April 1, 1912. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



325 



Window Displays for the Rubber Goods Dealer. 



By a Practical Windoiv Trimmer. 



THE retail dealer in any line finds, before many seasons have 

 passed, that his window is his best salesman. If he is 

 wide awake he will see that 50 per cent, or more of his 

 business is the result of an attractive window display. Tempting 

 the public to come in sells more goods than a silver-tongued 

 orator behind the counter, no matter what the line is. Of course, 

 the rubber line is not an e.xception to this. 



The window trimmer for a rubber concern finds more dif- 

 ficulty in plying his art than a window trimmer in some other 

 lines. Ladies' suits, furniture and similar lines lend themselves 



to artistic window arrangement on account of their size, but 

 with rubber goods it is different, since in that line many of the 

 articles are so small. Being small they do not lend themselves 

 to an artistic arrangement as easily as do larger articles. In 

 decorating a window with small articles it is very easy to arrive 

 at a finished product which is far from being a selling feature : 

 to get. in fact, a slip-shod, thrown-together look that is far from 

 attractive. 



In trimming a window the first point to be considered is : 



From what points is the window viewed? Generally speak- 

 ing, there are two types of display windows — one is the straight 

 front window, and the other is the corner window — with corners 

 of varying angles. Most of these 

 corner windows are formed by the 

 fact that store doors are set back 

 some little distance from the walk ; 

 that gives the window- arrangement 

 shown in the accompanying figure. 

 In the straight front window there 

 is, of course, only one point of 

 view — directly in front — and the win- 

 dow has to be dressed with referencf 

 to that viewpoint. But in the corner 

 window it is necessary to arrange 

 the display so that it will be sightlx 

 from either side. Referring to tht 

 figure used for illustration, the dis- 

 play must be arranged so as to be 

 viewed from the sidewalk lines A H 

 and E F and also from the entrance 

 lines B C and D E. 



In brief, the only point to be re- 

 membered is to have your display 

 face the points from which it is 

 viewed. If you do this you cannot 

 help arriving at a pleasing and ef- 

 fective arrangement of .goods. 



.A window display should be built 

 up and not thrown in. The first thing to do is to select 

 some article rather large, or a collection of similar smaller 

 articles, which can be used as a foundation, so to speak. Around 

 this foundation or central object the rest of the display should 



be arranged in an artistic and balanced manner. For the central 

 object one large article or a group of large articles can be used 

 or you can use a collection of small articles (all aUke), arrang- 

 ing them in a symmetrical style. After having obtained a central 

 object, or idea, other articles should be grouped aroitnd this in 

 a balanced manner. It is not necessary that the same article 

 should be placed on both sides, but it would be a poor balance to 

 put a large auto tire, for instance, on one side and a small water 

 bottle on the other side in the corresponding position. In 

 building up a window display it is well to have the central part 

 higher than the rest, with the lowest part of the display at the 

 ends. This gives a finished and graceful look to a window. 



Another point to remember is this : Don't put, or even try to 

 put, everything in the window at the same time. Don't think for 

 a moment that if water bags are not shown in the window every 

 time it is trimmed that people will conclude you don't carry 

 them. Many window displays are ruined by the desire of the 

 trimmer to show everything in one window. Large stores, 

 having many windows, seldom do this, but the small store with 

 one or two small windows often tries to show everything — with 

 unhappy results. Better trim the window oftener and thereby 

 avoid this mistake. 



While on this point of what to put in the window, it might be 

 well to say that very good results are .obtained by having a 

 strong display of only one article in a window. For instance, a 

 window filled with nothing but water bags is bound to be a 

 selling force because it puts all its energy in displaying one 

 article. No matter how well the bags were displayed in con- 

 junction with other goods they could not show off to as good 

 advantage as if displayed alone. This, of course, is true right 

 through the line from the smallest article to the largest. 



A concentrated display of one article not only booms the sale 

 of that particular article but also promotes the sales of similar 



WiMKiu Disi'L-W iiF Sf:i.K-M()ViN'C Tire. 



articles. For instance, a display of water bags will, of course, 

 sell water bags, but more than that it will cause your sales of 

 other articles used in a sick room, to increase. I know of a case 

 where a window was given over to the display of a certain 



