The Viacom Entertainment Store: A Forgotten Retail Experiment
A look back at Viacom/Paramount's foray into the world of retail
Anemoia. You probably don’t know that word. It means nostalgia for something you’ve never experienced. You see this a lot these days mainly from people constantly posting online about the 90s despite being born in the 2000s. As someone born in 1997 and remembers a little bit of that era I can’t blame them.
In a lot of ways, things were better back then, especially in the realm of retail. Kmart was still successful. Blockbuster and other video rental stores were on the rise, and music stores, remember those, were still necessary if you wanted to buy new albums. There’s one store from that period that gives me a sense of Anemoia whenever I see pictures of it: The Viacom Entertainment store.
Everyone watches or has watched content from Viacom, now known as Paramount, at some point. They’re the company that owns Paramount Pictures, Paramount Plus, Showtime, CBS, VH1, MTV BET, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. Back in 1994, the company bought Blockbuster to finance their future purchase of Paramount Pictures. In the years that followed, it decided to push even further into the retail space.
There isn’t much information on this but in 1996, there was an attempt by Viacom to integrate their branding into Blockbuster stores. Rather than just sell Nickelodeon VHS tapes and merchandise, the company placed a section known as the Nickelodeon Shop into at least one Blockbuster store.
This section featured playable video games, VHS tapes, a whoopie cushion bench, toys, and TVs playing the actual Nickelodeon channel, and maybe even the same VHS tapes they were selling. There were even kiosks where kids could give their feedback on what Nickelodeon aired. Again, there isn’t any info on how long this experiment lasted or how many Blockbuster stores participated in it.
I assume it was successful enough for Viacom as it announced plans to open its own store called the Viacom Entertainment Store. Before it even opened its doors, people were questioning its success. The biggest concern was the name. The Viacom Entertainment Store does not sound like a store that sells Ren and Stimpy or Star Trek merchandise.
I guarantee that most people at the time didn’t even know what Viacom was. In an article from the April 1997 issue of Billboard, one unnamed retail executive felt the same: “It’s going to be tough because the name Disney and Warner’s Looney Tune characters are enough for people to seek out those stores but who knows what Viacom is?”
The first location ended up opening in Chicago on 600 Michigan Avenue on May 23, 1997. The grand opening celebration featured a ton of celebrities including Jenny McCarthy, Jon Bon Jovi, and Sharon Lawrence. Inside the store was merchandise from the most popular Viacom brands: Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Star Trek, MTV, VH1, and Paramount Pictures.
At a charity gala the night before the grand opening, then Viacom CEO Summer Redstone had this to say, “Viacom is not a household name, but this store will raise its profile…This represents a major step in a company-wide initiative to drive merchandising revenues.”
Inside the Viacom Entertainment Store, there were over 2,500 branded products with 75% being exclusive to the store. These products included MTV VHS tapes, CDs, and clothing along with other various items.
Besides merchandise, there was also a 70-seat cafe called the Station Break, life-size replicas of Beavis and Butt-head, and even an area where people could record video responses to topics and have the chance to have their responses air on MTV.
Also inside the store was a Star Trek section which featured merchandise based on the show and replicas of ships from the show accompanied by a console that would give information about each one.
There was a Nickelodeon section too and featured probably the most expensive item in the store: a $3,000 replica of the orange sofa seen during airings of the SNICK programming block. Customers could also browse a selection of products based on shows such as AAAHH!! Real Monsters, Ren & Stimpy, Gullah Gullah Island, and Rugrats.
Eventually, the company planned to expand the Viacom Entertainment Store to other cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Boston. They also planned on opening over a dozen different Nickelodeon stores as well. Unfortunately, no other Viacom stores were opened and the Chicago location closed on January 17, 1999, just 18 months after opening.
The reason given for its closure was that the store wasn’t bringing in enough money to justify keeping it open. Those dozen or so Nickelodeon stores that had also opened slowly began closing down during 1999 as well.
The Nickelodeon stores ended up opening and were doing pretty well but Viacom decided that the cost to open more of them was just too much. It was more profitable for them to license their characters instead.
Keep in mind that all of these stores I just mentioned closed in 1999. That same year a certain yellow sponge made his debut on Nickelodeon. With how much Viacom cares about brand synergy and merchandising opportunities, I bet an executive at Viacom right now is just kicking himself over this missed opportunity.
I can picture entire sections of both the Viacom Entertainment store and the Nickelodeon store dedicated to Spongebob complete with a recreation of his living room or even the Krusty Krab.
Now, 600 Michigan Avenue is occupied by an Under Armour store and has been since around 2014 or 2015. Viacom moved forward with its licensing plans and made a bunch of money in the process. With the retail apocalypse and the closures of several stores since the pandemic began, I highly doubt you’ll see a concept like this ever again from Viacom.
Retail is way too risky during a time and they’re making more money from Paramount Plus and other revenue streams anyways It’s kind of sad that stores nowadays aren’t generally as cool or exciting as the Viacom Entertainment Store was. Maybe if they were, people would actually go into them.
Sources:
Viacom Store images via Twitter user @EvanCollins90
Billboard Magazine October 1996 Edition
Billboard Magazine April 1997 Edition
Billboard Magazine June 1997 Edition