Why Did The Chickenfoot Cross The Road? (To Get On The Shelves)
Monday, July 13th, 2009
By Russ Crupnick, Vice President, Senior Industry Analyst
I was standing in line the other day waiting to get my laptop checked out, when I peeked at the store’s music section. Readers know I’m a fan of CDs, so I was thrilled to see the section hadn’t shrunk since my last visit. What caught my eye was an out-of-stock on an end cap. Turns out the racks were cleaned out of Chickenfoot CDs. (For the uninitiated, Chickenfoot is a “super group” consisting of guitar legend Joe Satriani and members of Van Halen and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The CD hit the Billboard charts at #4, and the group’s early shows are already sold out.)
When I saw the hole in the end cap, my reaction was “great, people are buying music,” but that initial thought quickly gave way to pain. Here was some of the most valuable real estate in the store, an end cap, with a gaping empty space. One important point of an end cap is to stimulate impulse purchasing, so an out-of-stock entirely defeats the purpose.
How, with today’s sophisticated inventory systems, could a store ever be out of stock on a chart-topping title? Why does it matter? We know that 25 percent of CD buyers who can’t find what they want don’t buy anything- anywhere. And it’s not just music. Nearly two out of three Blu-ray Discs are bought as “destination” purchases; out-of-stocks will send your shoppers elsewhere, and I’d suspect the same is true for gamers looking for the hottest releases. At a time when retailers are desperate to attract and retain shoppers, adequate stock of the top titles seems like a reasonably easy way to help the cause.
Tags: CDs
Entertainment | Russ Crupnick, Vice President, Senior Industry Analyst | 
July 13, 2009 1:58 pm
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