Hardware I Housewares; '83 Merchandising tactics for hardware, housewares

GHOWING a customer how your lJmerchandise can enrich his life and stimulating his desire for it is an important part of merchandising. You may have the latest household items, craft materials, pet supplies, gardening equipment and plants, as well as lighting fixtures, mail boxes, door mats, home equipment and tools, but if your customers continue to think of your store only in terms of nuts and bolts, you are losing sales.

Emphasize one stop shopping for the home. Offer help for the d-i-y customer on repairs, home improvement, and decorating. Attract the gardener with pruning seminars and pest control sessions. Appeal to wo,men with craft classes, cooking schools, gift wrapping, and a giit registry. Make your store essential to every resident in your communiry.. beadline for copy is the l5th of the month. PAYMENT MUsr AccoMPANY coPY.

Guide and direct your customers with your arrangement of counters, gondolas, and displays. I-ead him and direct his attention to items you want him to see as well as those he wants to see. Devices such as broken lines, rectangles or different colon and arrow-suqgestinq triansles incorporated inid the- floori'ng can channel customers into various departments. The same is possible with ceiling designs and overhead displays. Showmanship can direct the customer's attention and stimulate impulse buying.

PLEASURABLE relaxation is suggested by this vignette bringing together merchandise from many sections. Wallpaper, floor covering, wainscotting, moulding, windows, furniture. pictures, lamps, access0ries, dishes, and olants are combined in the attractive settino which a customer can visualize and walnt to duolicate in his own home.

Coloful signing is necessary to identifu your departments or sections. If your communiry is bilin- gual, consider using pictures or symbols as well as lefters or adding a second language label.

Keep in mind the rules about eye level locations for merchandise. Put attractive displays above the customers heads and use the lower "stoop" areas for storage.

Dumpster units placed in the customer's path or at the cash register encourage impulse. buying. Tr1. for a dramattc l|ect by converting containers to seasonal decorations such as giant flower pots filled with garden items, or a chimney for Christmasrelated items. .l ftrate ship filted with picnic goods or a flowercart piled with artificial blooms are other ideas.

Promote the craft section bv showing how crafts can be used in the home. Display macrame plant hanger kits.with_hanging plants in the gardtn sectron. Heap storage units or baskets with colorful yarn or hemp. Locate stencil or decoupage kits near the unfinished furniture.

C0t0RFUt kitchen tools have instant sales appeal in this still life arrangement on butcherblock. Almost every woman will want them for her own cooking center.

Group related items to suggest add-on sales. Put the remote contol electrical systen s near the lamps, coffee pots, porch and post lights.

Set up an end cap with remedies for drafts such as window sealing kits, weatherstripping, storm windows, storm doors, plastic sheeting, air deflectors. Include on the signing facts and figures emphasizing rhe rmponance oI energy savtng.

Utilize the unusual with a stand of packing crates filled with excelsior to show off the bright colored dinnerware in your household section.

Unfold a few ladders to make vignettes with hanging baskets, light fixtures, or other above-the-head merchandise. Use another ladder m two as a display rack for small household items or tools.

Create visual excitement with spashes of color by grouping colored items such as extension cords together. Consider package colors in displaying merchandis e.

600 a word, min. 25 words (25 words : $15). Phone number counts as one word. Address counts as six words. Headlines and centered copy ea. line: $4. Box numbers and special borders: $4 ea. Col. inch rate: $40. Names of advertisers using a box number .unnot b. released. Address all replies to box number shown in ad in care of Building products Digest, 45lX) Campus Dr., Suite 4t0, Newport Beach, c4.92660. Make checks payable to dutler publishing, Inc. Mail copy to above address or call (714) 549-8393.

*lttilfittfili:i:it:i:iiitrffifi:.{,t:'il'.:l:iJ::J:itli:fi:iii',1::fi:li',t:tli:,1t:lli!liqii:is..,.i}.iiii

END AND EDGE damage and slight imperfections in 3mm and 3.6mm 4x8 imported plywood. Slight imperfections with no broken panels or prefinished seconds and excellent for many industrial usages. Available from stock in New Orleans and Charleston, S.C. Call: Russell Stadelman & Co., P.O. Box 17030, Memphis, Tn. 381l7 (800) 238-6195.

EXCESS WOODWORKING machinery for sale or trade. Kval automatic door machine. Kval interior nail-up machine. Bevelor, 2 Newman planers, I Madison moulder, I Yates American 54 inch resaw, cutoff saws, radial arm saws, lumber trucks and forklifts and much more. Call Agate Sales (916) 272-3451. Ask for Randy.

HARDWOOD INT'ORMATION

REPRINTS of hardwood articles from The Merchant Magazine. Excellent for reference or training. Domestic Hardwoods, $10; Southeast Asian Hardwoods, $5; South American Hardwoods, $4; all three, $16' Send your check today including name and address to Hardwood Reprints c/o The Merchant Magazine, 4500 Campus Dr., suite 480, Newport Beach, Ca. 92660.

12 INCH moulder. Call Agate Sales (916) 272-3451. Ask for Randy.

WE DON'T pay much, but we'll pay cash for closmuts. odd lots, seconds, etc., of any kind of building materials. Call The Friendly Junkman in Jacksonville, Fl. (904) 384-9986.

Building Products Digest takes your advertising message to retailers and wholesalers in the l3 Southern states: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee.