provided by: 
No matter how plentiful the inventory, desirable the location or appealing the advertising, poorly conceived store design and haphazard displays can be detrimental and even fatal to a retail business.
Merchants should consider the visual arrangement of the store, from the manner in which merchandise is displayed to the materials used in the ceilings and floors. The old style army/navy store, crammed with merchandise, may require sprucing up and better organization to lure customers from big box stores.
Yet merchants who redesign their stores or open new ones also need to be careful not to change the essential nature of their business.
Architect Stephen Schwartz of Livingston, New Jersey, who has been designing retail stores for 20 years, recalls a conversation he had with the owner of an urban army/navy store, who was seeking to acquire an adjacent store.
"The aisles of his store were two feet wide. The store was covered with merchandise. Salesmen had to climb ladders to reach items," said Schwartz.
But the retailer told Schwartz a cautionary tale about an army/navy store where redesigning went too far.
"It was a family business that went from a packed-with-merchandise ambiance to a boutique-like feeling," recalled Schwartz. "A new generation of family ownership wanted to create a new image, but it was perceived by the customers as not the image of an army/navy store, and the store went out of business."
Before drawing up plans, Schwartz talks to his clients about the nature of their business and what has worked in the past.
"I always tell my clients that if they are successful and they have return customers, they should be careful about how they design. They shouldn't fix what isn't broke."
Participation by the client in the planning process is essential to Schwartz because only the client can understand the needs of his or her business.
While a trendy children's boutique in an affluent neighborhood might splurge on expensive construction materials, an army/navy store might be hurt by doing the same, not only because of the price tag, but by the effect that the change would have on customers.
Schwartz has designed a successful liquor store whose owner rejected using high price materials.
"He deliberately wanted to project the image that he does not spend a lot of money on fancy surroundings, that people are getting value for their money," Schwartz said.
From floor to ceiling, materials are the key elements in store design.
For many of his projects, Schwartz recommends high quality hardwood floors. But army/navy stores would do better with less expensive wood. Number two construction-grade wood or even a cheaper quality would be more suited to an army/navy store character.
Schwartz has designed stores for JR Cigars, in which he has built tin ceilings to create the sense of the 1920s and 1930s when many men smoked cigars.
While a tin ceiling would suit an army/navy store, they can dispense with a ceiling entirely, leaving the underside of the roof exposed.
"It adds ambiance to leave the structure exposed-- the beams, roof, rafters-- whatever is holding up the building," Schwartz said.
Light on the subject
Lighting is an essential element in store design, but it is one that many merchants misunderstand, said Schwartz.
"There have been tremendous strides in newer lighting fixtures that produce more lumen output but generate less heat," he said. "More heat means more air conditioning, but today you can get more light from fewer bulbs."
Fluorescent lighting has progressed from the T-12 bulb to the T-8 to the T-5, the standard today. Each successive generation uses less electricity.
"I tell my clients to go through a mall and observe how architects have designed lighting," said Schwartz.
For illuminating merchandise, he recommends MR16 light bulbs.
"They are a very economical way to highlight merchandise. Army/navy stores may not need them throughout the store, but to spotlight certain items."
Stores can remain open during renovations. In fact, said Schwartz, some retailers report an upsurge in business when the store is being renovated.
"Customers don't mind a little inconvenience, and when they see construction, they come inside to see what is going on," he said.
Lifestyle is a key advertising concept: customers buy merchandise that they identify with a certain lifestyle. The army/navy store merchant can, for example, promote family camping sales by setting several mannequins in a camping scene.
"Rather than focus on a particular piece of merchandise you are trying to create a whole image, a life style."
Mannequins go back, at least, to the time of the ancient Egyptians. They are ubiquitous today for retail clothing display.
Mannequins have remained fairly constant over time. But contemporary, mannequins are chunkier than in the past, reflecting the change in the American figure, said Richard Rollison,executive VP for Universal Display and Design, a London-based company with offices in New York.
Female mannequins were formerly size six. Today they are usually size eight or ten.
A mannequin is defined as a replica of a human body, including arms and legs. Most mannequins today are made from fiberglass.
However, merchants can also mount merchandise on forms, which have neither arms nor legs, or on tubular fixtures. Both are less expensive than mannequins.
Innovations to mannequins include experimental finishes, such as vacuum metalizing, which creates a reflective plastic finish that covers the fiberglass.
"There is always a part of the mannequin usually the head, that is not covered by clothing. People can see themselves in the finish. It has a very contemporary look and is good for the younger market that likes something flashier," said Rollison.
Many army/navy stores begin with forms, said Rollison.
"But as a businesses become more sophisticated, customers respond to full mannequins. Mannequins give the ability to see from head to toe. You an even strap a backpack on a mannequin," he said.
Although there have been experiments in flexible, rubber mannequins, the results have not been attractive said Rollison. Merchants, therefore, need to keep on hand mannequins in a variety of poses.
Capital Store Fixtures in Sacramento, Calif. supplies both mannequins and forms, but focuses mainly on mannequin alternatives, and on both standard and custom design fixtures.
"Nothing is really new in these products," said president Vicki Pelc. "Fixtures stay constant."
However, she notes that the grunge look in fixtures is popular, particularly four-way fixtures that are fashioned from chain link panels and then made to look old by being subject to flame blowers,
Pelc sells a variety of flexible tubular pieces to produce mannequin alternatives,
Price is a major advantage of mannequin alternatives. A mannequin averages $300 but a set of tubular alternatives, $75
Pelc does a strong trade to merchants in grid wall and flat wall fixtures for displaying merchandise. The former is a system made from half-inch wire panels. The latter is a flat wall display system
Both are popular, but grid wall has a more high tech look, she said.
Some merchants mix grid and slat wall, she said.
"The most important thing in a fixture is flexibility," Pelc said. "What you are doing today is not necessarily what you will be doing tomorrow."
author: BY HOWARD PROSNITZ