Visual Merchandising Display - Fairchild Books

during much of the twentieth century, most people
in the United States shopped in department stores,
large specialty stores, and small mom-and-pop
stores that usually were geared to local neighborhood
trade. The 1950s saw the start and eventual spread of
malls and shopping centers and the small specialty chain
stores that began to proliferate across the country. It was the
late 1960s and early 1970s that ushered in the “boutique”
phenomenon: small, specialized shops within a shop that
began to show up in the major department stores, targeted
at specific markets and age groups. Designer shops also
appeared on the better fashion streets in the larger cities
as the “prêt-à-porter” concept became a viable opportunity
for designers to spread their wares about.
Americans have always been brand conscious and
responded to names in advertising. With the growth of
TV, and more nationally distributed magazines, name
brands featured in ads and commercials became a draw
when those names appeared in department and speciality
stores. People through the ages must have waited for sale
events to shop “discount,” though they didn’t know that
that was what they were doing. It wasn’t until the 1970s
that discount shopping, factory outlet stores, and valueoriented
malls became a considered competition to the
traditional retail stores.
The 1980s were a decade of expansion—and of consolidation.
Speciality stores, like Banana Republic, Gap,
Benetton, and The Limited, seemed to pop up in malls and
on shopping streets across the country, while department
stores were disappearing, changing names and identities.
Many mom-and-pop shops and small, independent stores
gave up the fight against the spread of the specialty chains.
The 1990s has witnessed the growth of a new phenomenon:
the big-box store, or superstore. In giant,
hangar-like constructions of concrete, cement, steel, and
glass—covering areas ranging from 20,000 to more than
100,000 square feet—retailers collect a vast assortment
of usually one specific kind of product and then turn
these monster spaces into category killers—so called
because their greater selection and generally better
prices (not to mention, easy-to-shop spaces) allow them
to “kill off ” the smaller stores carrying that same category
of merchandise.
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P a r t 5 : V i s u a l M e r c h a n d i s i n g a n d P l a n n i n g
Another recent addition to the retail format vocabulary
is the vendor shop. Although the concept of brand
name shops within a shop is not new, the recent approach
is. Today’s vendor shops are miniatures of the designers’
or brand names’ own retail stores and though located
in department and speciality stores, the brand name
manufacturer controls how the shop looks and how the
merchandise is presented.
In this chapter we consider how these new retail concepts
rely on visual merchandising and display—on the
selection of fixtures, graphics, signage, and decoratives to
create the desired image for the buying public. Visual merchandising
and display more than just attracts customers—it
keeps them in the store as well.
Big-Box Store, or Superstore
It is all size and selection. These giant retail boxes are
often located along main highways and feature bold
graphics, signage, and colors on their façades to attract
the traffic and invite the shoppers into their open parking
lots. Everything here is done to make the shopping experience
appear to be easy and fun; the shopper isn’t actually
aware of the miles of walking that is involved. Concrete
floors may be tiled, there may be areas of carpeting or an
occasional wood floor, but mostly the floors are painted
in colors to help the shopper move around the space and
to define different areas in the store. The open, exposed
ceiling is almost always filled with pipes, ducts, and vents
that control and carry the electricity, water, heating, and
air-conditioning apparatus. Sometimes, the high ceilings
are pierced with skylights that allow the natural daylight
to mingle with the many sources of artificial light provided
to illuminate the space properly.
Today’s shopper wants comfort, convenience, and
value. The shopper also wants selection, service, and entertainment.
He or she wants to enjoy the time spent in the
store, so the retailer, the architect/designer, the visual merchandiser,
and the display person have to “warm up” and
personalize the vast space into smaller, more comfortable,
life-size spaces that have a feeling of intimacy. Also, the
retailer’s goal is to prolong the shopper’s stay in the store,