That Was The Year That Was: A Retail Retrospective

By Alan Wolf On Dec 19 2011 - 6:01am

NEW YORK – It was a year of tragedy and loss for retail, but it was also one of hope.

Japan and Thailand are still recovering from the ravages of storm waters that killed tens of thousands and delivered a one-two punch to the digital imaging business.

On these shores, the incessant economic malaise claimed victims of another sort: CE and appliance chains including Ultimate Electronics, Sixth Avenue Electronics, Linder’s Furniture and Appliance Direct, which all shut their doors for good.

On an individual level, the industry lost its leading light with the passing of Steve Jobs; vendors and fellow retailers mourned the loss of R.C. Willey’s longtime chief merchant Lorne Schmunk; and TWICE bid a final farewell to its former associate publisher Bruce Alpert.

But despair gave way to hope in the second half of the year as shoppers made Black Friday one of the biggest days ever for retail in general and CE dealers in particular. Leading the sales surge were tablets, smartphones and e-readers, the three riders of the new age of electronics, although strong demand for oversized and fully featured panels gave TV sellers reason to rejoice.

Whether the momentum will resume before the month is out and continue into 2012 remains to be seen. But until then, let’s take one last look back at 2011 and the forces that will shape the New Year.

JANUARY

Super Bowl Sales Sacked By Snow Blitz

The severe winter weather that pounded much of the country this winter takes the wind out of retailers’ Super Bowl sales. The most important period on the TV promotional calendar is impacted by varying degrees, dealers and distributors report, depending on local weather conditions and municipalities’ ability to tackle the ice and snow.

ProSource Debuts At CES

The newly formed ProSource buying group formally debuts this month at International CES. The move brings the Progressive Retailers Organization (PRO Group) and Home Entertainment Source (HES) together under the $14 billion BrandSource umbrella to create what ProSource describes as “the largest single buying group for premium products.”

Tablets The Talk Of TWICE Retail Roundtable

Tablets appear poised to dethrone TV as the centerpiece of CE stores and websites. How A/V dealers can leverage the shift to mobile micro-computing while keeping the TV fires burning is a hot topic at TWICE’s annual Retail Roundtable, a closed-door session held during International CES that brought together leaders from every CE retail channel, as well as the distributors that supply them.

Sixth Avenue Begins Slide

The first confirmed signs of trouble at Sixth Avenue Electronics come this month when it exits the Philadelphia market after two years and drops several recently added categories including major appliances and gaming. The New York metro area A/V specialty chain shuts its three Philly stores and closes two underperforming New Jersey showrooms, bringing the chain down to 14 locations.

FEBRUARY

BrandSource, Nationwide Detail New Strategies

The nation’s two largest buying groups for independent dealers held concurrent late-winter annual meetings, where they laid out strategic plans for the new year before the rank and file. BrandSource push for expanded use of the group’s brand name and new brand ambassador, Kathy Ireland, and call for members to “embrace” connectivity and wireless. Meanwhile, the Nationwide Marketing Group serve up a full slate of tablet computers and accessories; introduce a private-label line of elderly-friendly CE; offer a high-margin movie, calibration disc and HDMI cable bundle; and add Sansui/ Orion to its vendor roster.

TV Pricing Pinches Chain Store Profits

CE price erosion, particularly in TVs, proved a drag on sales and earnings for national retail chains in the fourth quarter. The trend, compounded by severe winter weather, continue this month, with sales at CE and appliance stores falling 4.1 percent, according to a Spending Pulse report by MasterCard Advisors.

Echoing others, No. 1 retailer Walmart says CE price compression was the main culprit behind a nearly 2 percent decline in same-store sales during its fiscal fourth quarter, and is looking to tablets to help boost category revenue.

Distributors Optimistic About The New Year

With International CES and Super Bowl TV promotions behind them, distributors are taking a fresh look at the first half of the new year and are generally hopeful about sales prospects.

With flat-screen TV still popular but margin challenged, distributors believe networked products —whether wired or unwired — should be stocked, sold and assembled by retailers and installers to sales volume and profits. Distributors also see tablet PCs and smartphones as a growth category to drive traffic and sales volume, and hope that IPTV features and renewed marketing plans for 3DTVs will spur flat-panel sales and margins.

R’Shack, hhgregg Focusing On Mobility

RadioShack will look to mobility, connectivity, accessories and its turnkey wireless kiosks as its chief avenues for growth under incoming CEO Jim Gooch, who will succeed Julian Day in May. Those categories can help compensate for ebbing sales and eroding prices of legacy CE products like GPS, digital cameras and MP3 players that are being cannibalized by smartphones, Gooch and his management team tells analysts during a fourth-quarter earnings call.

Meanwhile, hhgregg says it plans to be a major player in the tablet PC market by offering “a significant assortment” of the devices from Acer, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba, and is holding direct discussions with Apple over broadening its selection of iPads and iPhones, currently made available through Verizon.

Industry Bids Ultimate Electronics Adieu

Industry observers say they regret the loss of Ultimate Electronics, which began going-out-of-business sales this month. The chain, founded in 1968 by Bill and Barbara Pearse and majority-owned by investor Mark Wattles, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January for the second time in six years after business soured, bills went unpaid, and vendors severed their credit lines.

But unable to secure financing or access its cash collateral to fund operations, the company, which was also partially held by Hewlett-Packard, had no recourse but to liquidate its inventory, which will leave some 1,500 employees out of work when the chain’s 46 stores are shuttered by April.

MARCH

Japan Ravaged By Tsunami, Earthquake; CE Impact Uncertain

Tens of thousands of people are lost in an earthquake-triggered tsunami that strikes Japan this month. Many of the island nation’s CE production plants and facilities are either damaged or closed due to direct impact from the disaster, by efforts to locate and rescue employees, or from a lack of electrical power due to nuclear power plant shutdowns. In the U.S., retailers and distributors brace for d-SLR shortages and attendant price increases.

CE, Majap Sales Stabilizing

Sales at consumer electronics and major appliance retailers edge up this month, the U.S. Commerce Department reports. Sales increase 2.1 percent seasonally adjusted and 3.6 percent unadjusted over the year-ago period, representing the ninth consecutive month of gains.

Best Buy Lays Out Growth Strategy

Best Buy says it will reduce its big-box real estate by 10 percent over the next three to five years, will dramatically expand its online-only assortment, and will focus on a profitable mix of accessories, subscriptions, content delivery and services as part of an aggressive plan to build its business. First outlined during a fourth-quarter earnings call this month, the company will later present its game plan in finer detail to financial analysts in a day-long meeting at company headquarters to help calm investor concerns over declining same-store sales and market share gains by Amazon.com.

MEGA Group Places Record Orders At Show

MEGA Group USA, the 1,500-member furniture, majaps, CE and mattress buying group, places a record number of sales orders at its biannual convention this month. According to MEGA president and chief majap merchant Rick Bellows, orders are up double-digits over last year’s spring show, exceeding expectations. “The first couple of months of the year were tough,” he told TWICE, “but it’s no different than it always been. There is business out there – you just have to work a little harder and smarter to get it.” Orders also increased in advance of April’s planned price hikes by major white-goods manufacturers, he says.

Sony Shuts Stores, Opens Prototype

Sony Electronics debuts a next-generation format for its direct-channel retail stores that emphasizes connectivity and live displays. A new showroom, located in Los Angeles, borrows a page from Apple Stores with its bright, open sales floor and live table-height displays. The launch follows the closing of 11 stores in as many states while the balance of the Sony Style chain, including the new  pilot store, are redubbed Sony Stores.

APRIL

A Cruel Month For Consumer Electronics

Bad weather, falling prices and Easter-related spending keep a lid on CE and appliance revenue this month. According to estimates from the U.S. Commerce Department, April sales for electronics and appliance retailers edge up just 0.9 percent year over year to $8.4 billion, but fall 2.2 percent from March.

E-tail sales paint a different picture: Commerce Department figures show that e-commerce and other direct sales rose 15.5 percent in April, as reflected in Sears Holdings’ reported 22.4 percent increase in total online sales during the quarter.

HTSA Celebrates 15th Anniversary At Spring Meeting

The Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) has two good reasons to celebrate at its annual Spring Meeting this month at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass outside Phoenix. First, the buying group for specialty A/V dealers, custom installers and system integrators turns 15 this year, and second, business has finally turned a corner.

“The mood is definitely up tempo,” executive director Richard Glikes tells TWICE. “Business is starting to feel better. You still have to go out and get it, but ever since November business has been good, and the members and vendors are happy.”

Appliance Direct Files Chapter 11

Appliance Direct, the Central Florida majap chain known for CEO Sam Pak’s aggressive, price-focused TV commercials, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The voluntary filing cites the “historic, unprecedented decline in the economy, and the decreased consumer spending on home appliances ... [which] had a significant impact on operations.”

The closely held company, founded in 2002 and a Top 100 TWICE appliance retailer, also attributes its inability to pay creditors and service its debt to “an unsuccessful expansion effort” in which it assumed the leases to 16 former Rex stores in 2009.

Lorne Schmunk, 60

R.C. Willey veteran Lorne Schmunk dies this month of natural causes. He was 60. Schmunk joined the furniture, appliance and CE chain more than 33 years ago, serving as a sales associate, buyer, sales manager, store manager and, for the past nine years, merchandising VP for CE and majaps.

“Lorne cared about our company, our associates, our customers and the industry,” says CEO Scott Hymas. “He was tough but fair and liked by all.”

MAY

Top 100 Retailers’ Sales Up 5.8% In ’10

TWICE releases its latest Top 100 Retailers Report, which shows that the nation’s largest CE dealers collectively mounted a 5.8 percent rebound in sales last year, to $128 billion. Driving those gains in part were stunning performances by the country’s two largest booksellers, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, whose popular e-readers helped fuel revenue growth of 75 percent and 300 percent, respectively, last year.

But the increases obscured the pain felt by most ranking retailers, many of whom showed high singleand low double-digit sales declines as prices fell, showrooms were shut and consumers continued to lay low.

NewBay Panel Optimistic About 3DTV Acceptance

Upbeat assessments of 3DTV are the rule rather than the exception during a 3DTV panel at this month’s “Connected TV and 3D” conference in New York, produced by TWICE parent company NewBay Media. The panel, moderated by TWICE executive editor Greg Tarr, features participants from the CE, film and broadcasting industries. Their optimism echoes results from a new study of 3DTV owners by the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), which gave the format positive reviews.

hhgregg Takes New Merchandising Tack

hhgregg announces a series of in-store, online and marketing initiatives to further drive sales and share. The plans include a renewed focus on major appliances, a change in store-level management structure, a redesigned e-commerce site and smaller brick-andmortar stores, a more tailored TV assortment and expanded IT selection, and a new marketing campaign built around The Beatles’ song “Help!”

Among the majap changes: splitting the role of store sales manager into two positions, with one dedicated to CE and the other to white-goods and furniture; a new white-glove installation service; keeping more inventory within the stores to accommodate take-with purchases; and committing more marketing funds to the category.

Fiorentino Fired; Owes Systemax $11M

Systemax accepts the resignation of Gilbert Fiorentino, who agrees to repay the company $11 million in assets for corporate malfeasance. The former chief executive of the company’s retail technology products group and founder of TigerDirect had been placed on administrative leave in April following an anonymous tip that led to an independent investigation into his Miami- based operations. He would later be succeeded by former Best Buy executive David Sprosty, and investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Top PC Dealers Post 12% Gains

The nation’s 25 largest PC retailers enjoyed a healthy 12.1 percent spurt in computer sales last year, outpacing dealers’ overall CE gains. According to TWICE’s annual Top 25 PC Retailers report, released this month, tablet PCs in general and Apple’s iPad in particular had much to do with their success. Leading the pack, in order, are Best Buy, Apple, Walmart, Dell and Newegg.com, followed by Staples, Micro Center, Amazon.com, Office Depot and Systemax.

JUNE

Top 100 Majap Dealers’ Sales Grow 5.5%

TWICE releases its annual Top 100 Appliance Retailers Report, which reveals that in a market many described as the worst in memory, the nation’s largest major appliance merchants managed to post a cumulative 5.5 percent increase in white-goods sales in 2010, to $24.3 billion, readily besting the prior year’s 3.7 percent decline.

Topping the charts again with $7.5 billion in whitegoods sales is perennial favorite Sears, although its decade-long market share slide continued in 2010, as Lowe’s and The Home Depot consolidated their second- and third-place slots.

Top 25 Camera Retailers See 6.5% Gain

TWICE releases its first-ever retail ranking of digital imaging dealers, which shows that the nation’s 25 largest sold $9.3 billion worth of cameras and camcorders last year, a 6.5 percent gain from 2009. Best Buy, the nation’s leading CE retail chain, stands as the leader in dollar volume for combined camera and camcorder sales, with essentially flat sales of nearly $2.9 billion. Hot on its tail is No. 2 camera merchant Amazon.com, which grew that business by 30 percent year over year, to $1.4 billion in sales.

Best Buy’s Dunn Says Growth Plan On Track

During a first-quarter conference call, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn shrugs off expected profit and compsale declines, and points instead to market share gains in critical categories as validation of the company’s strategic initiatives. Key barometers for the quarter include double-digit growth in e-commerce, triple-digit increases e-reader sales, and a 28 percent surge in wireless revenue, he tells analysts, which helped generate more than a billion dollars in operating cash flow. And to keep the momentum going, the No. 1 CE retailer will press on with a full spate of online, in-store and merchandising initiatives which are beginning to bear fruit, Dunn says.

hhgregg Begins Pittsburgh Push

hhgregg formally enters the Pittsburgh market this month with the opening of its first four area locations.

The new 30,000-square-foot superstores “demonstrate hhgregg’s ongoing commitment to expanding operations in Pennsylvania,” says Jeff Pearson, marketing VP for the Indianapolis-based appliance and CE chain, which has targeted western Pennsylvania for much of this year’s growth. The new Steel City locations bring hhgregg’s store count to 185 in 15 states as it continues its planned national expansion.

JULY


AC In Short Supply This Summer

Consumers are finding little relief in appliance stores from this month’s triple-digit heat wave, as a combination of supply-chain hang-ups and late-spring heat has kept room air inventory scarce. The problem began earlier this year with a shortage of Chinese-made compressors, and supplies were further constrained by an early AC selling season in the Midwest and East, resulting in empty warehouses in the category’s core markets.

Archrook Laguna Calls It Quits

CE, IT and housewares distributor Archbrook Laguna files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans for an August fire sale after lenders cut its credit and Samsung halts shipments following a loan default. Top creditors of the $800 million company include Dell, Garmin, Toshiba and Samsung, while customers include Amazon.com, Best Buy, Costco, Newegg.com, QVC and Walmart. Archbrook, created in a three-way merger in 2000, was also co-owner in BrandSource’s Expert Warehouse distribution program, which is now managed for the buying group by Ingram Micro.

Merchants Forecast Christmas Chill

CE and appliance merchants are forecasting a cold shoulder from consumers this holiday season. Retail executives contacted by TWICE believe the industry’s current doldrums, which exceed even last summer’s unprecedented slowdown, could continue into the all-important holiday selling period, triggering drastic price promotions. Compounding the problem, they say, is a dearth of new high-tech lures as shoppers gravitate to low-margin tablets and smartphones and remain largely indifferent to 3D and connected TV.

AUGUST

CE/Majap Retail Sales Up 1.5%: Feds

CE and appliance dealers eke out a 1.5 percent sales gain this month for a total take of $8.5 billion, according to estimates by the U.S. Commerce Department. Sales rise a more modest 0.5 percent from July. The monthly figures, which are compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, are adjusted for seasonal variations and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes. In comparison, total retail sales excluding restaurants and car dealers and auto parts stores rise 7.5 percent in August and 0.1 percent from July.

“August retail sales [month over month] mirror August employment figures – zero growth,” says Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the National Retail Federation (NRF), a retail trade group.

Glikes Resigns From HTSA

Richard Glikes steps down as executive director of the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) after 15 years in that post following a contract dispute with the buying group’s board. “Richard has done an excellent job as executive director and we wish him the best in his future endeavors,” notes board member, past president and Gramaphone principal Brian Hudkins, who says he was surprised by Glikes’ decision.

“I feel like I am opening a new door, and I’m excited about looking at new opportunities,” Glikes told TWICE prior to announcing plans to launch a new buying group, Azione Unlimited.

BrandSource Debuts Mobile App, Expanded ‘Warehouse II’ Operation

At its summer show in Las Vegas, BrandSource introduces its own mobile app and an expanded Expert Warehouse distribution program that together could transform many of its members into “catalog showrooms” presenting more products, categories and services than ever before, the buying group says.

The app enables consumers to find the nearest BrandSource dealer and share new product information via email, Twitter and Facebook, while the new Expert Warehouse II, maintained by Ingram Micro, will enable dealers to enter new categories such as small housewares, Apple-related and other tech accessories, tablets and PCs, and networking hardware for custom installations, group executives tell TWICE.

Nationwide Sets Attendance Records At 40th Anniversary Show

The Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) holds its best-attended PrimeTime! buying show and member conference. Highlights of the 40th anniversary event in Dallas include the launch of a Nationwide-exclusive A/V brand, Allegra, and the debut of the group’s enhanced merchandising and marketing team, which is now lead by GE Appliance veteran Dave Bilas and includes former Electrolux sales director Jeff Knock. The show, which generates the largest turnout in NMG history with 900 members and 3,500 attendees in total, also marks the PrimeTime! debut of the group’s new Nationwide Florida chapter, which voted to join NMG earlier this year.

TWICE Celebrates 25 Years

TWICE commemorates its 25th anniversary this month with a special edition that highlights the companies, products and technologies that have had the greatest impact over the past quarter century, as determined in a reader poll. The top vote getters, respectively: Apple (vendor), Best Buy (retailer), the PC and high-speed home Internet access.

SEPTEMBER

Amazon Introduces Kindle Fire

Amazon.com takes the wraps off its long-awaited tablet, as well as three new Kindle family e-readers. The 7-inch Kindle Fire features a color touchscreen, Android operating system and a disruptive $199 price point that analysts predict will have a major impact on all non-iPad 2 tablets, while also serving as a “vending machine” for Amazon services and product sales, the e-tailer says.

NATM Dealers Duke It Out For Share

The NATM Buying Corp.’s 11 regional dealers are growing market share in video and major appliances despite the weak economy and fierce pricing pressure from national and online accounts. Members of the $6.7 billion buying organization, gathered in Dallas for the group’s annual conference, say they are contending with macro and marketplace headwinds by opening new stores, entering new categories, tightly managing inventory, matching Internet pricing when needed, and learning to live with lower margins.

As a result, says NATM president and executive director Bill Trawick, the group is still outpacing the industry in TV and majap unit volume despite compstore declines in both categories.

CEDIA: Attendance Down, Innovation Up

While attendance at CEDIA Expo is down in its return to its traditional Indianapolis venue, some 17,600 attendees are still on hand to visit 444 exhibitors and view the latest in custom and non-custom A/V products. The latter includes at least one new postprocessing surround technology, an expanded selection of low-profile bezel-less custom speakers, and a handful of audio specialty brands offering up their first active soundbar systems. In addition, at least two more suppliers of in-room speakers, including Krell, entered the custom-speaker market, as do at least one multi-room audio/home-control supplier.

Best Buy Sticks To Multichannel Strategy

Best Buy reports a 30.3 percent decline in secondquarter profits, to $177 million, but says it will press on with its multichannel strategy. The No. 1 CE chain says earnings slipped amid stagnant sales and hefty spending on advertising and promotions, and lowers its full fiscal-year earnings outlook on projected fullyear comp-store sales of flat to negative 3 percent.

But despite the downturn, which management attributes to the weak economy and soft CE demand, CEO Brian Dunn reaffirms his faith in Best Buy’s multichannel strategy, and says the company will continue to leverage its financial strength and scale to fuel initiatives and drive growth.

OCTOBER

Thai Floods Impact Digital Camera, HDD Markets

Digital camera makers Canon, Nikon and Sony are all reporting damage to their facilities or component factories in Thailand, which will slow production. Nikon says flooding at its Nikon (Thailand) Co. Ltd. manufacturing operations is likely to cause shortages in certain products, while Canon and Sony say the floods are impacting earnings.

“Digital imaging has really had a very difficult year,” notes Mike Vitelli, Americas president and corporate executive VP of Best Buy, the country’s No. 1 camera retailer. “I’m not sure what the total impact of that will be, but there were some shortages in the first half and it looks like there will be some in the second half as well.”

Meanwhile, flood-related shortages of hard disk drives (HDDs) has led to price gouging by some distributors and brokers, with prices spiking as much as 34 percent for 500GB notebook drives, Netgear tells TWICE.

Steve Jobs, 56

Apple founder, chairman and industry visionary Steve Jobs succumbs to pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being,” his company says in brief statement. “Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

Distributors See Competitive, Choppy Q4

Distributors brace for a competitive and promotional holiday selling season, with tablets getting much of the attention. While economic headwinds have dampened consumer confidence considerably in the second half, executives contacted by TWICE say promotions on flat-screen TVs and demand for fashion-oriented headphones and the aforementioned tablets, both iPad and otherwise, should boost holiday sales and traffic for single-digit sales growth.

HTSA Sees Business Rebound

The Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) is enjoying a resurgence of its high-end audio, automation and home-networking businesses, the buying group’s senior executives report. Executive committee members Jon Robbins, principal of HiFi House, and Brian Hudkins, owner of Gramophone, tell TWICE that many of HTSA’s 56 member integrators, A/V dealers and custom installers have seen a significant “bump” in those categories, as customers elect to invest in their current homes rather than purchase new ones.

The group, now in its 16th year, gather in Denver this month for its annual fall “Pump Up” meeting, the first without former executive director Richard Glikes, who resigned unexpectedly in August. Former Runco president Bob Hana will later be named as his successor.

Sixth Ave. Surrenders Inventory

Troubled A/V specialty chain Sixth Avenue Electronics agrees to relinquish its inventory, equipment and fixtures to GE Capital Solutions after defaulting on a floor-planning loan for the second time in sixth months. The action effectively ends the 27-year run of Sixth Avenue, which was one of the last remaining independent CE chains in the New York metro market.

NOVEMBER

NFM Set Sights On Texas

Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) may be heading to The Lone Star State. The 74-year-old CE, appliance and home-furnishings emporium is planning to build a $1.5 billion, 430-acre mixed-use complex in the North Dallas suburb of The Colony that would house stores, movie theaters, a convention center and its own twostory, 1.8 million-square-foot retail, warehouse and office facility.

But the move would put the Berkshire-Hathawayheld business in direct competition with Conn’s, the Texas-based appliance, CE and furniture chain and fellow member of the NATM Buying Corp., the 11-dealer buying organization.

CE Holiday Purchases To Rise 16%: Conference Board

U.S. households are expected to spend 16 percent more on CE and software gift purchases this season over last. According to a Nielsen consumer survey conducted for the Conference Board, a not-for-profit research organization, CE will enjoy the second-biggest bump over the holidays behind toys and games. Forty-four percent of respondents say they will spend the same amount as last year on CE, while 40 percent said they would spend less. By comparison, only 7 percent of consumers say they plan to spend more on total holiday gifting this year.

CE Sales Surged Over Black Friday Weekend

Deep discounts on TVs, laptops, Blu-ray Disc players and low-end tablets lead to a banner Black Friday weekend for CE. Adam Levin, CEO of Levin Consulting, estimate that weekend sales of tech products were up between 8 percent and 10 percent from last year, while The NPD Group say CE enjoyed the largest share gain of any major product category on Black Friday, as more than 23 percent of shoppers purchased some type of electronics product the day after Thanksgiving, a 15 percent increase over than last year.

Analysts also say Best Buy, which needed a home run after successive comp-store declines, is the big winner in CE retail over the holiday weekend thanks to its exclusive promotions, competitive pricing, midnight opening and multichannel offerings.

Linder’s Closing Shop

Linder’s Furniture, the Southern California home-furnishings and CE retailer, begins going-out-of-business sales at its 11 stores. The privately held chain, which integrated CE with furniture in its showroom vignettes, enter into a General Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors on Nov. 2 as an alternative to bankruptcy, but since decided to shut its doors. “These turbulent times have left us with no choice but to wind down our operations,” says president Eric Foucrier. Added chairman and founder Phil Linder, “Sadly, this marks the end of our 31-year history.”

Sony Shifts Focus From Retailers

Sony Electronics has started to win back lost business by implementing a corporate strategy that puts greater focus on the consumer than on the retailer, Phil Molyneux, the company’s U.S. president/CEO, says at a press conference this month.

“The relationship with the retailer is important, but the focus on the consumer is paramount,” he tells reporters.

The company also plans to eventually update its entire Sony Store fleet with its latest “pilot” design, and is looking to add 3,500-square-foot companyowned boutiques in select markets, Molyneux said.

Bruce Alpert, 59

TWICE mourns the loss of Bruce Alpert, an original member of the staff and former associate publisher, who succumbed to chronic health issues. Alpert was a longtime advertising salesman and publishing executive, who worked mostly on retail-oriented publications. During downtime he completed six New York City marathons and numerous triathlons, and traveled the world. He is survived by his mother, sister, and many industry friends and colleagues.

DECEMBER

Post-Black Friday Sales Fall 22.5% In Stores

Brick-and-mortar retail sales predictably tumble the week after Black Friday. According to ShopperTrak, a market research firm that monitors retail foot traffic, sales fell 22.5 percent for the week ending Dec. 3, compared with the prior seven days ending on Black Friday. Sales were essentially flat year over year, edging up just 0.2 percent. The sharp decline is typical of the week after Thanksgiving, as shoppers often stay home and shop online for Cyber Monday deals following an initial burst of Black Friday activity, the company says.

Azione Begins Membership Drive

Azione Unlimited (AU), the start-up buying group for custom retailers and integrators led by Richard Glikes, opens its books to new members. Glikes, the former executive director of the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA), says membership will be limited to no more than 250 dealers and will formally debut on Jan. 2.

Amazon Offers Incentive For In-Store Price Scans

Amazon.com provides a 5 percent discount of up to $5 on CE, DVDs and other select categories that are pricechecked in retail stores and purchased via its smartphone app on Dec. 10. The controversial offer, which retail trade groups attacked as predatory, is good on up to three qualifying products using the e-tailer’s Price Check app for iPhone and Android. The mobile program provides product matches and pricing by Amazon and its third-party resellers, and can also relay in-store pricing back to Amazon. “The ability to check prices on your mobile phone when you’re in a physical retail store is changing the way people shop,” says Amazon Mobile director Sam Hall.

Sixth Ave. Fire Sale Begins

In what appears to be the final chapter of Sixth Avenue Electronics, asset disposition firm Alco Capital is conducting a going-out-of-business sale at the former A/V chain’s last remaining location. The company, which was founded by the Temiz family in 1984 and operated 19 locations at its peak last year, closed its three remaining stores under court order in October after defaulting on an inventory finance loan from GE Capital.