Discover Vintage America — February 2012
Seasonal themes create mood, encourage sales
Winter months are among the slowest retail times for antique dealers. So why not create seasonal themes to attract customers?
Display winter
Look at your display space and ask yourself, “What says ‘winter? What says enjoying the outdoors in winter? What says curling up by the fire at the end of a day?”
If you’re a book dealer, what books can you spotlight that have winter themes? If you’re a silver dealer, teapots, coffee pots, and tureens are all good bets for winter display. If you’re a textile dealer, instead of a hodge-podge of heavy linens and woolens indiscriminately tossed among the laces and other warm-weather frills, why not rotate the spring stuff out and rotate it back in when the season is more appropriate for it? If you’re a jewelry dealer, what precious metals and gems say “winter”?
Think creatively: remove anything from your display that doesn’t fit a winter color scheme. Crystal, blue, green, violet and white are all hues of winter, and neutral pastels such as the grays and yellows found in heavy crockery also work well. If you want signage that gives people a little nudge, a small, simple tent card that says “Think Snow!” or “Curl Up!” or “Eat Hearty!” will work.
The “anti-winter” display
On the other hand, customers might welcome seeing a display that invites them to take a fantasy trip into warmer seasons or places.
Book dealers, how about featuring gardening books? Silver dealers, do you have lighter, reticulated items better suited for the garden party than for the mahogany table before the fire? Textile dealers can display lighter fabrics for an anti-winter theme. Colorful pastels can be a good palette to invite people out of the winter doldrums.
Even in furniture, the way someone sets up housekeeping in the Southwest is much different from the furnishings in the Southeast or the Northeast. Furniture dealers can organize a display around that odd or occasional piece that never seems to fit comfortably into their geographic area.
Simple tent signs like “Think spring!” or “Winter Can’t Last Forever” will cue the customer in that your display is deliberate rather than clueless. If summer doesn’t seem too much of a leap from the snow banks, haul out your merchandise in the brightest colors, the tones that dazzle in the light. Post a tent sign that says, “It’s not too early to dream!” or “Beach sand days and tiki light nights!”
Anti-winter connections don’t have to be direct to subtly work on consumer perception. If you make Mickey Mouse or Cinderella or any number of other Disney items the centerpiece of your display, it’s a short mental leap for the consumer to think of the warmer climes in which most Disney theme parks are located.
Peggy Whiteneck is a writer and collector living in East Randolph, VT. If you would like to suggest a topic she can address in her column, email her at allwrite@sover.net.