Visual merchandising-the art of dressing merchandise display areas with theme-oriented props-creates a mood for buying. Sears stores throughout the country have been featuring props in their men's dress shirt area, including vintage typewriters, suitcases, globes and old law books, to create a gentlemen's professional office setting that the businessman can relate to.


With the strategic placement of these props, the men's dress shirt area has a semi-office feel to it that reminds the shopper of his business life needs. Sears also uses vintage oil cans, gas cans, hubcaps and car grilles in its men's jeans and work area to put people in the mind frame of working on a vintage car. These are examples of how the retailer helps set the scene for the buyer to make the sale.


The discount store industry is largely filled with "distributors" and has a small number of real "retailers" or customer sales associates. Because price is what most store distributors think their customers are primarily concerned with, selection is often secondary in emphasis.


Even though shoppers live in a self-service world, surveys show service is still of prime importance. People want their senses to be indulged-to feel good about what they are buying, where they are buying it and how they are going to feel about consuming it. It is a retailer's responsibility to deliver to the customer these "feelings" when they are shopping.


A conducive shopping environment sets the tone for the customer's psychological frame of mind for this process to effectively take place. If a gentlemen's suit store changed its decor to high-tech video monitors, blasting tech-no music and employed sales people with bleached blond hair, tattoos and nose piercings, it would have misunderstood its customer, and the store's normal customer would feel alienated. However, apply the same treatment to a hip jeans store whose main customers are stylish teenagers and you would be stimulating business because you are saying to your customer "I understand you."


To deal with a comparatively stark utilitarian atmosphere in a discount store setting, store display managers must work to differentiate themselves in order to stand out in a rafters-and-shelves world.


It is important to focus on impulse and mood buying and to transport the shopper into an "out-of-store" experience. Romance the customer with visual merchandising. The way you have a customer "see" the product have a massive effect on how they "feel" about buying the product. For example, a cheese and wine section could be "romanced" with images of the countryside, picnic baskets, picnic blankets and deck chairs. Such a visual presentation can have a customer thinking romantically about a day out with the family or a loved one.


Suddenly they are not just purchasing cheese; they are experiencing the anticipation of a positive experience. This creates "additional/impulse" sales: a customer might have gone into the store to buy wine but walked out having been romanced into buying wine, cheese, bread and other special goodies that feel like treats.