Sears to Sell TVs in a Big Way

Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) has announced it will begin selling top-end, big-screen TVs, saying the lure of the newest sets would outweigh concerns about the sales of big-ticket items in a jittery economy.

The nation's fourth-largest retailer will introduce the new TVs at 650 of its largest stores across the country, according to Ray Brown, vp of consumer electronics. Sears ranks among the 10 largest sellers of consumer electronics products in the U.S.

According to a report in Crain's Chicago Business, Brown told the Reuters news agency that Sears had studied market trends and feels “the time is right''to push the new TVs, as prices are fast coming down. (Some of these sets still cost as much as $13,000.) “The (lower) prices mean these products are no longer exclusively for the super-wealthy,''Brown said, noting that prices of plasma, flat-panel TVs have fallen by about 50 percent from a year ago. “Shoppers can now buy plasma sets for from $5500 to about $8000, compared to as much as $15,000 a year ago,” Brown said.

The country's two largest pure consumer electronics retailers, Best Buy (Minneapolis) and Circuit City (Richmond, Va.),moved swiftly to market flat-panel plasma or liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and Americans'subsequent desires to stay close to home. But Wal-Mart Stores (Bentonville, Ark.), Sears'primary competitor, has said it is still probing the viability of carrying the new TVs. “We are looking at this,” company spokesman Tom Williams told Reuters. “We are still in process of examining the emerging technologies.”

According to Crain's, Brown said Sears would carry a larger assortment of the newest TVs than other chains currently carry. For example, Best Buy and Circuit City each sell fewer models as they introduce customers to the sets. Industry-wide TV sales were expected to reach 25 million this year, with only 30,000 coming from the flat-panel plasma or LCD models, said Sears'Brown.

“These products are at the beginning of their introductory phase,” Circuit City spokesman Bill Cimino told Crain's. “We think they have a good future.''Cimino said his company was also planning a major company-wide roll-out of the newest TVs.