John Ryan

RETAIL ENVIRONMENT

Where do you draw the line?

The somewhat controversial rude card category has the ability to offend and amuse in varying measures depending on your taste and sense of humour among other things. It’s up to individual retailers how, where and if they offer these cards to their customers as John Ryan considers.

“Does displaying merchandise of this kind detract from your offer overall?”

We’re all in favour of diversity and stringent efforts are made these days to ensure that we are as inclusive as possible in almost any arena you might care to mention. Yet when it comes to greetings cards, there remains a significant portion of the industry that may be diverse, after a fashion, yet many are still offended.

The area is, for want of a better name, the smut category and ranges from the mildly suggestive to the quasi-pornographic. The point, perhaps, about all of it is that it tends to be bought either as a misjudged joke or because there’s not much else left in the shop. On this reckoning, you’d be forgiven for thinking that most cards of this kind would be ‘top shelf’ material.

Yet strangely they are frequently afforded centre stage, put in a position where all but those walking around with their eyes closed will see them. Fine, if you like that sort of thing, then that is the sort of thing you’ll like, but is it necessary and does displaying merchandise of this kind detract from your offer overall?

The answers are no and yes. No, it is perfectly possible to sell greetings cards without recourse to gags about the size, shape and use of genitalia, for which reason why are they stocked? And yes, putting them anywhere in your shop will allow shoppers to make their own minds up about whether to make a repeat visit to a store or go somewhere else.

The difficult bit in all of this is where to draw the line. There is a point at which greetings cards featuring the improbably pneumatic or outsize are clearly beyond the bounds, but what about the merely mildly suggestive? One answer might be to ask whether your mum would approve. But there are mums and mums. Another might be to ask whether kids would understand them. Yet given the predations of the internet they’ve probably left most of what you have on show long behind them.

It therefore becomes a matter of personal judgement. You know what’s ok and what’s not and it’s up to you to decide. It’s called good taste and while this may vary from individual to individual, it’s not quite as broad a church as you might imagine. And after all, if you’ve been to a card department in John Lewis, you’ll witness a retailer that knows its customers, ‘rudeness’ is signally absent. Of course, if your clientele like the mildly rude or obscene (or any other potentially offensive content), then you can choose to stock items out of the direct line of sight, or in a box or drawer away from children’s eyes, or anywhere else you deem appropriate – it is your choice after all.

As you head, therefore, to the Autumn Fair and London Stationery shows, bear in mind that de gustibus non est disputandem (lit. there is no arguing about taste). Just be sure you know who you’re targeting.