I’m convinced that whoever wrote the song about the lazy days of summer was not in the wholesale or retail gift business. Not in the United States, at least. The summer gift shows are in full swing and keeping the buyers and showroom staff and reps quite busy. I’ll be at the Orlando Gift Show on Sat., 8/6 and then off to New York for the NYIGF show that begins the following weekend. Watch for my Retail Details press badge and I hope you’ll stop me to say Hi. Scroll down for some fun news at the end of this blog post.
Summer Displays:
Oars are used as hang rails in this summer display at Periwinkle of Potomac Greens in Alexandria, VA. Suspended with boat rope, the oars are the right diameter for hangers and make a clever display in their swimwear area.

Porter Square Books is an independent bookstore in Cambridge, MA. They always do a nice job of creating displays around holidays and various themes, like gardening, movies or events like poetry month or graduation. They have several summer displays, one that features books about traveling around New England, which became a store event in June. Their “book it to the beach” display is complete with a sand castle and books for all ages.
Rice is a Danish homewares and accessories company, known best for their colorful melamine and storage solutions that are fun and functional. They sponsor store display contests for their retail customers worldwide. This company
REALLY encourages creative retail visual merchandising and I will be featuring more of their stores in the future. This summer display is from the
Rice Ting Bergen store in Norway. The mini-fridge is just the right size for the kids summer snack containers. It catches the eye by being painted bright green, inside and out.

This display at
Hollies on the Avenue has a sophisticated, natural, beachy feel. Hollies is a specialty shop for gifts, home accents, and “surprises” in Barrington, RI, and caters to residents and visitors.
Showroom Displays:
A great source of display inspirations, showrooms at the markets are a proven resource for display ideas.

This scarf display is in the
Lindsay Phillips area of the
OneCoast showrooms. A rope ladder display can be a versatile piece for presenting merchandise. Neutral in color, it shows up well against a color wall, as shown here, but is not distracting. Another version are the rope ladders that are available at boat stores and bring a nautical theme to a summer display.

Some displays use props and some are products on traditional fixtures. At the
Greenleaf Gifts showrooms in Atlanta and Dallas, they built some props out of their product.

They used sachet packets for the scent Velvet Woods, adding feathers to construct these colorful peacocks in their showroom windows. They turned out great and caused quite a buzz around the marts.
Announcement:
Please join me in welcoming
Chelsea Redfern, who recently joined Retail Details as an intern. Chelsea is in her last year of college and will graduate with a BA in Marketing, Advertising and PR. Chelsea manages her Mom’s shop,
Baglady Boutique, in Springfield, MO. Chelsea grew up in the retail business.
In her own words:
“When I’m not at the shop, I love to create in the kitchen or get lost in the midst of a fashion or foodie blog. I took this internship with Becky because I thought it would be a great experience for me to work with two things I love: blogs and retail. I’m very excited to learn from her and this experience. So, in short, I’m a 20-something aspiring shop girl who in the midst of trying to finish college also lives the life of a fashionista, chef, blogger, daughter & friend.”
Chelsea will be contributing to the blog and helping to plan our next store display contest. She will research and analyze displays and also help me with research for my other writing assignments. I am thrilled to have Chelsea on the Retail Details team and look forward to her perspective, ideas and retail knowledge.

Stay display inspired!
~Becky Tyre
Becky Tyre is a Florida-based journalist, visual merchandising consultant and display designer. She writes about retail topics, blogging and visual merchandising for national and trade publications. You can read her most current articles in Gift Shop Magazine. She is the owner and writer of the Retail Details blog at www.SwirlMarketing.com You can reach Becky via email at SwirlMarketing@comcast.net