Articles and Newsletters


Thursday, February 4, 2010

Use Jelly Beans to Increase Your Store’s Profit and Have Fun with Displays

Jelly Beans are classic candies that span the ages, and creating a Jelly Bean display in your store is a great way to increase your profit while having some fun!

The even better news is that Jelly Bean displays work well in nearly every kind of store. Candy stores, grocery stores, bookstores, toy stores, gas stations and convenience stores – they all have room for Jelly Bean displays.

Before you become too excited, however, you need to make a few preparations; namely, you need to choose where in your store you want to create the display, what kinds of candy containers you want to use to display the candy, and exactly what kinds of Jelly Beans you want to include.

Step #1: Choose Your Display Space

You don’t want to order your Jelly Beans and then just throw up a display anywhere you can find room. To make help increase your store’s profit, you need to display your Jelly Beans somewhere where customers can easily see and access them, and ideally near similar kinds of candy.

Do you want to create a countertop display? A floor display? A wall display? Do you want your Jelly Bean display to be modest or large? These are the kinds of questions you need to answer before you can move on to the next step: Choosing the acrylic containers you’ll use to display the Jelly Beans.

Step #2: Choose Acrylic Bins to Display Jelly Beans

Acrylic containers are usually the best choice for displaying unwrapped candy, and for some storeowners it’s the only choice: Many state health departments require them to display unwrapped candy in acrylic containers.

Fortunately, there are plenty of fun acrylic bins to choose from. Consider acrylic round face bins and acrylic mini bins, great for both countertop and table displays and complete with acrylic scoops to help your customers access the Jelly Beans they want. You might want to check out acrylic gravity bins, which help you save space and help keep the candy untouched, or you might want to add some flair to your displays with acrylic candy towers or gumball machines.

Step #3: Choose Your Jelly Beans

Now that you know how and where you want to situate your Jelly Bean display, it’s time to order the actual Jelly Beans!

Naturally, you’ll want to order the candy from a wholesaler, but before you submit an order form with the first company you run across, be sure to shop around. Ordering from a candy wholesaler helps you get the most bang for your buck, but shopping around for the company that offers exactly what you need at the best price for your budget helps stretch your dollar even further.

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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Candy Store Owners: Attractively Display Your Jelly Belly Candy

Whether you're opening your first store or you've been in the retail business for a while, you might not realize there's a difference between plastic candy containers and acrylic candy containers. For some, this misunderstanding isn't a big deal; for others, however, it is. Some candy stores are required by their state health departments to display unwrapped candy, like Jelly Belly candy, with acrylic containers.

Fortunately, there are plenty of attractive, functional, and convenient acrylic containers to choose from!

Acrylic Round Face Bins

Just as the name suggests, acrylic round face bins have a round “face” that’s actually a hinged lid customers can roll to open and that keeps your candy fresh and safe from dust and debris. Most of these kinds of bins come with a side slot designed to hold an acrylic, plastic, or metal scoop so customers can access the candy and retrieve the amount they want without contaminating the rest of it.

To add even more convenience, acrylic round face bins are available in versions designed to sit on your countertop or table display and versions designed to hang from your slatwall fixtures.

Acrylic Mini Bins

Acrylic mini bins are similar to round face bins with two differences: Their hinged lids aren’t round and, true to their name, they’re much smaller. Mini bins are perfect for displaying Jelly Belly candy in stores that aren’t dedicated to selling only candy, or for stores that want to create a small candy display in limited space.

Like round face bins, most mini bins are complete with slots to hold candy scoops.

Acrylic Candy Towers

Acrylic candy towers make creating a candy display fun! These kinds of “tubed” candy bins are available in a variety of heights as well in half-round and full-round models, which give you the freedom to mix and match and create your own look.

Acrylic candy towers work best for countertop candy displays or displays situated on any other kind of sturdy, flat surface.

Acrylic Gravity Bins

Acrylic gravity bins are amazing space savers. Like round face bins, you can find them in both countertop display and wall display versions.

If you’re not quite sure what an acrylic gravity bin is, think of the kinds of bins stores, hotels, and restaurants use to display food products like coffee beans and grinds, cereal, and trail mix – the kinds of bins that release the product when you turn a lever. (Generally, these kinds of gravity bins don’t require candy scoops).

Of course, those aren’t the only kinds of gravity bins – some don’t require levers. Instead, gravity works to keep the base of the container full. These kinds of gravity bins work best with scoops.

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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Turning Traditional Display Fixtures Into Art Supply Holders

Because there are various kinds of display fixtures specifically designed to showcase art supplies, it’s pretty easy for a store manager or owner to find the display fixture or fixtures perfect for showcasing almost any kind of art supply. For example, mobile scrapbook racks and slot paper racks are designed with scrapbooking and other art and hobby supplies in mind.

However, display tools specifically designed for showcasing a particular art supply aren’t always necessary. There are numerous kinds of fixtures out there that can hold a wide variety of merchandise types – these fixtures wear many hats, so to speak.

If you’re just now starting an art supply display in your store, check out the six display fixtures below. Chances are, you might already have several of them on hand – and if you don’t, ordering them means you can use them later for other kinds of displays!

Plastic Containers

You probably already know that plastic containers are some of the most common – and popular – retail display fixtures around. This is because plastic containers are durable, versatile, and convenient, and they’re available in a variety of shapes, sizes, styles, and even in both clear and colored versions.

Plastic containers work well to hold small kinds of art supplies, such as small paint brushes and writing utensils, rolls of stickers, packets of glitter and sequins, and even small tubes of paint and glue.

Acrylic Round Face Bins

Acrylic round face bins are a version of plastic containers, but pack enough extra punch to get a category of their own. These acrylic bins include hinged lids and attached scoops, and while they’re generally used as display fixtures for food products like unwrapped candy, yogurt and ice cream toppings, and gumballs, they’re great for displaying and allowing your customers easy access to art supplies like loose beads.

Bucket Display Racks

Bucket display racks actually combine two different display fixtures – plastic buckets for holding merchandise and display racks for holding the buckets!

You can use bucket display racks as art supply display fixtures much the same way you can use plastic containers. Small kinds of art supplies work best with these fixtures, and the racks allow you to situate the display nearly anywhere in your store where there’s space enough for the rack.

Pegboard Display Racks and Accessories

Pegboard display racks and their accessories, such as pegboard hooks, trays, and bins and buckets, work in similar ways to bucket display racks in that they provide both the fixtures to hold the art supplies and the means to hold those fixtures.

Because of the wide variety of accessories that work with pegboard display racks, there are plenty of options when it comes to which art supplies to display. Pegboard hooks allow you to display merchandise designed to (or included in packaging designed to) hang, while the trays and bins allow you to display small and moderately sized art supplies that need to “sit” in a container.

Wooden and Wicker Baskets and Racks

Think of wooden and wicker baskets and racks as the charming cousin of the bucket display rack. These fixtures, which are available in both fixed-position and rotating versions, can hold fairly sizeable art supplies and add charm to your store at the same time!

Table Displays

Table displays are excellent choices when you plan to use stand-alone fixtures such as plastic containers and acrylic round face bins. These tables are usually available with two or three tabletops and in a variety of “wood” colors, which also helps them add as much charm and visual appeal to your art supply display as wooden or wicker baskets and racks.

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Monday, December 28, 2009

5 Art Supply Containers and Racks for Your Store

Whether you already own or manage an art supply store or you’re looking to open one, or even if you own or are opening a store that will sell items similar to those found in art supply stores, you must make sure you have the right kinds of art supply containers and racks to display your merchandise.

Below are five kinds of art supply containers and racks to get you started.

1. Clear Plastic Containers

Because of their versatility and durability, and the convenience they offer both storeowners and customers, it’s no surprise to see clear plastic containers listed as an ideal display container for art supplies. Art supply store managers and owners can use clear plastic containers to display everything from small tubes or packets of glitter and sequins to buttons, beads, and other baubles. These kinds of containers are also great for holding loose paint brushes and drawing pencils and pens.

Of course, clear plastic containers also work great as storage containers. You or your associates can keep them under your countertops or in your stockrooms to organize anything from work-related tools such as rolls of sales stickers to thumbtacks for hanging wall posters.

2. Acrylic Round Face Bins With Scoops

Similar to clear plastic containers, acrylic round face bins with scoops work well to organize and display loose kinds of art supplies like beads. The round face design of these bins add visual appeal to displays while the scoops make it easy for customers to retrieve the amount of product they want.

Also similar to clear plastic containers, acrylic round face bins with scoops also work well as storage bins.

3. Slot Paper Shelves and Racks

Slot paper shelves work with slot paper racks (see below) and are designed to hold paper or similar art supplies. You can find slot paper shelves in various sizes and with one, two, or three slots and you can use them to hold everything from regular paper and construction paper to sheets of stickers and stencils.

Slot paper racks are designed to hold slot paper shelves and art supply store managers and owners can find these display racks in both floor and countertop models.

4. Bucket Display Racks

Like clear plastic containers, bucket display racks are found in a variety of retail establishments because they work so well to organize, store, and display various kinds of merchandise. You can use bucket display racks to organize and display everything from small art supplies like packets of glitter and small tubes of paint to larger items like loose paint brushes, rulers, scissors, and art pens and pencils.

5. Mobile Scrapbook Centers

Mobile scrapbook centers are crucial for art supply stores that sell scrapbooking tools. These display racks are complete with display fixtures such as slot paper racks for holding sheets of scrapbook paper as well as flat metal racks for holding heavier items and on-roll shelves for conveniently displaying rolls of stickers.

Mobile scrapbook centers also work well for any kind of store that doesn’t necessarily sell scrapbook supplies but does sell similar items such as sheets or packets of paper and stencils as well as rolls of stickers.

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