Entertainment retail chain Free Record Shop, with 250 stores in the Benelux, has opened its first new concept store in Antwerp.
Branding the store as “Your source for Entertainment,” FRS hopes that new consumers will be attracted to the modernized design and the inventory of almost 300,000 CDs, DVDs and games.
The pilot store, a joint project between the Dutch and Belgian Free Record Shop, is located in the huge Metropolis cinema multiplex, which attracts 3.5 million visitors per year. The store is divided into thematic zones, each in different colours, for music, games and movies.
“We also installed seven scan listen/preview posts offering our complete inventory of music tracks, previews, music clips and trailers,” says Dominique Frantzen, commercial manager at Free Record Shop Belgium. “The nucleus of the new shop is ‘the source,’ a collection of bowl-shaped screens playing the newest music clips and movie trailers.”
Customers can order any of the catalog of 274,000 CDs, 19,500 DVDs and 2,500 games if they are out of stock and they will be available in the store within 48 hours. Home delivery will be available from next year.
Frantzen added: “At Free Record Shop, 36% of the turnover is music sales and we remain one of the reliable retailers for CD-singles.”
Regi Penxten and Linda Mertens of Belgian dance act Milk Inc. attended the Dec. 11 store launch, in recognition of their 100,000-plus sales at the chain’s Belgian stores, according to FRS.
Free Record Shop’s key stores will also be revamped, following the piloting of the interactive retail model at the Antwerp branch.
