Radio today (Sept 1935-Dec 1936)

MERCHANDISING METHODS IN STORE ARRANGEMENT Principles back of radio-selling fixtures and store plan opposite * ALTHOUGH the basic principles of merchandise display are well understood, and some compromise usually results in adapting them to a small store, or to irregular shapes, of selling space, it is believed that the accompanying plan presents a minimum of compromise and a maximum of effectiveness for the small store. This floor plan, as drawn up by H. L. M. Capron, is for a store of 20 to 30 feet wide and 35 or more feet deep. The fixture type can be used in a store of any size, and the layout can be added to, or reduced, unit by unit, without sacrificing effectiveness, in adapting it to stores of other sizes and shapes. Highest-priced consoles are placed in the center fixture. A customer must see these models then, from any, and every position in the store. Leaders, and lowest-priced consoles, are placed on the rear of the store. Prospective customers of these models must then be exposed to the displays of all the better models both in coming in and in going out of the store. Better consoles are placed in the front of the store, where they are readily accessible for demonstration to the customer, without exposing the prospect to the lowest-priced models. Demonstrating records Each console is placed in its own compartment, so that attention can be concentrated upon the model being demonstrated and sold. With each console a table model is also displayed, so that a table model customer must see a console and compare looks and tone, and a console customer is exposed to the table model as a "second set." Fixture side walls may be panelled, painted, or papered, to furnish har YES! — BUT LOOK AT THE DIAL, TOO By means of a projecting lens, station names on the tuning dial are "thrown up big" on the screen of this console radio set made by WellsGardner, Chicago. monizing or contrasting backgrounds for the cabinetry. Floor lamps and a few decorative accessories in good taste, will remove the harshness from the formal display. A spot light will focus attention on any model desired. Such a display must always be neat and orderly, it cannot be allowed to get otherwise even in the rush of many demonstrations, if each compartment is wired for power, aerial, and ground. Tubes, and Service are placed in the rear of the store, so that customers with ailing radios must be exposed to the display of the new models. It would be impossible to walk into this store and not see what the display intended you to see, and yet sales and demonstrations are facilitated by the very display itself, while the display is not interfered with by sales or demonstrations of records and sets. This type of fixture and display layout makes not only effective, but efficient use of the floor space, and will result in much higher sales per square foot than a separate display and demonstration plan. ATLAS TELLS HOW RADIO WILL ELECT NEXT PRESIDENT * A new Election edition of its Political Eadio Atlas has been prepared by Phileo. With cover in four colors, the Atlas contains pictures of the Presidential and VicePresidential candidates of both the Republican and the Democratic parties, party platforms, histories of the two major parties and articles on how the President is elected, who can vote, and how radio has increased public interest in politics. In addition, it contains a special section on short-wave reception, photographs of foreign radio stars and complete logs of both foreign short-wave stations and American long-wave stations. Many maps in four colors are carried, including a double-spread map of the world with all the principal shortwave stations spotted-in. When dealers order the Atlases from their distributor, they are supplied with an equal number of prospect cards. The Atlas will be offered free to adults only and when these come in to get their copies, their names, addresses, and make and age of their present radios will be entered on the prospect card. In this way, idea is, dealers will collect a new, large prospect list upon which they can keep a complete card-index of follow-ups and sales. 18 Radio Today