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To catch the impulse buyers, many makers have started setting these eyecatching albums on racks in supermarkets and variety stores, hoping that the housewife who hears a song over the air just before she goes out to shop will pick it up along with the groceries. An average record rack in a supermart grosses about $50 to $75 a week.
But the bulk of the sales still are made in the nation's 5,000 record shops. Therefore record companies are subsidizing modernization of the cluttered shops to gear them to the new market. Columbia, RCA and Decca give free advice on store design, help dealers buy materials. Says RCA Vice President Lawrence Kanaga: "Gone are the days when the record shop was like a library where a customer really had to know his music. We're changing it into a supermarket where a buyer does not have to worry about mispronouncing Beethoven."