Sharp’s 90-Inch LCD TV Lands in 150 Magnolia Home Theater Locations
Sharp’s newly introduced 90-inch LCD TV has found its way into 150 Best Buy Magnolia Home Theater (MHT) locations and 50 hhgregg stores, bypassing many specialty retailers that traditionally have served as launch pads for high-end products, retail executives said.
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With a $10,999 suggested retail price and in limited production, the LC-90LE745U has been available in small quantities, retailers said. But Best Buy has it in MHT store-within-a-store locations in “premium placement” and at 16 Magnolia Design Centers that cater to the custom install market, a Best Buy spokeswoman said. While the set is physically placed in 150 MHT stores, other locations may gain access to it “based on what is available in our system,” said the spokeswoman. She declined to say how many of the 90-inch sets MHT has sold or how many it has in inventory. Under unilateral pricing policies, the 90-inch set has a $9,999 minimum selling price.
The non-Quattron TV also has been placed into 50 of hhgregg’s 210 locations, where it has been displayed on the center walls of the chain’s TV departments, said Jeff Pearson, the chain’s senior vice president of marketing. Hhgregg has “options” to further expand distribution beyond the initial stores, which were selected based on sales volume and customer demographics, including income, Pearson said.
Other regionals, including ABC Warehouse, Abt Electronics, BrandsMart and P.C. Richard, also are fielding the set in some locations. The 45-store ABC chain has the 90-inch in its Birmingham and Rochester Hills, Mich., locations with one on display in each store and 5-6 models in inventory. Another 25 sets are expected to arrive at ABC within two weeks, said Director of Sales Dan Schuh. “The quantities you are getting aren’t enough to go to a lot of locations and I'm not sure I want to” place them in all stores right now, Schuh said. “At $10,000, I don’t know that you want to have that in every store yet. The Magnolia thing was kind of a surprise to me, especially when they are talking about constrained quantities. That’s a big and expensive TV to put into Best Buy stores."
Annoyed that specialty dealers didn’t get a larger stake in the launch of the 90-inch, David Young, president of Chesterfield, Mo.-based specialist The Sound Room, called Sharp asking for two models (CED July 24 p1), Young said. The first sets arrived Friday, Young said. The Sound Room has one 90-inch TV on display and has sold two, including one that’s still enroute to the store, Young said. “We have customers that can write a $10,000 check for one,” Young said. “The big box stores don’t."
In introducing the 90-inch, Sharp followed a path similar to that when it shipped its full- array LED-backlit 80-inch set last fall to MHT and other regionals (CED Sept 28 p1). It may take Sharp through the summer to fully ramp 90-inch panel production, said Jim Sanduski, vice president of strategic product marketing. “I see us constrained, in terms of being able to hit a full rollout, until the end of summer,” Sanduski said.