Specialists Vie to Keep Pace With Big-Box Stores For Super Bowl Sales

Specialists are scrambling to keep up with big box retailers, who have kicked off the Super Bowl season with steep discounts on big-screen TVs.

Hhgregg is holding the Super Sale XLVI, featuring the Samsung 720p PN51D450 51-inch plasma TV, chopped $150 to $599, a Panasonic TCP60S30 60-inch 1080p plasma, discounted $500 to $1,099, and the 70-inch Sharp LC70LE632U, dropped to $1,999 from $2,799, according to the store circular. Hhgregg is tossing in 24-month financing with no interest if paid for with an hhgregg credit card within 24 months. Best Buy is running a similar promo, offering the same Sharp 70-inch at $1,999 and the Sharp 60-inch LC60LE6300U for $999, a savings of $700, the website said. Best Buy is adding its “Perfect Match” promise, which includes free pickup within 30 days if the customer isn’t happy with the purchase, and 36-month interest-free financing on Best Buy credit cards.

To counter the big boys, The Sound Room, in Chesterfield, Mo., is offering a $200 store gift card to buyers of LED or plasma TVs through Feb. 4. “We want to participate in the Super Bowl and Christmas and Black Friday,” said David Young, president, “but the problem for independent dealers is how to do that and not lose your shirt. We're way outspent by everyone else,” he said.

Last year, Young held a promotion, insured by Lloyd’s of London, in which consumers could win monetary prizes based on plays that occurred during the game. The store gave out several $500 winners and came away ahead of the game, Young said. But this year, Young couldn’t run the promotion because anemic video margins prevented the store from being able to cover the cost of insurance, he said. A promotion that cost 7.5 percent of gross sales “would put us under water,” he said.

Young borrowed a page from the big stores in this year’s Super Bowl promotion, which he calls a Super Sale because of the NFL’s restriction on using the name Super Bowl in advertising. Customers who purchase a big-screen TV receive a Sound Room gift card worth up to $200 that can be used for other products in the store that have built-in profit, Young said. “So we give away a gift card toward the purchase of a bracket, surround sound system, warranty or installation where we have margin,” he said. Customers can use it immediately or for up to 90 days after purchase, he said.

The Sound Room wooed a customer away from Best Buy, where he had gotten a price for a Panasonic 65-inch plasma TV that he negotiated down if he would purchase immediately. “We matched the advertised price,” Young said, and with the $200 gift card “we ended up being the same price,” he said. “But we're not taking it off the TV so we actually make a little more money off the sale than they do.” Last week a customer drove an hour and a half from Rolla, Mo., to buy a TV from The Sound Room, lured by the prospect of a $200 credit and the fact he could have the TV the same day, Young said. Young is bullish based on the response to the promotion so far. Initially he thought the 3-week promotion might net 30 TVs, but now he thinks the store may sell 30 per week, he said.

Stereo East in Frisco, Tex., is using a combination of direct mail, newspaper and social media to drive Super Bowl traffic, said David Berman, vice president. The “Superstars of 2012” promo features “MVP products,” Berman said, with a focus on projectors and large-format flat-panel TVs, he said. The store was able to offer a $500 rebate on the Sony VPL-30 and Epson 6010 projectors through HTSA discounts and volume purchasing, Berman said. Stereo East also carried over a Q4 deal, including an Epson 8350 projector with a 7.1 in-wall speaker system, Integra receiver, Sony Blu-ray player and a URC programmed remote for $5,000 -- $1,000 off standard pricing, Berman said. Stereo East is primarily a custom installation retailer but its prime location is in a hot Dallas-area shopping stretch that includes Best Buy, Costco and Walmart. “About any retailer you can imagine is within half a mile of our showroom, so we wanted to take advantage of the traffic,” he said. Stereo East made room on its installation calendar for late January-early February installations, he said.

Financing is a big part of Super Bowl season marketing. In addition to Best Buy and hhgregg offering financing, Sears credit card customers get instant 5 percent savings if they meet terms in 18-month financing on total electronics purchases of $799 or more, according to the website. The top deal highlighted on the Sears site for Super Bowl season is a Samsung 55-inch 3D TV marked down from $3,099 to $2,199. Amazon’s 10 percent discount on TV didn’t have a Super Bowl reference but the discount, available on select TVs, runs through Jan. 30, the site says.

Despite having a local team headed to the dance, New York area retailers P.C. Richard and J&R Music World didn’t sport Super Sunday TV promotions as of Wednesday.