CompuSave Sells Terminals to Chain Stores

CompuSave Corp., the Irvine-based company that markets electronic discount-shopping terminals, has reached definitive agreements to sell 131 of its machines to four supermarket chains, including Safeway Stores Inc. of Oakland.

The four contracts initially are worth almost $1 million and boost total sales for the 2-year-old company to 400 units, a 48% increase.

In addition, Safeway--the nation’s largest supermarket chain--has taken options to install more than 1,000 additional shopping terminals--part of a system called Touch-n-Save--if its initial test-marketing program is successful.

Touch-n-Save is a computerized, videodisc-based system which gives consumers access to 2,800 brand-name items--such as televisions, stereos, sporting goods and housewares--at 25% to 50% below retail.

“Instead of being a 15,000-square-foot department store, our store is a 5 1/2-foot machine,” said Rich Smith, a spokesman for CompuSave.

Smith said Monday that Safeway is purchasing 40 of the $7,500 Touch-n-Save terminals to test consumer acceptance in its stores in Austin, Tex., and Little Rock, Ark.

If Safeway officials are happy with the results of the test marketing, Smith said, California shoppers might see the video shopping units in local Safeway stores in the near future.

Smith added that Safeway holds options to install more than 1,000 additional terminals in 48 major markets throughout the United States, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Houston.

CompuSave, founded two years ago, has also sold 70 Touch-n-Save terminals to Riverside Markets of Pennsylvania; seven to Scotts Food Stores Inc. of Indiana and 14 to Bi-Lo Inc. of South Carolina.

CompuSave manufactures the Touch-n-Save system and stocks the merchandise sold through it. The four supermarket chains will receive a percentage of the gross sales revenue generated by each unit. To date, 172 machines are in operation across the country.