Bose mini-store opens at J&R

NEW YORK—At the top of the stairs on the second floor of 31 Park Row—one of J&R Music and Computer World's stores on the well-known block of Manhatten's financial district—is a room that looks a little bit different than the rest of the store. But beyond the obviously color changes and the fact that it's partly sectioned off by a glass wall, it becomes clear that everything sold in this room is a Bose product, with the exception of some LCD and plasma televisions recruited to help show off all-in-one home theater systems. It's store-within-a-store, a growing trend in retail.

"Last CES is when we formalized the idea," says Rachelle Friedman, president and co-CEO of J&R Music and Computer World, of the partnership. Both Bose and J&R had a hand in the design and execution of the project. Deb Colby, Account Manager for Bose, says that staffing plans are not concrete as of yet, but that she expects a Bose salesperson will be on hand during the holiday season to staff the room, but that other times of the year they will rely on J&R's sales staff. The room highlights Bose's cube home theater and new media server systems as well as some of the company's standalone speakers.

But it also complements J&R's growing interest in custom installation services. Friedman says they have been attending the CEDIA show for the last two years and have hired three installers. For the past few months, J&R has also conducted tours for potential clients of an apartment not far from the Park Row stores that J&R owns and recently wired to display a number of home theater and networking technologies.