VOOM to open its first retail store in Twin Cities

[Sean Mota]

Got the following article from this thread at AVSforum: VOOM to open new retail store posted by radiocranium.

The source of the article is here

July 4, 2004 - The VOOM satellite television service, which specializes in high-definition programming, will soon open its first retail store in Ridgedale Center, a shopping mall in suburban Minneapolis. The store will occupy temporarily vacated space, and will be open only from around July 8 until the end of August.

VOOM began selling its service to the public on October 15, 2003. It's no secret that early sales have been slow, with the service reporting only 8,000 subscribers nationwide in its first six months of operation. Several reasons have been given for the slow start, including the decision last year to have VOOM systems sold exclusively through Sears stores. Another important factor is that while sales of high-definition televisions sets are continuing to set record numbers, there remains a lack of awareness on the part of the public of high-definition programming. Presently, only a relatively small percentage of consumers are actually receiving high-definition programming from over-the-air, cable or satellite sources. “Seeing is believing”, according to Jeffrey Johnson, National Sales Manager for VOOM. “It's impossible to show people what's so great about high-definition television programming unless they get a chance to actually see it for themselves,” said Johnson. The new store will have large, comfortable viewing areas and at least six large plasma screen televisions showing VOOM programming. VOOM personnel will be present to answer questions or to help customers sign up for the service.

The Twin Cities store will be a test-run for VOOM, which plans to open around ten stores nationwide before Christmas. While no announcement of future store locations has been made, Diane Wentworth, Vice President of Strategic Marketing for VOOM, described California and the Dallas-Ft.Worth area as among locations being considered. When asked how the success of the Twin Cities store would be evaluated, Wentworth said, “Both sales and instant customer feedback will be very important factors.” Long-term, VOOM would like to have its product placed with big-box retailers like Best Buy. That desire is being hampered at present by exclusive contracts with other distributors and low consumer demand. As customer awareness and demand are major factors in retailer's decisions on the brands they carry, VOOM is hoping to bolster both with the new retail venues.

According to Wentworth, plans for future development of the VOOM service will include concentrating on continued development of unique and compelling programming. At present, the service has a lineup of more than 35 high-definition channels, including 11 exclusive all high-definition channels, plus ESPN-HD, Discovery HD Theater, Bravo HD+, a 10 channel movie package called HD Cinema10, and premium movie channels including STARZ! HD, Encore HD, Showtime HD, Playboy Hot HD, ESPN HD, HBO HDTV and Cinemax HDTV. The service also includes more than 80 of the most popular cable channels in standard-definition (SD) and 18 digital music channels.

Source: HDTV Twin Cities

 

[scottie_h]

My GF sells Select Comfort "sleep number" beds at the same mall - we'll have to check it out. (even though we already have Voom)

 

[PSB]

I will also be making the trip, I will be wearing my VoOM hat so if anyone sees me say hello, its a good idea as when you see HDTV there really is no way back, just a pity they could not have secured a position in the Mall of America, there are all sorts of similar start up operations there and MUCH more customer traffic!

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

I understand VOOM wanting to get into the bigbox stores...

but I, personally, know of two local A/V retailers who would love to be able to display VOOM. You'd think VOOM would be happy to supply service to these stores, provide a training session for the salespeople and let them selll the service. The several Sears stores I've visited in our area have been almost total disasters either not having VOOM hooked up or displaying it on a way out of spec Mit. I simply don't get the "sales" approach has taken to date. I'll bet many of us could do a better job. And my current job is taking apart and reassembling DNA.

Still watching VOOM (hopefully, long term) via HDTV in Seattle, Gill

 

[scottie_h]

I will also be making the trip, I will be wearing my VoOM hat so if anyone sees me say hello, its a good idea as when you see HDTV there really is no way back, just a pity they could not have secured a position in the Mall of America, there are all sorts of similar start up operations there and MUCH more customer traffic!

I'm no retal guru, but here's my take on that. This is just a personal stab in the dark, but primarily based on my GF's experience with Select Comfort.

It depends on the type of "traffic" they're looking for. The Mall of America obviously has a huge number of people that walk through it, but since a lot are from out of town, they won't buy many of the 'big ticket' type items. For example, the Select Comfort store at the MOA doesn't do very well. My GF happened to help out there one weekend, and she said tons of people stopped in to check out the bed they've heard so much about, but nearly every single one walked right out the door. They weren't seriously shopping, they just wanted to check it out.

However, at least for Select Comfort, Ridgedale is a whole different animal. The SC store at Ridgedale is the top selling store in the company. I'm guessing it's because it is close to a lot of wealthy communities - Minnetonka obviously, and just to the West you have Wayzata, Medina, Orono, etc. People that go to Ridgedale have money (yes, I'm generalizing), and live locally.

If Voom knows this kind of thing, maybe they assume the local money that makes it's way through that mall will equate to more sales. It doesn't cost near as much as a Select Comfort bed, but is obviously geared towards those that have already spent money on an HT.

Again, pure speculation on my part.

 

[WickedDyno]

It's no secret that early sales have been slow, with the service reporting only 8,000 subscribers nationwide in its first six months of operation.

That doesn't square with what I was told, which was that Voom's 25,000th subscriber was activated last week.