SPAR HELPS SPIDER-MAN SWING ( image)

TARRYTOWN, N.Y., November. 25, 2002 - Spider-man swung into home-video history Nov. 1st when it sold seven million DVD and VHS units its first day and 11 million units through its first weekend for an amazing $190 million in revenues. This top-grossing theatrical release of 2002 had $406 million in U.S. and $800 million in worldwide ticket sales. It therefore generated great expectations for home-video success from Hollywood and America's retail chains.

Record home-video sales were spurred by SPAR Group, America's leading retail merchandising company, which stocked all 1,832 Kmarts within hours of release time.

SPAR provides the fastest and most accurate set-up through its industry-leading technological capabilities and extensive human resources. It can merchandise a complete national chain in hours vs. the traditional days or weeks of industry norms. For home videos, SPAR has ably served Kmart and the major Hollywood studios since the service began.

For Spider-man, SPAR sent teams of merchandising specialists to all 1,832 Kmarts in the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. They began about 6:00 a.m. on Nov. 1st street-release date -- then moved to their second Kmart store until all Spider-man videos were fully merchandised.

Each SPAR team would locate the Spider-man pallet in the stockroom, bring it to its designated position in the store, set-up the full-color corrugated display, uncover the DVD and VHS units, and display other point-of-purchase items around the store. Each pallet contained the correct size display and target number of units for that store. Additional Spider-man materials included buttons, banners and posters.

Per careful planning with Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment (CTHE) and Kmart, SPAR arranged for 90% of all displays to be prominently mounted in the front-of-store (or occasionally in the main aisle) for maximum impact and sales, vs. only 10% in the traditional electronics department. This helped capture the excitement of families rushing to Kmart for their favorite Spider-man hero - and finding it right at front-of-store location.

More than 1,100 total SPAR specialists completed 80% of all Kmarts by 12 noon local time that day and completed 100% by 5 p.m. that day. They returned to all Kmarts the following Tuesday to replenish inventories and facilitate greater sales.

Demand was powerful because of the record-breaking theatrical showings and heavy advertising by CTHE and America's retailers. Kmart generated even greater sales by pricing Spider-man at only $14.87, the lowest nationally-advertised cost in the country.

CTHE filled the early pipeline with 26 million units - 3/4 of which were DVDs to meet the booming popularity of this format. CTHE released Spider-man the day after Halloween, where it ranked among the most-popular Halloween costumes in the nation.

SPAR Group is expert at setting-up and stocking displays in national chains. They work for months in advance to schedule all staff and materials, provide instructions and plan-o-grams, and communicate thoroughly using the Internet. Everyone knows where to go and what to do. As soon as a store is fully merchandised, they report to the corporate database using hand-held computers or interactive voice response. They can take digital photos of finished displays and upload them to the corporate database. If any issues arise like display or unit or location problems, SPAR specialists report them at once and find a solution at once from their management (and if necessary Kmart and CTHE management). Having the complete operation on the Internet allows perfect real-time merchandising.

The system is so advanced that SPAR, Kmart and CTHE executives can watch the entire national chain being merchandised in real time on their computers. They can watch 1,832 stores change from red dots (un-merchandised) to green dots (fully merchandised). They can drill down to regions and metro areas to check individual store progress. Thus, in a matter of hours, they can watch nearly 2,000 dots turn green as Spider-man became available for sale across the national Kmart chain.

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