Spotlight on Store Fixtures and Lighting

store, but other categories, whether it’s school supplies or general merchandise, those displays are by department.”

Placement within the store is also important, whether within departments or on the general merchandise floor. “We have two front displays that contain whatever the most recent merchandise may be, so we can attract the most attention to that. We will keep our branded items such as Nike on one of the tables, on the other it might be a seasonal display. Around Father’s Day we had gift ideas like sweaters and shirts for dads and mugs together on the other upfront display table.”

The biggest lesson she can impart in terms of display is like Pauu’s in Seattle. “We think it is important to change our displays frequently. Of course, it depends on what is going on at the time, but we change things out a lot in a way that fits within a specific season.” She noted “Our next big displays throughout the store will be for back to school; keeping within that general category of back-toschool items, we will change displays frequently.”

Steve Wenger , store director at the Wildcat Shop at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash., said that the store’s general display philosophy right out of the gate is to change up displays constantly. “Especially our end cap displays, it’s very important to change those regularly. While some of our staples don’t change, for the most part our displays are seasonal, and we want to keep those displays fresh. We want to make sure that any product we feature is moved on a regular basis and displayed differently for each season.” He also noted that “We will move locations within the store to high traffic areas, both to display new merchandise and for merchandise that maybe isn’t moving as quickly in other locations.” Wenger said there are several display areas that are more prominent and draw more customers than others, and those are the places that he displays the newest merchandise. “Typically, those are on the right-hand side of the store entrance, and in the center of our downstairs area. There’s a lot of foot traffic in those locations.”

As to overall display tips, he said, “We believe in cross-merchandising in our displays. We want a good match with our one key product we are trying to sell, and then we add other things that might be considered additional sale items into that.” He described the approach as a mix of thematic with mix and match styles in the store’s displays overall.

According to Wenger, “Typically, since we are going to try to move several different types of merchandise in one display, we will place compatible items together. For example, we will have a selection of graduation alumni products with license plates, a sweatshirt, and a T-shirt that we really want to sell all in an attractive combination of items placed together.”

Wenger added that the best lesson he’s learned in terms of campus store display is the same as the store’s overall philosophy: to change things out frequently. Just like Pauu and Portillo, he pointed out that changing things up is key to attracting buyers. “When you change things up, you continue to catch the customer’s eye. Never have the same thing in the same location for more than two or three weeks. It really does help to move our product, especially on those end caps, if you move something to another location. Chances are the item will catch attention all over again in that second location.” He repeated, “I can’t stress it enough; you want to move things around and keep things fresh.”

Wenger’s store is large, with a 9,500-square-foot sales floor, which makes the plan of moving merchandise around the store to keep a fresh look even more important, as not all shoppers will visit all areas of the store at one time.

At Kauai Community College Bookstore in Lihu’e, Hawaii, store Manager Noel Mock has a different approach to display than that of the bookstore staff in mainland locations.

Mock explained that the store uses display racks and bookshelves, keeping a focus on having items in expect- ed place in the store with some mix and match thrown in. “We will have our T-shirts with logo umbrellas and other logo items, for example. But we try to group items together more than anything else.” He related that “We have logo apparel in one area, then we have the nursing scrubs and lab work and chef ware in another area; we have textbooks in one area; the school supplies and art in another. While the merchandise and merchandise displays are not necessarily grouped by department, we do group items together by the types of things that students would want to find altogether in one place.”

The 900-square-foot store’s displays of general merchandise are limited. “We will have a couple around in different places to catch someone’s eye, but we usually just keep items in one area so we can easily direct our customers to that one area, and they can easily find what they are looking for in that category on the racks and shelves.”

Mock would like to change displays out more often, but he said, “We just don’t have the manpower. The store is basically just staffed by me and one student as personnel due to budget issues the last five years. So that kind of prevents us from changing merchandise displays as often as we would like, say for back-to-school or seasonal.”

Mock said that he would like to do that kind of changing display, but due to constraints of time and staff, “Mostly what we do is just highlight a particular item, add it to an existing display. We keep the displays we do have wellstocked in each area of the store, so that when people come to find an item, the item is there, and the displays in those departments are up to date. If there is only one item left, we’ll move that to a clearance rack and display it there.” ❖