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Bill Fishman & Affiliates 11650 lberia Place San Diego, Ca.92128

The Merchant Magazine

testing equipment that pounded, pushed and trampled to demonstrate the quality of the merchandise.

Within the lumber and building material industry lies more opportunity to demonstrate than in most other businesses. Cutting wood, hammering and drilling are all natural attention getters. Just watch where the crowds gather at trade shows. We can show homeowners how to build it, assemble it, fix it, decorate it, store it, hide it, enlarge it and make it damage-proof. The demonstration potentials are limitless.

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nenr vALUE. low prices. good V service, credit, convenience, all help to differentiate one retailer from another. So does retailing show business. the entertainment-while-shopping factor. It brings in trafTic and sells products. Too little show business is being offered in home center retailing.

Major department stores have been using animation and sound to attract educated customers. Videos have become commonplace in every specialty department. Malls are attracting customers with fashion shows, jugglers, make-up demonstrations and iazz bands. Even street hawkers use animation to sell their merchandise. (Anybody remember the "tell ya what I'm going to do" pitchman on the old Milton Berle Show?)

I visited New York, Philadelphia and Washington during the Christmas shopping season. Again, this year crowds were drawn to the animated windows at Macy's, B. Altman and Lord & Taylor. Macy's had demonstrators in their key departments. Toy animals walked, talked. skated and danced. Perfumes and cologne samples were squirted at passersby. Magicians turned cards and made coins disappear, reciting their sales pitches as a part of their acts.

Ikea. the world lamous RTA furniture retailer, glass encased mechanical

If my guess is right, store sponsored off-premises do-it-yourself shows will not cycle again for another five years. Why not bring these demonstrations back into the stores? Sure it takes planning, space allocations, promotion and, sometimes, vendor cooperation, but the results are measurable.

Use the high traflic hours for short product demonstrations. Consider after hour clinics too. They make for repeat traffic and sell big ticket packages.

Don't limit your show business activities to the d-i-yers. Your professional customers can be motivated by demos.