8 - Friday, February 6, 1987 - North Shore News LOCAL MERCHANTS WARY OF NEW COMPETITION Reactions mixed on TV shopping impact ONLY TIME will tell what the impact of Shaw Cable’s Anew television shopping service will have on local retailers and consumers, according to area merchants and a spokesman from the cable company. Shaw Cable manager Jarmo Koskinen said, ‘‘it’s difficult to tell right now because it’s so new. We have received no calls one way or the other on it.”’ First aired Jan. 15, the Canadian Home Shopping Club (CHSC). show has been running daily from 10 a.m. to midnight on Shaw's channel 10 and offers a variety of mostly luxury.items at discount prices that can be ordered through a central toll-free Toronto-based telephone number. Thus far about 52,500 subscribers have access to the pro- gram. {tems can be offered at substan- tially reduced- prices because televised shop-at-home services like CHSC do not have to pay for such traditional retail overheads as sales clerks, retail space and advertising and do not have to pay local area taxes or buy. municipal business licences. Its format has consequently raised the ire of some B.C. mer- chants in such depressed areas as Nanaimo who claim shop-at-home services are unfair competition that . siphon money east while providing no local spinoff. benefits such as employment or local tax.revenues. Koskinen. said Shaw. pays nothing for the program, but earns between three and five per cert of the total sales that CHSC prorluces in this area. He added that, because the show - has only been aired locally for the past two weeks, no sales figures” are yet availabie; but should be by the end.of February. He estimated annual generated by Shaw’s “+ISC service would be close to $2: n.00.24. ‘It’s a reasonable amount,’’ . that _ Koskinen said. ‘But not much. It shouldn’t have a major impact (on area merchants).’”? -. Shaw’s North Vancouver. sta- tion, he said, had thus far received no calls from area_ merchants complaining about the service. -« - S ““We made the decision to offer... it because we feel it is a service that people want,”’ Koskinen said. “If subscribers did not.want it, we. wouldn’t put it on. It’s been very successful in the States.” Woodward’s vice-president George Bailey said area store’s have not had a chance to gauge what, if any, the effect of ‘CHSC has been on the local market place, - “t's just too early totell.’? ~ But Park Royal Bay manager Peter Beraldin views the service as more of a novelty that will not - replace the sport of shopping. - “I mean, there is more to it ‘than just buying,” Beraldin said. ‘‘It’s entertainment. We work hard ‘to create what we like to think is a theatre effect. People want to feel and smell the merchandise. They want to talk to people. it’s an outing. This is one of the richest | markets in Canada, and I just can’t see people sitting down in front of their TV to buy a fur coat.”’ In the U.S.,..consumer sales from shop at home services have risen dramatically. over the past two years, and are now estimated in the hundreds of millions. For example, Florida’s Home Shopping Network Inc., which owns 22 per cent of CHSC, earned US$17 million on sales of US$160 million in its first full year of operation, which ended in August 1986. While cable subscribers in North and West Vancouver, White Rock, North Burnaby, Penticton, Castlegar, Nelson, Kelowna, Port ‘sales’ Alberni, Nanaimo, Saanich, Langford and Sooke began getting the service Jan. 15, subscribers to Rogers Cable TV in Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Caquitlam, Maple Ridge, Port Moody, Pitt Meadows, Langley, Abbotsford and Mission are scheduled to begin receiving shop-at-home television services in March. CHSC has signed up a total of 90 cable operators in Canada thus far. Koskinen said Shaw has agreed to carry the service for three years. SPECIAL OFFER High Quality Perm with Shampoo, Cut, Conditioner and Blowdry For the Month of February peneceastensennanees sewnceesannes Onan eeessoeas ONLY 8450 WITH THIS COUPON See Gary or Val for all your hair care needs. 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