-By Sherry Hoffman

Creating fresh eye-popping displays that consistently wow your customers is a difficult task, especially for the independent retailer. It takes patience and creativity to keep the store interesting and fun. Don't limit yourself to thinking outside the box. Try and remember there is no box.

Looking at what other specialty stores are doing is helpful but the real information comes from looking at stores that are outside your market. Take a page out of the chain bookstore book. Think about its amazing paradigm shift over the last few years. In the "olden days," bookstores had signs warning against reading the books in the store. Imagine the person who sat in a board meeting and said, "Let's put in overstuffed chairs and let the customers relax and read the books. And let's put in a café and they can read magazines and have a cup of coffee and eat an egg salad sandwich. What?"

The other turnaround for bookstores is the brilliant use of the psychological implications of the olfactory response. Walk into a bookstore and immediately the smell of coffee causes a cozy, mellow mood to wash over you and make you want to snuggle down and a read a good book or listen to some live music. Let's face that music and realize we've come to expect that wonderful coffee smell when we walk into a bookstore. Smell may not be a display but what you smell is as important as what you see. But that's for another story.

Look around a chain bookstore. It's a very good place to get your creative juices flowing. They've done an excellent job of displaying and categorizing their merchandise in a way that, even in very large stores, creates a space you want to spend time exploring.

Borders is a wonderful example of creating areas in the store where customers can interact with the staff without even having a conversation, while conveying the feeling that the staff wants to share what they know. One example is the information area and the other is the display of staff recommendations.

It's easy for you to set up an area where you can create the same environment and make it your own. Depending on the "flavor" of your store, name the area "Mom's Picks" or "You've Got To Try This." Let the customer know who recommended the item and why, and suggest they ask that salesperson or others for their recommendation. It's just a small way to help the customer decide and to let them know you and your staff are there to help. I vote for honesty. Instead of recommending what you want to sell, tell the truth. It's good karma and your customers will appreciate it.

A Borders store in Ann Arbor, Mich., is the first in the chain to install LongPen. It's new technology that makes it possible for the store to offer special events with an author or musician without the artist actually being there. Although it isn't widely available, it has enormous potential for you to create a space around the technology and be able to host cooking demonstrations or celebrity chef "appearances." And now that we've told you about it, you'll be ahead of the curve when it's released.

Be as Particular on the Outside as You Are on the Inside
An upscale food retailer in my hometown has continually upgraded the inside of the store. His in-store displays are welcoming with bright lighting and bright colors. However, the front window, which is a full half-block long, has looked the same since the mid-1950s. Part of the window is covered with postings of lost cats and bikes for sale. Another section exposes the inside ledge with stacks of free local magazines and newspapers. The remaining space is covered with signs telling what's on sale; and beneath the signs on the inside of the store are towers of merchandise, like charcoal or beach toys. It looks like a messy staging area. Has it hurt business? Who knows? But if the owner would change it up and create an interesting display, he may attract people who don't shop there. He doesn't know what he's missing.

Stand outside your store and stare at it for a while. Try and see it with new eyes. Ask a customer to stand outside with you and get their opinion about what the exterior of your store says about the interior. As you stand outside, what might you expect when you walk in? See it in your mind's eye. Reinventing your investment is invigorating.

Packaging is a key selling point for most manufacturers, whether they're making food or flowerpots. Take the box the item comes in (choose the most colorful and decorative ones) and place the product on top of the box. Build a geometric design in your window. Not only will it be an eye-catcher, it will make your suppliers very happy, too.

The entrance to the store is a great place for an interactive display. Having a sale on omelet pans? Make omelets; show people how easy it is to turn out a beautiful-looking breakfast.

Who doesn't like free stuff? Even the rich and famous vie for those amazing Academy Award gift baskets. Ask your suppliers for samples. Instead of slipping them in the customer's shopping bag at the end of the sale, build a front-of-the-store display around the product you're promoting and offer the samples as people approach the front door. Many will feel obligated to come in.

Most stores put their "sale" items at the back of the store to naturally make the customer go through the whole store to get what they're after. Serpentine tables will do the same thing. Customers follow the curves of the tables and, before they know it, they're past the point of no return, sale items or not.

Displays that make people take notice don't have to be expensive or ornate. Sometimes, deceptively simple is simply the best. At holiday time, decorate your tree with small whisks. Add a bit of interactive good-for-the-soul stuff and have the customer remove a whisk and keep it as a gift in return for a donation to your favorite nonprofit. In its place, hang a thank-you note in honor of the customer.

Is your store kid-friendly? It should be even if you don't sell kid stuff. If a child has something to keep them occupied, the parent is happy; and a happy parent stays as long as the child is happy. Create an interactive display area. Are you a gourmet food store? Put some food pyramid puzzles on a small table, or make up a healthy food quiz. Put a food pyramid display in the area so both child and parent can make the connection. To pull it all together, surround the pyramid with eco-friendly products.


Opening a store that combines two "guilty pleasures" was a marvelous idea. The Chocolate Grape in Chicago pairs wine and chocolate, and takes the experience to a new level. With a sparsely elegant design, they display their merchandise the same way Tiffany's displays its jewels. Joel Berman of Berman Architecture says they have a way of selling the "jewels" they want to move.

"The Chocolate Grape prominently displays their designer chocolates at the point-of-sale in a beautifully lit glass case. What it does is enables them to put product out there they want to move, similar to what Crate and Barrel does."

Berman also designed the Chicago-based In Fine Spirits Wine Shop. A wall display of three shadow boxes, each with a single bottle of wine floating in the middle makes an incredible impact and gives the impression that a single bottle of wine is a work of art. That theme is carried through when the store hosts "Meet the Artist" parties. Local artists have the opportunity to show their work inside the store, guests flock to the event and, in a relaxed mood, buy more than usual.

Another Berman Chicago creation, Urbanest Living, an eco-friendly home furnishing store that makes a lot of their own products, has a way of making a regular customer see things they've never seen before.

"The staff completely rearranges the store several times a week," explains Berman. "They pick up everything and relocate it." Berman admits they may not be selling that many more items and they may have similar stock, but "the customer has a different experience every time they walk in. And if you look at Yelp.com or the 'where to go, what to do' Metromix.com, people say it's fantastic."

It's hard to run a business and organize promotions and displays as well. There are businesses out there to help. MatchPoint Marketing, recommended by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, is a full-service marketing agency that partners with consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers to create strategic promotions, advertising and in-store campaigns (www.matchpointmarketing.com). Instrumental in generating consumer awareness, building brand equity and increasing sales, MatchPoint's campaigns are known for combining strong creative concepts with detailed execution.

Remember to have fun with your store. It belongs to you; you created it and are free to break any rule you wish. Put a mannequin outside the front door, dress it up and put a sign it its hand saying, "Rules Broken Here." Then break a few.

Comments? shoffman@gourmetretailer.com