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Remember Fine Lines, the high-end appliance retailer HHGregg Inc. launched a decade ago, starting with a location adjacent to its East 96th Street store?
HHGregg back then said it planned to aggressively expand the concept, but it never happened. Company executives for years said nary a word about Fine Lines, even as they dotted the eastern half of the United States with conventional HHGregg stores.
Now, finally, Fine Lines is shifting into the spotlight as the struggling retailer looks for ways to enlarge its footprint in the appliance realm, in part to offset a collapse in consumer electronics sales.
The good news for HHGregg is that the appliance push is working. The company now has reported same-store sales gains in appliances for 11 consecutive quarters.
HHGregg is trying to maintain that momentum with a multi-pronged, strategy, much of it built around expanding its market share on the lower and higher ends of the spectrum.
To reach lower-end customers who might get rejected for...