The Luskin family, which last week announced it was closing all of its Luskin's stores, is moving into the upscale market of high-priced, big screen televisions.
That is in sharp contrast to its previous strategy of trying to be "the cheapest guy in town."
PTC The company plans to open as many as one new Big Screen Store a month from Richmond, Va., to Philadelphia, according to Mark A. Millman, president of Millman Search Group Inc., a Lutherville-based national retail consulting firm.
Jack Luskin, who founded the Luskin's business, is apparently not involved in the new stores. Instead, they will be run by his son, Cary Luskin, who is president of Sound and Sight Inc., a subsidiary of Luskin's Inc., according to a Dun and Bradstreet report. Sound and Sight owns the Big Screen Stores.
L Cary Luskin declined to comment about the Big Screen stores.
In the past year, three Big Screen Stores have opened in the Baltimore area -- in Towson, Bel Air and Glen Burnie. Three more have opened recently in the Washington suburbs, and an employee of the company said yesterday a new one might open soon in Columbia.
The marketing strategy, according to retail analysts, is to limit sales to two of the hottest products in the electronics market: large televisions and digital satellite systems. The digital satellite dishes are devices that are installed on the outside of a house to pick up 200 channels and provide better reception. In the past month, digital satellite dishes have dropped 60 percent in cost and have become extremely popular, said Kenneth Gassman, a retail analyst with Davenport & Co. in Richmond.
The Big Screen Store will offer the Mitsubishi product line, which is not sold at Circuit City and Best Buy. Both of those stores were credited with hurting sales at Luskin's.
Pub Date: 10/05/96
