Video City, Inc. announced plans for an aggressive roll-out of DVD products for sale and rental. Video City will offer chain-wide selections of 500-1, 200 rental units in its stores by November 1999. The move is being made following explosive growth in DVD rental activity in Video City stores that have been offering DVD’s on a test basis. “As a result of this very successful test, we have decided to escalate our plans to expand DVD offerings in all 77 Video City stores,” said Richard Gibson, Video City President and Chief Operating Officer.

Video City conducted focus group studies with its DVD customers and found that DVD renters continue to rent VHS products as well as DVDs. Video City also found that DVD renters tend to come in the stores more frequently than VHS renters and are seven times more likely to rent a catalog title along with a new release, generating 50 percent more revenue per transaction than that of a typical VHS only customer.

Video City also recently unveiled its unique merchandising technique of displaying DVD at eye level, within the VHS new release display section. “This places the DVD products in the most valuable real estate in our stores and exposes all of our customers to this exciting new format,” Gibson said.
“Presenting DVD products alongside the traditional VHS new releases is consistent with the mainstream growth trends we are experiencing,” said Ted Sarandos, Video City’s Vice President of Product and Merchandising.