68 



The Florists'' Review 



January 10. 1922 



THE RETAIL STORE 



A PAGE OF HINTS AND HELPS 

 FOR THE RETAIL FLORIST 



AMABILLO PROQBESSES. 



The Panhandle of Texas boasts a live- 

 wire city known as Amarillo. Amarillo 

 prides itself on its progressive business 

 men, chief among whom is C. C. Cun- 

 ningham, proprietor of Cunningham's 

 Flower Shop. 



Several years ago Mr. Cunningliani 

 started in business with little to begin 

 on. Today Cunningham's Flower Shop 

 has two up-to-date Moninger green- 

 houses, along with two other houses of 

 another make, comprising in all about 

 10,000 square feet of glass. The firm 

 makes a specialty of growing sweet 

 peas, carnations and chrysanthemums. 

 Dahlias, cannas, asters and gladioli are 

 grown outdoors. 



This company not long ago opened 

 what it asserts is the first flower shop 

 downtowninthe Panhandleof Texas and, 

 believing in its home town, had all the 

 fixtures manufactured right in Amarillo. 

 These fixtures are white and the walls of 

 the shop are of a grayish-green tint. 

 There is carried a fine line of pottery, 

 baskets, ribbons and chiffon, along with 

 the plants and cut flowers. According 

 to Mr. Cunningham, the telegraph de- 

 livery business has increased wonder- 

 fully in the last two years. 



On a standard 20x100 lot, the first two 

 feet — the windows — are worth twelve 

 per cent of tlie rent of the store, he 

 asserts. 



The first eight feet on the inside of 

 the store are worth thirteen per cent of 

 the rent; so naturally the most profit- 

 able items should be placed here. 



The right-hand window and the right- 

 hand side of the store are practically 

 always more valuable than the left, be- 

 cause people are more accustomed to 

 walking and looking (in this country) 

 toward the right. 



The next ten feet of the store are 

 worth thirteen per cent of the rent. At 

 about the end of this space — approxi- 

 mately eighteen feet from the front door 

 — on the right-hand side, is the most 

 valuable spot in the store. This has 

 been proved by repeated tests, states 

 the writer. Therefore, here should al- 

 ways be a big display or quick turn- 

 over, low-priced merchandise with a gen- 

 eral appeal. 



From hero back, of course, the loca- 

 tions in the store decrease in value. 



HINTS TO WINDOW DECORATORS. 



WHAT WINDOWS ARE WORTH. 



Few experienced retailers will dis- 

 agree with the statement that one part 

 of a store is more valuable than the 

 other. 



Merchandising and real estate experts 

 have worked up formulas, which vary so 

 little that one can easily strike a safe 

 average, says a writer in Critchficld's 

 Commentary. 



Importance of Background Colors. 



Artistic arrangement and striking ef- 

 fect in window decorating have received 

 a great deal of attention from trimmers; 

 so much in some cases that other im- 

 portant elements have been neglected, 

 among them that of background color. 

 Window dressers have learned that a 

 display window which is entirely open 

 behind and has, therefore, the indistinct 

 and shadowy interior of the shop as a 

 background, lacks clearness and definite 



A Downtown Flowet Store in the Texas Panhandle. 



outline. The person close to the shop 

 front may see the display well, but the 

 effect is lost upon the one across the 

 street. If you have wondered why a 

 window display upon which much time, 

 effort and money have been spent, fails 

 to give satisfaction in proportion, con- 

 sider if it is not because of the absence 

 of a proper background. 



If the partition which shuts off the 

 display window from the shop is used as 

 a permanent background, it may be 

 found satisfactory for some kinds of 

 articles, but totally unsuitable for 

 others. Its value or disadvantage de- 

 pends upon the color of the partition 

 and upon the colors of the stock dis- 

 played. 



Rules for Background. 



There are certain fixed rules in re- 

 gard to the selection of a color for the 

 background of a show window that can 

 be profitably used by window dressers 

 who seek to make the most of this form 

 of advertising. 



One of the first is that backgrounds 

 should be of a color which is comple- 

 mentary to the colors of the stock shown. 

 When you look at a red-colored object 

 until your eyes are saturated, so to 

 speak, with that color and then close 

 your eyes, you see the object not in red, 

 but in green. If the object is yellow, 

 with closed eyes you will see it as 

 purple; if it is orange, you will see it 

 as blue. The colors seen with the eyes 

 shut are the complements of those of 

 the real objects. It is because of this 

 peculiarity of our sight, into the ex- 

 planation of which we need not go, that 

 we are sensitive to harmonies of color, 

 though not to the extent that we are 

 sensitive to the harmonies of sound. 



Backgrounds, therefore, should be 

 harmonious contrasts of the colors of 

 the articles displayed. The art lies in 

 the selection of a color to blend most 

 pleasingly with those of the articles in 

 the window. Herein is the usefulness 

 of a knowledge of the complementary 

 colors and others also suitable for back- 

 grounds. 



Harmonious Colors. 



Why certain colors are most suitable 

 for combination with other colors is 

 apparent if one knows how colors are 

 formed. All colors, as the reader doubt- 

 less knows, are combinations of the 

 three primary colors, red, yellow and 

 blue. These are called the original, or 

 primary, colors. The secondary colors, 

 orange, green and purple, are formed 

 of equal portions of the primary colors. 

 Orange is a combination of equal por- 

 tions of red and yellow; green, of equal 

 portions of yellow and blue, and purple 

 of equal portions of red and blue. All 

 other colors, such as brown, pink, laven- 

 der, olive, etc., are formed by unequal 

 combinations of the primary colors, to- 

 gether with white or black. Brown is 

 about seventy-five per cent black, six- 

 teen per cent red and nine per cent 

 yellow. Pink is about forty-five per 



