ln-store boutique breaks window buyer reluctance

mers the perception theY had more. We just weren't communicating."

Perhaps if Buena Park Lumber devoted special, spotlighted sections to the products, customers would give them a second look. So, the firm transformed a warehouse/ stocking area into adjacent, enclosed showrooms, one for doors and one for windows. The Door StoP oPened in early March and The Window Gallery celebrated an earlY MaY christening.

Story at a Glance

Specialized showrooms within a showroom generate higher windowsales dealer'sWindow Gallery showcases over 100 different models. . . sales up 307o, exPected to double.

The gallery's grand oPening featured sale prices, a free grille promotion, and factory representatives on hand to talk about their windows.

Racks, shelves and disPlaYs are brimming with aluminum sliding, arch transom, octagon, wood casement, garden, bay and double hung windows, and frxed and opening skYlights, in all over 100 windows to choose from. Less expensive aluminum sliders are featured near higher line windows, emphasizing the costlier models' advantages for an easier upsell.

And displays have been built into the showroom walls to allow customers to touch and operate the windows as if they were in their own homes. Buena Park Lumber had Previously set up random displaYs throughout one general area of the building. "The new showroom has a distinct advantage over the displays," says Sasser. "With displays, we'd put them here, there and everywhere, wherever there was space for them. Now theY're all together and there's no running around looking for them."

The Window Gallery was conceived to appeal to both contractors and do-it-yourselfers, but the company has found it appeals to a third party: the contractor's customer. "Custom home builders can now send their customers to us to easily pick out exactly what they want. And the homeowner is usuallY easier to deal with than the contractor, who often doesn't care," says Sasser.

A month after the showroom's opening, window sales were uP bY 30%. Sasser predicts window sales will double over last year's figures' This is one window idea that's becoming clearer and clearer.