Putumayo Bus Parks at Whole Foods

New York -- Putumayo World Music bused in world culture to the grand opening of a Whole Foods Market in Austin, TX, to promote its musical catalog. The 12-foot-long world music "bus" wall display -- influenced by the colorful vehicles that traverse rural Colombia -- features MP3 listening stations and a flat-screen television showing music videos from the "Traveling the World with Putumayo" DVD.The bus parked in March and resides in the Austin flagship store where Whole Foods is headquartered. In addition, Putumayo has a smaller, 8-foot bus it plans to send only to high-profile locations, says Dan Storper, Putumayo CEO and co-founder. At press time, none of the 8-footers had been scheduled for placement.Whole Foods carries Putumayo World Music CDs in 95% of its grocery stores in basic listening stations and other displays, says Storper."When Walter Robb, Whole Foods Market COO and co-president, invited me to create a special Putumayo display, it seemed like an ideal moment to present our Putumayo world culture vision," says Storper.The primary purpose of the display is to showcase the covers of all Putumayo products and run the DVD. It "presents all the products with full faceouts at accessible heights, so that it makes viewing and selecting easier," Storper says. The unit merchandises music from the Putumayo catalog, including recent releases "Music from the Chocolate Lands," "New Orleans," "Acoustic Brazil," and CDs and multicultural activity kits from the Putumayo Kids collection.In addition, the bus carries Putumayo's recently published lifestyle products, such as a Putumayo World Culture Travel Journal and colorful prints of Putumayo CD artwork by British artist Nicola Heindl. "We wanted something unique and appealing," says Storper, "and approached New York City-based Faulding Architecture to work with us to design it." KJ Woodwork in Austin built the wood and metal display."The design challenges were surprisingly extensive, and it took a lot longer to design than we expected," he says. Creating the bus, he explains, involved several features new to Putumayo displays: the large size; the bus shape; special shelving to accommodate new products; and space for a flat-screen television and DVD player. Overall, he says, the bus display "is far more ambitious and represents a new leap in both the complexity and size of our displays."The permanent "World Music bus" and refillable display holds approximately 320 CDs and about 120 other Putumayo items.

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