What’s up? Look at all the space above your shelves that could be working for you. Photo by Becky McCray.
Empty space is an enemy of small town retail stores. Empty shelves and empty space make customers think you don’t have much to sell. They already think you don’t have much because that’s the stereotype of small town stores.
You can combat this perception easily: fill all empty space, floor to ceiling.
Secret: You can fill with anything relevant to your business.
- Use gift bags with tissue paper to fill the top shelf
- Fill lower shelves with empty merchandise boxes
- Hang themed items from the ceiling
- Use “shop small” decorations like banners and pendants to fill in
Use whatever works in your business. One paint store used empty paint cans to fill the top shelf. They didn’t even have labels, but they filled the space!
The kitchen store in the picture used all kinds of vintage kitchen items to fill empty ceiling space. Almost any business can find some vintage-themed items to display.
It’s better for your rural store to feel a bit crowded than to feel sparse. You’d rather have customers thinking, “They have a lot of stuff” than “There wasn’t much in that store.”
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
- Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
- Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
- Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020
- Economic self defense for small towns - June 7, 2020
- The best things you can do for local businesses in light of coronavirus - March 27, 2020
- How to get more parking downtown without adding any spaces - March 7, 2020
- Exact Yeti Blue mic volume and Windows settings to reduce background noise - February 17, 2020
- Getting local businesses to cooperate with you: Shop Hopping Around Brownsville - December 16, 2019
- Survey of Rural Challenges 2019 results - December 5, 2019
Definitely creative ways here Becky to increase sales. Use the real estate you have. We see this during our frequent travels to SE Asia. Folks use ceilings, floors, walls, everything, to hawk their wares, since many people have limited space to work with.
Yes, Ryan. When you don’t have much space, you have to make the most of it. It goes along with the Innovative Rural Business Models and the trend toward Tiny businesses.
Great ideas!
Thanks!