Sale Time

Post xmas sale season is upon us and we are, as usual, inundated with broken size-curves, duff merchandise and unwanted lines. Which is the time I do my shopping as I can pick up something at a steal that I like that the masses didn't , my win >:-)

Sale presentations have always been an pain-in-the-posterier in my time in retail. From the pack-the-window-with-as-much-crap-as-possible-so-no-one-misses-it mindset (well to be honest I've found that criteria applied in non-sale presentations as well, sooooo) to the still persistent idea that it should be presented as 'fashionably' and prominently as possible to entice sales - er, its on sale because, well it didn't sell, and folk don't like it and mutton dressed as lamb is still mutton!

Still, the sale has to be distinguishable from other promotional activity. Again, like Xmas, sale-time tends to rather design restrictive, the norm being 'SALE' in big letters and a combination of red, white and black or black, red and white or...you get the picture.

Yes, in my mind sale is sale, you're taking a knock on your prices and the last thing you want to do is throw more money at it. But it is still a representation of who you are and hopefully, an enticement to the customer to buy into new lines and regular non-sale items and I think, in todays retail market image is near everything - a shabby sale makes you look shabby and cheap merchandising is just that.

I like the clean lean and mean option, let folk now what's going on in an as expedient way as possible - like this:

By now your customer should have an idea of the kind of merchandise that you have and what to expect.If your image looks professional and crisp then the expectation that a good bargain is to be had will be maintained.

Nothing wrong with a bit of fun, a quirk, something that stands out from the herd and it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.

I liked Truworths take:

Yah, I couldn't resist, (Truworth bashing again?) It was first thing in the morning and the signage had fallen down overnight, revealing a rather bemused looking mannequin to the early morning mallers seeking that pre working/shopping day caffeinated rush. I do like the idea of the model clad in sale-wrap - effective, to the point and with a touch of humour.

Sale Time

Post xmas sale season is upon us and we are, as usual, inundated with broken size-curves, duff merchandise and unwanted lines. Which is the time I do my shopping as I can pick up something at a steal that I like that the masses didn't , my win >:-)

Sale presentations have always been an pain-in-the-posterier in my time in retail. From the pack-the-window-with-as-much-crap-as-possible-so-no-one-misses-it mindset (well to be honest I've found that criteria applied in non-sale presentations as well, sooooo) to the still persistent idea that it should be presented as 'fashionably' and prominently as possible to entice sales - er, its on sale because, well it didn't sell, and folk don't like it and mutton dressed as lamb is still mutton!

Still, the sale has to be distinguishable from other promotional activity. Again, like Xmas, sale-time tends to rather design restrictive, the norm being 'SALE' in big letters and a combination of red, white and black or black, red and white or...you get the picture.

Yes, in my mind sale is sale, you're taking a knock on your prices and the last thing you want to do is throw more money at it. But it is still a representation of who you are and hopefully, an enticement to the customer to buy into new lines and regular non-sale items and I think, in todays retail market image is near everything - a shabby sale makes you look shabby and cheap merchandising is just that.

I like the clean lean and mean option, let folk now what's going on in an as expedient way as possible - like this:

By now your customer should have an idea of the kind of merchandise that you have and what to expect.If your image looks professional and crisp then the expectation that a good bargain is to be had will be maintained.

Nothing wrong with a bit of fun, a quirk, something that stands out from the herd and it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.

I liked Truworths take:

Yah, I couldn't resist, (Truworth bashing again?) It was first thing in the morning and the signage had fallen down overnight, revealing a rather bemused looking mannequin to the early morning mallers seeking that pre working/shopping day caffeinated rush. I do like the idea of the model clad in sale-wrap - effective, to the point and with a touch of humour.

Xmas round up - caviar and fishfingers

OK, right, before we get into 2011 let's just round-off, shoot down, etc the remnants of 2010.

Several of us visually merchandisingly sussed folk get together (net-wise) and give a little feed-back on some retail-display related stuff and then give the thumbs up or down on what we've seen/experienced/uncovered.

Now no-one likes criticism but it's an essential part of growing, getting better, yadda-yadda fishcake and we try to be as constructive as possible (or not, and put the, er, boot in >:-) )

Christmas!

As I mentioned in my last post on such, I saw very little to fill me with Christmas cheer, but then, I'm a cynical sod and possessed by the Spirit of the Grinch so I relied on my compatriates to blog and post and comment etc. I did take pics buuuut, meh, couldn't be bothered.

Ingrid has a great blog on the whole subject of visual merchandising so I'll direct you there for the Xmas



Caviar

And the



Fishfingers

Next blog- sale windows!!

Xmas

I should put an xmas blog together...meh. Truth is I'm a tad jaded with retail at the mo', xmas makes it worse - malls full of excessive consumerism.I've also not seen much that makes me go 'Ooh-aaaah', pretty pedestrian in the main, an overt pc-ness of avoiding the term 'Christmas' and using 'Holiday' instead - *shrug*

..And of course, after seeing the windows the likes of Sainsbury's and Harrods etc in London put together (look 'em up...'Google' it) a couple of pics of tin foil birds and 'alternatively' coloured window displays seem a bit, ah, silly.

I'll feel more inspired after a break in the Midlands , perhaps and get back on board next year.In the meantime, check out my other blog :Whoops Dimensional Slippage

Happy holidays and a festive New Year - drive safe and we'll see ya next year.

Poetry and the first signs of Xmas

It aint often I'm impressed, I've gotten too damn cynical for that I think. Too much hard sell, marketing and generally catering to the lowest common denominator has been dragged before my withering eyes (and no small part of that installed by me, myself.)

I was in Eastgate (buying yet more Xmas lights), and , as I get there before the general opening time of 9 a.m. I get to have a wee shufty 'round the centre. The last time I was there I passed a boarded up 'watch-this-space' shop front, this time it was open, I'm thinking I'd caught it on opening day as the fella at the door was stressing that the power had not been switched on yet and-it-was-nearly-opening time.

The store- Poetry. On chatting to the fella at the door Poetry is part of the Cape Union Mart chain, catering 'exclusively' for ladies and very obliging he was when I asked to take pictures. Although very straight forward, sparse even, the windows were fresh and garden themed, featuring fresh, bright potplants even! Not a very big store, but in my mind, not big enough for sectioned off/backed windows, the big, wide and open-backed windows took the eyes into the store looking interestingly full yet not cluttered behind.






The classic looking cupboard in the one window complemented the one's used for merchandising instore which helped with the feeling that the floor merchandising and window presentation were one and the same.




Elsewhere in the mall I snapped this small boutique, Ana Sousa. Not as obvious in the picture as I would've liked was the 'prop' which was an interestingly complex tangle of wire and leaves forming a sort of a chair/stand for a shoe/accessory group - anyway, it caught my eye and made for an eye-catching focal point in an essentially minimalist display.








And on to the first Xmas window for 2010 on this blog - A.D. Spitz shoes. I've seen some really interesting windows from Spitz and some dreadful ones. Shoes on the whole can be difficult to 'display', the easy thing- to fill the window with everything you have or risk the shoes being overpowered by props, especially in a window, the size of the one featured. Here, I think the backing works well. focusing on the small, neat shoe and accessory groups. The three dimensional reindeer heads were repeated in smaller windows and instore.




I promise to get back to being brutal next time....

The good, the bad, the ugly..

Cue relevant theme music......

Had to pop down to Cresta Centre yesterday - crikey, twice in a month, this is getting a bad habit, but 'onest guv' I needed a new 'puter screen and I thought, on the off chance, I might find a copy of the new Grinderman album (ha, ha, fat chance!).

So, out wi' the handy cell-camera for a few window piccies to maul on line.I'm using the cellie camera more and more, I get irate looks and was chased out of Eastgate a couple of weeks ago for daring to brandish my usual camera (though that might've been merely due to an overly authoritative security guard wanting to make a point).

I'm collaborating with a few other window-dressery types online to do a worst of best of thing, Ingrid Summers being one of the co-conspirators....

So without further ado, Here's Foschinni, well placed in the mall nice, neat, nothing overtly ooohhhmygawrsh, but typically (for Foschinni) well balanced/lit/etc etc. Put it in the 'good' catagory...



Identity, a young fashion chain, linked to Truworths I think. Fun window, catchy theme but let down by not really connecting to the merchandise, in fact almost overpowering the stock - too much prop, methinks.














Now, this I call bad. Neatly dressed, well lit, prime bloody position in the mall, but come on?!?! Where's the effort, would a leeeetle propping go astray? It's obviously a matric dress window. No idea on mannequin placement in relation to mannequin or window frame... The cost of the garments alone tells me that couldn't a leeetle budget be found to get decent windows in?















Miladies at the mo' must be one of the most boring clothing chains around, apart from that other one ermmmm, dammit, the name slips my mind at present. Look at this...be still my heart. Up, up and errrr, take it away....The accessories window leaves me equally cold...I think it has to do with my aversion to mirror-chrome, next thing it'll be all burnt orange and shag-pile - watch.













These guys need their posteriors well kicked, very good position, within the 'entertainment' section at Cresta, across from a Barnyard venue and right next to a Spur. The stock available alone could create a window of awesomeness. Surfwear/t-shirts/skateboards. What do we get:
"In Your Wildest Jeans"?????? oh dear, Billabong, I think somewhere along the line there's been too much sun and toke too many.


Then I went blind... or perhaps the hangover was kicking in...I actually forget the name of the place, I was in shock, City Girl or City Nights or some such- big, neon, red. There should be some kind of law in malls about this kind of thing, there are no words to describe the horror, perhaps they are trying to be cynically hip in some way...Take it awaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy....

Cresta

So, hot on the heels of this morning's post I find myself with time on hand so I nip down to the Cresta mall in Blackheath. Cresta is often seen as the poor mans Sandton City, its certainly, in my eyes, more 'popular' as far as headcounts go (in fact I seldom go there , too damn crowded! Oh, and btw , I loathe malls......)

I initially wanted to check out the Edgars revamp, very smart it is, typically 'Edgars' with a far more open feel than previous incarnations with a good line of sight to the far reaches of both floors with lots of name logos and graphics to pull you through. I still feel though, if you were blindfolded and led unknowingly to the middle of an Edgars store that you wouldn't really know where you were when the blindfold was removed.

My biggest surprise, however, was the Jet revamp.I was aware of a revamp at the Eastgate mall but had no idea what it entailed. If you thought that deconstructivism was past its sell by date no-one told Jet. Ceilings out, guts revealed and everything painted mat black, which complmented the merchandise very well. There was some ceiling detail picked out in an industrial yellow. One would think with all the black that the lighting levels would suffer, surprisingly not, the floorstock standing out very well with no pervasive sense of shadowy gloom often found with blacked out ceilings.










Another surprise - the've put back dedicated window space - with mannequins!
Its not that they're wonderful windows, I was just somewhat struck that after so many years of poster advetorials with some badly placed stock squeezed somewhere in there that Jet had forgotten visual merchandising completely.