Merchandising Know-How: Finding fixtures at Summer Market

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market is not the best place to find store fixtures. In fact, the official show directory didn’t even have a listing for merchandising products. But, in spite of that, we found a couple of very good resources.

Ecowood is a show regular exhibiting recycled wood fixtures. Seventy-five percent of the company’s business is in the green market, i.e. organic grocery stores that use the company’s wine racks and wine barrel stocking units. The new products from Ecowood of interest to outdoor retailers are the very attractive bamboo shirt and pant hangers at accessible prices of $125/100 to $195/100. Also interesting are the banner stands that accommodate graphic banners made of recycled polypropylene yogurt containers. The stands come in different heights but, to give an idea of cost, an 8-foot banner stand with banner is $245. Check out all the Ecowood products at www.plexuspacific.com/Ecowood.

Tucked away in the hinterlands of the Convention Center, we found Big River, a Salt Lake City-based firm specializing in 3D urethane and mdf stone and wood slatwall panels. All panels have 6-inch centers making them ideal for merchandising clothing and accessories. They use standard slatwall fixtures. Finishes come in heavy metal (for those retailers with industrial leanings) and old brick sandstone, slate and barn wood (for the traditionalists). The panels hold up to 85 pounds and are available in 4-foot by 8-foot sheets. All panel designs weigh 85 pounds each and sell for $270. We’ve seen slatwall panels like this before, but these are some of the most realistic on the market. For more information, go to www.bigriver.com.

Sharon Leicham is the creator of The MerchandisingHUB, the author of “Merchandising Your Way to Success” and “How to Sell to Women” and is a regular columnist for SNEWS® writing on merchandising and marketing topics. You can access all of her columns by going to www.outsidebusinessjournal.com/merchandising, where you will find tons of information targeted at the needs of the independent specialty retailer. You can email us with questions and comments at merchandising@snewsnet.com.

For more retail training support and know-how, be sure to check out the SNEWS® Business 101 tools and stories, including our 10-part Retail Merchandising Training series produced by SNEWS®, including a useful online calculator for performing the most common retail merchandising calculations — free to All Access Subscribers.