HARRY POTTER VIDEOS READY FOR CUSTOMER ONSLAUGHT ( image)

TARRYTOWN, N.Y., May 30, 2002 - Millions of Americans descended on retail stores May 28th to buy one of the biggest home video releases in history - "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Kmart expected a record onslaught that day, so they again turned to SPAR Group, which handles all video releases in their chain, to set-up all Harry Potter displays, stock the VHS videos and DVD cassettes, and ready banners and tie-in promotional items for the crowd.

Harry Potter was a dynamite motion picture grossing $314 million in theatrical sales and ranking #7 on the all-time movie list. Warner Home Video advertised their cassette and DVD versions, and told the world that availability started at midnight on Tuesday, May 28th.

For motion picture home videos, street release date is critical. Chains can't sell a single copy before the specified time, but must prepare for millions of eager customers rushing to their stores when the hour finally does arrive. Stores that can get displays set up and stocked in time reap enormous sales while those who slip behind frustrate their customers and lose revenue. Kmart continued its reliance on SPAR Group, America's leading retail merchandising company, for the Harry Potter introduction because SPAR has the technological and human resources to accomplish the logistical deployment necessary to complete display set up within the narrow time frames, and has proven its capabilities on numerous previous occasions.

In preparation, SPAR Group, worked for four months to solidify all plans, schedule all Harry Potter displays and videos to the stores, and prepare their retail merchandising specialists to strike.

SPAR identified all 113 Kmarts that are open 24 hours per day and assigned crews to set these stores between 10 p.m. and midnight on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27th. Teams of two or three merchandising specialists built and stocked large archway corrugated tower displays at each store, and equipped them with Harry Potter banners, standees and buttons. They readied Harry Potter movie posters for the first 200 customers -- built Harry Potter toy pallets in the "Stream of Excitement" aisles -- mounted Harry Potter puzzles and Coca-Cola tie-in poster offers - and prepared Harry Potter coloring contests at all 24-hour Kmarts with restaurants.

SPAR merchandised Harry Potter home video materials at the remaining 1,718 Kmart stores on Tuesday morning, May 28th. Teams entered these stores beginning at 5 a.m. Tuesday to build large corrugated archway displays at the 622 largest stores then move quickly to other locations to build medium and smaller displays there. All displays had the matching videos, cassettes, promotional items and tie-in materials.

Everything was scheduled for completion at these stores by 12 noon local time on Tuesday to meet huge anticipated customer demand. And thousands of SPAR merchandising specialists returned to all Kmart stores that Friday to replenish inventories for high-volume weekend shopping expected.

For comparison, SPAR Group set displays, inventories and promotional materials into all Kmarts for the Shrek home video release last fall. With units ready by street date, that title sold $3.4 million at Kmart the first day alone. For "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," SPAR set 99% of all Kmart stores within eight hours of street release time - making this the fastest national chain display set-up in American history. Harry Potter held bigger excitement and anticipated sales than Shrek or Grinch.

SPAR can set an entire national chain in one day because of the combination of its industry-leading technological capabilities and extensive human resources. A significant portion of SPAR's operation is centered on the Internet, supported by sophisticated proprietary logistical deployment software. This system assigns merchandising specialists, gives them instructions and specific plan-o-grams for each store, and schedules materials. The specialists arrive, set up displays, load the inventory, report the work, upload that information to corporate databases in real time, and sometimes even take and upload a digital photo of the finished section.

Warner Home Video and Kmart executives could watch the national roll-out taking place on their office computers because of SPAR's real-time graphical execution maps. They could see 1,831 red dots, each one representing an individual Kmart store, change to green as each store display was completed. SPAR Internet technology is so sophisticated that a merchandising specialist can report issues or problems back to SPAR field management and get correction instructions almost immediately - not days or weeks later like the industry norm.

Respected SPAR management and 4,500 available merchandising specialists nationwide completed the equation.

As a result, millions of kids were thrilled to own "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" home videos exactly when the national advertising fever was blazing and the videos hit the stores. SPAR, Kmart and Warner Home Videos collaborated to make the excitement happen.

To learn more about SPAR Merchandising and its unmatched retail merchandising programs, call 914-332-1400, email servingyou@sparinc.com or check www.sparinc.com.