Retail Track: Indies For Adults

Two independent stores that appeal to the older consumer are doing well for themselves. In Chicago, Dedry Jones has started a high-profile marketing event that keeps his Music Experience store top of mind with local customers; in Miami, wholesaler Hinsul Lazo is attracting customers to his 5-year-old store, Museo Del Disco, the old-fashioned way—with deep inventory.

At the Music Experience, Jones says that although he carries hip-hop, rap and pop—"what the young people want"—the main focus is on the older demographics, 28 and up. "The record companies seem to have forgotten that the older customers exist," he says, which is why his store specializes in having a deep selection in each genre of soul, jazz and blues. Also, he adds, in this day and age you have to focus on what the big-box stores don't carry.

Beyond that, Jones has found a marketing vehicle to benefit his store, while reminding the labels that the older customers still care about music. He started a series called the Experience, in which he features an artist with a new album in an interview setting, sometimes followed by a performance, and usually a CD signing. Depending on the artist, the performance takes different forms, either singing to track, acoustic or with a band.

The first one was at the end of 2002 with Will Downing in an art gallery, he says, followed by Al Jarreau at a bigger gallery and then George Duke at a Jaguar dealership. He has since settled on putting most of the events at the DuSable Museum of African-American History, when it is available. The museum, which its Web site describes as the oldest of its type in the country, contains a 450-seat theater where the Experience events take place. People get in for the price of the new CD, although it's described as a ticket sale in which attendees get the CD for free on the day of the event.

So far, Jones has put on about 20 events, including appearances by Patti LaBelle, Lyfe Jennings, Natalie Cole, Ruben Studdard, John Legend, Israel & New Breed, Jarreau and Andraé Crouch. "Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sales have been my biggest supporter for the Experience series; so has Verve as a label, and now other suppliers are stepping up," Jones says. In fact, Brian McKnight will be the next artist appearing in the series, on Dec. 6 at the International House in Chicago, with a mini-acoustic performance, an onstage interview and CD signing for his new "10" album out Dec. 5 on Warner Bros.

"Dedry has created a marketing vehicle that is viable in the marketplace," Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sales VP of urban and gospel marketing Anthony Ellis says. In fact, Sony BMG recorded two of the events, Jennings' and Studdard's, with the former coming out as a limited edition CD given away as a premium when customers bought the artist's "Phoenix" album in independent stores. The latter performance may be used in the same way.

Meanwhile, in Miami, Lazo found a way to survive the wholesale wars—by opening up a record store, after feeling the squeeze at his wholesale operation, H.L. Distributors.

"I am in the middle of two giants: Reyes, which specializes in Latin, and Alliance Entertainment Corp., the biggest one-stop in the country," Lazo says. So he decided to try opening a record store and in doing so broke all the rules. For one, he put Museo Del Disco in a building he owns in the warehouse district of Miami; customers have to drive through a trailer park to get to it. He did this out of desperation, after seeing his wholesale business getting squeezed and his building left with empty space when a factory tenant went out of business.

But one rule he followed well was stocking the store deeply, with $2 million worth of inventory, all targeting the older demos. "We have all kinds of music, except rap," Lazo says. The 10,000-square-foot store stocks about 50,000 SKUs, of which 42,000 are CDs and 8,000 are DVDs.

Within the music, about 20,000 are in English while the majority is Latin from all over the world. Of the DVDs, about 3,000 are movies—Spanish theatrical and foreign releases—and 5,000 are music-based, including what Lazo calls the biggest selection of opera and jazz DVDs in the city. The store also has about 100 listening stations and three plasma TVs where videos are constantly played.

Billboards, TV and radio advertising, good customer service and word-of-mouth drive traffic to the location, where there is a parking lot that can accommodate about 100 cars. "Our clientele is 35 and up, and a cultured client," Lazo says.

"One more reason for our success—we are next door to H.L. Distributors so we hardly ever run out of product in the retail store," he says.