Shop display

It's my birthday today! I had a very nice, albeit very quiet, day at work, and then I came home to find lots of parcels waiting for me. Not all birthday presents, but it kind of added to general, present-opening, me-me-me atmosphere. I had a beautiful 1940s dress and two 1960s train cases that I bought on Ebay. Then some books - a history of Newgate Prison and a biography of Adam Worth, the bloke who Conan Doyle's Moriarty was apparently based on - and DVDs - The Big Sleep and Breakfast at Tiffany's. And a wonderful little bear-sized wheelchair from my Aunt in America - an exact replica, with working wheels, working brakes and little flap-down foot pedals. And crutches and a plaster cast!

I am still a little tentative about the idea, but I am planning a wheelchair-bound bear - the point being, I guess, that it represents what some people live with all the time. I was rather dubious about it, thinking that it might be slightly upsetting, but having seen the wheelchair, I think it may be okay.

Anyway, whilst I was at work, I took some photos of the unit. It is looking rather dull and uninspired at the moment, sadly - the bears I sold over Christmas are much missed. Taking photos does help me work out what's going wrong.

This actually looks quite colourful, but it is perhaps a little misleading - centring everything under that wonderful sign. The little bears on the left of the photo are made by Valerie Noy, the lady who sub-lets space in my unit. They could perhaps do with being a bit higher - in fact, the displays on both sides of the central cabinet could probably be a bit higher.

These are the 'Christmas' baubles I made (now just to be known as 'baubles'), a lovely shawl knitted by my Aunt, and my mother's acrylic cards. I guess, as a display, it's colourful enough - just a bit boring. The shawl needs to be displayed spread out really. I'm just scared that if I hang it up - from hooks - and someone pulls on it, it may get damaged. The baubles could do with being hung up too, and the cards are not very visible stacked up in a stand like that.

Bags and a hat made by my mother. Only one of the two windows has shelves, and one shelf is higher than anyone can reach. This lower shelf actually looks better in the photo than it does in reality. When you stand in the unit and look at it, it sort of gets lost among everything else. I should do more with the windows; they are really quite striking. Framing them in something would be nice; perhaps putting something really tall on the top shelf; coordinating the colours of the two shelves. It would also be nice to have something facing outwards (since I'm one of the few unit holders with shop windows) - perhaps some silhouette-like thing, since it still gets dark early.

Henri and Archimedes, an apron and some teddy bear cards. I thought it was a good idea to place a blue Henri against a blue apron, but actually, he just sort of disappears.

Again, it seemed like a good idea at that time. That's Chekov - in a bag, hanging from a hook which I usually hang gift bags from. It looks quite sad actually, particularly against those incredibly ugly bare pipes. I am not sure what to do with Chekov. He is not a particular favourite, and although I think he looks good in the bag, he actually just looks like I'm trying to hide him when I display him that way in the unit! I think either I need to find a better way of displaying him, or he should be withdrawn.

Um... from the left, Keiran, Victor, Geraldine and Lily. This, I think, works reasonably well. It's a nice display of yellow (and a rather yellow photo as well, unfortunately), and it puts Geraldine on a high shelf, away from small children trying to look under her wedding dress!

Miguel and Wanda, with little Macintosh. I thought this worked well - the very spareness of it drew the eye. I wasn't so keen when I was looking at it today though. I am beginning to think that maybe the best way to sell is to stuff your shop to the rafters.

Manufactured mini bears, manufactured rabbit, Otto, Drake, Ethan and Rowan. This doesn't work. I do like the stand of manufactured bears on the left - facing towards the stairs that come up from the ground floor. This shelf is quite dark though, and both Otto and Ethan are quite dark in colour, and sort of fade into the background. Maybe, darker-coloured bears should sit on the white shelves on the other side of the unit. On the lower shelves on the left-hand side, it ought to be primarily white bears. Or maybe I could just improve the lighting.

This is one part of my bears-safe-for-children section. It looks alright, if a tadge messy and disordered. Thinking about the colour thing though, maybe these things would be better on the white shelves on the other side of the unit.

An apron(?) I had real trouble displaying these - they're difficult to hang. I must see if I can find some of those trouser-hangers with the clips. The knotted ties are not particularly attractive.

Albert, Dave (disappearing above the picture), Pascal, Izzy and a little manufactured white bear. This is on the other side of the unit - against the white shelves. The table looks too messy. Again, I thought the white tray holding the organza bags worked quite well, but it actually looks a bit scruffy. Pascal needs to be higher up, so you can look into his eyes; Izzy could do with a plainer background; and the little manufactured bear looks a bit lonely out there on his own (not to mention white on white).

Manufactured bear, Choo, Deb Canham bear, unjointed fleece elephant, Hugo, and another Deb Canham bear. Well - they are colourful bears against a white background. I don't think the bag fits very well there however, and I have lost the triangular effect - what with Choo and the elephant being the same size.

Dave and a 'block' polar bear. This isn't bad: the colour-combinations are nice - it's just that the little polar bear disappears against the white shelf. He needs to go over onto the wood-coloured shelves on the other side.

One of my welly-boot bears - and this I think, works well too.

Unjointed rabbit and manufactured Miffy keyrings. I'm not so sure about this one, but I don't know how to improve on it. Part of the problem is that that little shelf is all on its own, with nothing but white wall below it. I guess what would be really nice is to have something hanging from the shelf.

And finally, my very popular IKEA armchair, with a manufactured polar bear (with hand-knitted hat and bolero) dozing on it. I need to wash the covers. And I need to do something to make more use of the space without depriving my customers of a place to nap when they feel so inclined.

Anyway, there ends my whistestop tour of the teddy bear unit. Hopefully, I can get things sorted in time for Valentine's Day. In the meantime, I am looking set to miss my two-bears-a-week target yet again! Back to the bear-making!

Definitely room for improvement!

I took some more pictures of my unit at the art & craft centre recently. I have rearranged things again, but I really must find a more convincing way of changing the display.

Anyway, I have been trying to follow the advice of the internet experts:

Here are the bears arranged in a triangular shape, with the tallest in the centre. I do like the look, but the pillar in the centre of this picture (with the pink stripes) has no shelves or anything on it, so above the yellow bear's head, there is a lot of empty space, and it looks quite blank. Really, I could do with either putting up a free-standing shelving unit against the pillar (although it would be a shame to cover the stripes), or having a taller stand for the yellow bear.

Difficult to see, but this is my attempt at arranging things vertically by colour - pink! It really needs more light, particularly to the top two shelves. I've always had difficulty with lighting. There's a three-way spotlight in the centre of the unit, a single table lamp on the surface at the back, and - as you may be able to see - a light on the very bottom shelf. It still doesn't cover all the display space though.

Another problem is that there are gift bags on the bottom shelf. I guess I was considering that as wasted space - I doubt adult customers take much notice of it. However, it is the perfect place to puts kids' stuff, so I really ought to be putting bought-in, manufactured, child-safe stuff there.

In fact, that's true of all the lower shelves. However, not only do I have the space in the picture above - which runs the entire depth of the unit, but also the space on the lower shelves at the other side (see pic below), and the shelves of the central, island unit (see fourth pic). Altogether, those areas constitute about one third of the total display space, and the amount of 'toys' I sell constitute a much smaller proportion of my total stock than one third.

I guess I don't have to put children's items on the lower shelves. However, not only does doing so put the right stock at the eye level of the right customer, but it also means that the hand-made stuff - which is probably less hardy and more expensive - is put higher, out of reach of children, and so is less likely to be pulled about and handled.

Maybe I should be thinking about buying in more manufactured toys.

This was meant to be another attempt at displaying vertically by colour. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it really works to put lots of dark brown items together - it just looks dark.

Also, I have just realised, the shelving in the photo above is the first thing you see of my unit, as you walk from the stairs that come up from the ground floor, towards the front of the building. So the first thing my customers see is quite a dark, dingy, shelving unit. It would be better to have brighter colours there.

Another thing I would like to do is to put a big sign on the end of that shelving unit, with the lettering big enough that you can see it from the stairs (the stairs are right at the back of the building; my unit is right at the front) - just something really simple, to draw people towards the unit.

The sign would mean that you could see less of the stuff on the shelves. I think the trade-off would probably be worth it though.

This is the central island unit, which is right at the front, and which tends to be the first thing that people look at when they come buy the unit - hence the most popular seller (chiffon bags) being displayed there.

As I said, I think I ought to remove the gift bags from the lower shelves - I'm not sure they're going to be the most attractive thing to passing toddlers.

Another thing you'll read if you scour the Internet for advice on creating great retail displays, is that you should try to make full use of any unusual opportunities that your particular space has to offer. Before I moved into my current unit, I used to be on the second floor of the art & craft centre - in a little unit under the eaves. It was really sweet and cosy - like a little room in itslef, with a glass frontage looking onto the main walkway, and a balcony which looked over the first floor.

Fewer people go up to the second floor however, and also - much as I loved it - I really struggled to make the eaves work for me. The lady in the unit nextdoor (who also had eaves to contend with) had blocked them off. Her unit looked much smaller as a result, but she hadn't lost any usuable space by it, and in fact had gained some by putting an extra wall in. I was reluctant to do that - a) because I didn't want the unit to look smaller, and b) because I thought the eaves gave the unit a lot of character. I failed dismally in displaying stuff there though.

Anyway, in my current unit, I have three cupboards under the surface at the back.

So I have a bear hanging from the cupboard handle (not sure that was worth waiting for). Really though, as with the gift bags, its the wrong height to display something which is not suitable for children.

Finally, the picture above is of the window display. I have two lovely tall church windows in my unit - although only one has shelving in front of it. Sadly, I can hardly say I've made the best possible use of the space. It looks like a collection of items which I couldn't find room for elsewhere. And two of the items (the sheep and the cow) are bought-in toys. They are completely out of reach of any child - and probably a lot of adults as well, so they really ought to be on the lower shelves.

I think one of the things the window is lacking is something to frame it. It could do with a plant growing up one side of it (preferably a hand-made plant, with big, colourful felt flowers) - and obviously, some better attempt at arrangement. It would be a good place to put items which are slightly more fragile, which I'm not keen on people playing around with (e.g. self-standing bears, antique bears).

Anyway, here I come to the end of a crushing critique of my own display attempts (yeah, thanks for that); the next time I show photos of the unit, there will be big improvements!