ronald McDonald House during a five-hour fundraiser with CBS-TV affiliate CBS 3. The dealer itself contributed $5,000 and gave away Klipsch Series Image S3 earphones to spur pledges, which were taken on-air by World Wide staffers. “Our credo has always been to do well by doing good,” said president and founder Bob Cole.

More recently, Cole offered up his Montgomeryville showroom to Motorola Mobility to test HDMI compatibility between Motorola’s set-top products and World Wide’s broad assortment of 3DTVs and A/V receivers. “It was a great way to ensure that our customers get to enjoy a great entertainment experience by finding and addressing issues before [they] would be affected,” Cole said.

Retrevo.com Morphs Into CE Shopping Site

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. — Retrevo.com, the consumer electronics review site, has integrated a shopping component into its research function. The company, founded in 2006, collects reviews and other data from across the web to provide what it describes as comprehensive, unbiased and real-time assessments of tens of thousands of CE products.

Last month Retrevo added a comparison shopping platform as well as its own deal-of-the-day sale items. “Add to Cart” buttons now appear alongside recommended products that are available through partner e-tailers, while a “Do Not Add To Cart” button is reserved for items that the system doesn’t recommend.

“Over the last five years, Retrevo has become the second-largest review site in the world for consumer electronics,” said Retrevo CEO Vipin Jain. “Now Retrevo will help shoppers complete their journey by including checkout and order processing on our site.”

B&O Opens Third Florida Showroom

HALLANDALE BEACH, FLA. — Bang & Olufsen opened a new showroom here in the Village of Gulfstream Park late last month. The 1,470-square-foot shop features the company’s full product portfolio in addition to custom-installation services for both commercial and residential properties.

In a statement, B&O America president Zean Nielsen said the new location is the company’s third showroom in Florida and “represents our strong and growing presence in the South Florida market.” B&O supports nearly 1,000 freestanding showrooms and in-store shops around the world.

According to the new showroom’s co-owner Robert Melnick, the assortment includes the new BeoSound 8, B&O’s first iPad/iPod/iPhone docking station, and the BeoVision 10 LED TV line in 32-inch, 40-inch and 46-inch screen sizes.

Petra Releases Largest Mobile A/V Flier

EDMOND, OKLA. — National CE distributor Petra Industries said its 208-page 2011 mobile A/V sales flier is its largest ever. The catalog features more than 400 new items and 300 price drops, and has been mailed to more than 14,000 independent retailers and e-tailers nationwide, the distributor said.

New additions include full lines of speakers, amplifiers and subwoofers from RE Audio; vehicle observation and security products from CrimeStopper; new flagship navigation, multimedia and A/V in-dash head units from Pioneer and Clarion; and Power Acoustik’s full line of mobile video units featuring a new programming technology called IngeniX.

Other categories include GPS receivers, marine A/V, car installation kits, satellite radio receivers, speakers, subwoofers, iPod/iPhone interfaces and radar/laser detectors. The flier is also available at www.petra.com/current-email, and pricing specials are valid through Oct. 2.