Spencer’s TV & Appliance has rejoined the Nationwide Marketing Group just days after leaving the fold for the NATM Buying Corp.
According to a statement by Nationwide’s executive director Robert Weisner, the about-face in buying group affiliation was prompted by a more detailed review of NATM’s benefits and services. Once that information was made available to Spencer’s, the retailer’s VP/sales Rick Biederbeck found Nationwide’s offering “more beneficial,” Weisner reported.
Spencer’s is a 30-year-old white and brown goods independent based here with four stores and annual sales approaching the $70 million mark. Its decision to return to Nationwide, where it had been a longtime member, brings NATM’s membership ranks back to 12 dealers, including recent Nationwide converts Boscov’s, Grant’s and Electronic Express.
It also reopens a Western U.S. hole in the group’s national footprint that it had hoped to fill in part through Spencer’s Southwest location.
NATM officials offered no comment on the change, although executive director Bill Trawick recently said the group was looking to add two more members to its 12-dealer roster.
Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Nationwide is the country’s largest buying organization, with $8 billion in annual sales and some 2,400 dealers operating approximately 6,000 storefronts. By contrast, NATM’s larger, regional white- and brown-goods chains enjoyed cumulative sales of nearly $3 billion last year.
