George's Airport Location Takes Off

George's Music Room, a fixture in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood for nearly 32 years, may be known for its successful retail strategy in an inner-city environment, but the store and its outspoken owner, George Daniels, are currently making headlines with a new 413-square-foot location in Chicago's Midway Airport terminal.

The Midway Airport location is a concourse space that features more than 2,000 SKUs, mostly CDs, with a selection of product geared toward tourists and business travelers. A selection of DVD-Video titles, as well as such hardware products as Panasonic CD and DVD-V players, are also available.

The new store is significantly smaller than the 2,500-square-foot flagship George's Music Room, which features a 5,000-title inventory. Midway store manager Qubah Cowen acknowledges that his workplace has "a lot of stuff packed into the space."

Yet Daniels says he sees locations like the Midway store benefiting from the rise of digital distribution and kiosk-based product opportunities, with customers having the option to preview and select full albums that may be "burned" at the checkout counter.

"The ability to download music in the store is a great opportunity for impulse buys," he observes, "especially with a lot of folks traveling with their laptops and MP3 players, particularly at our airport store."

The Midway venture is the result of a personal interest by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. When the city of Chicago honored Daniels two years ago for 30 years of "dedicated service to the neighborhood," the mayor visited the store and was impressed enough to suggest that Daniels consider opening airport venues.

At the official store dedication Aug. 28, Daley called George's Music Room "a great addition" to the airport."I knew when I told you that I had an idea you were going to like that you would make it happen," he told Daniels.

Meanwhile, business remains strong at what Daniels terms the " 'hood" store, despite strong competition from Best Buy and Circuit City in nearby malls.

"We consider ourselves the Barnum & Bailey of indie retail on the West Side," Daniels says. "We like the excitement we bring to the neighborhood and are definitely here to stay."

Hip-hop and rap accounts for about 50% of the flagship location's inventory, while R&B constitutes 15%; jazz and blues, 5% each; reggae, 3%; and gospel, pop, and other genres round out the balance.

Product mix in the North Lawndale store is about 75% CDs; 15% cassettes, which are still a viable business for the store; and 10% vinyl—mostly 12-inches for a lot of local DJ customers.

Daniels gets most product from Baker & Taylor, which has been his prime supplier and a strong supporter for the three decades he has been in operation. "You must commit to a primary distributor to help with the advertising and marketing of your store," he says. "Loyalty is a two-way street that is a vital commodity today."

As for secondary suppliers, the store works with Miami-based Bassin One-Stop. Daniels gets vinyl from Bud's Distribution and Unique Distribution in New York and other product from Gonzales One-Stop in Gonzales, La.

Meanwhile, video is becoming an increasingly robust product line for the store, with about 2,000 DVD and VHS titles available. About 10 years ago, when he stopped using long boxes for his CDs, Daniels saw that few stores were carrying black movies and music. "We started stocking everything in depth, and the business took off like mad," he recalls.

In the neighborhood store, two large-screen Sony TVs offer continual music-video play of mostly new releases, and there's a monthly mailer featuring new product and specials that goes to the customer mailing list. Consumers can also get information about new releases via an in-store Muze kiosk database, as well as through the store's Web site, georgesmusicroom.com.

George's does the bulk of its promotion and advertising through Chicago radio outlets—WGCI, the No. 1 urban outlet, and WBAZ for adult contemporary (both Clear Channel affiliates), as well as WYCA for gospel and new hip-hop station Power 92 (both Crawford stations). The commercial spots are mostly funded through one-stop co-op allowances. The store also occasionally hosts live broadcasts from its flagship store, with 10-15 events held this past year.

"Typically, they are four-hour slots," Daniels says, "and while they may not generate sales, they offer great exposure for the store."

In mid-October, Roosevelt Road—the main thoroughfare in front of the store—was closed for a block-long street fair featuring a free concert by DMX to introduce his new Ruff Ryders/Def Jam album, The Great Depression.

"We had over 4,000 turn out and gave away $5 bounce-back coupons for the new $19.98 release on ship day only," he notes. "We sold over 500 copies on Oct. 23 as a result."