Windows That Wow!

By Jennifer Heebner, Senior associate Editor -- JCK Online, 11/1/2004 2:00:00 AM

JCK recently asked its Retail Panel about successful window displays, in terms of traffic and sales generated. Below are some of the suggestions from respondents:

"We hosted a Cabbage Patch Doll wedding with cellophane church windows and a gazebo. The jewelry on display was bridal, with some attendants' giftware."—C. Patton, Diamonds & Gold, Green Bay, Wis.
"For one celebration, we used backgrounds of star plates with tubes—displayed to look like tubes of dynamite in all of our six windows."—Scott Cusson & Suds Range, Brinsmaids, New Canaan, Conn.
"We did a fishing window with plastic blow-up fish with big hooks holding jewelry and a sign saying 'Couples' Bait Shop'—using jewelry as bait to catch the woman in your life. We had lots of fisherman coming in with fishing poles and bait containers looking for live bait!"—Mark Binkley Sr., Cooper & Binkley Jewelers, Brighton, Mich.
"One Halloween, we did our center window as the Wizard of Oz scene with the house on the Wicked Witch's legs. It stopped traffic dead!"—David Mazer, Foley Jewelers, Landenberg, Pa.
"To call attention to sea-life merchandise, we used sand for the beach, clear blue marbles for the water, real sea shells and netting." —C. Patton, Diamonds & Gold, Green Bay, Wis.
"We made a papier mâché space shuttle and hung it in the window. We did this many years ago when we were promoting class rings."—Tim Makepeace, Makepeace Jewelers, Watertown, S.D.
"The most memorable [window display] is the Japanese window with pearls. My daughter lived in Japan for three years and brought back a wide variety of tea sets, antiques, and an assortment of samurai swords, all of which we placed in a window display.—Richard Armstrong, The Jewelers Workshop, Madison, Wis.
"I carry Waterford crystal and cut glass. At night, I put spotlights on items in the windows. It really gets us noticed."—Bruce Gumer, Gumer & Co, Louisville, Ky.
"Mix old stuff with new—you know, old loupe tools, stones not for sale, old appraisals, a handwritten note from Grandma dated 1910."—J. Espling, Espling Jewelers, Jacksonville, Fla.
"I paired broken antique Venetian glass statuary with colored-stone jewelry. The display drew in so many shoppers that I even sold two of the old broken statues."—Jean Bolton, T.H. Bolton Jewelers, Rochester, N.Y.