How to Create Unique Tabletop Displays in Your Restaurant

Most kinds of restaurants have some sort of display on their tabletops, countertops, or bars - whether they're showcasing merchandise, decorations, or complimentary items.

Creating a tabletop display is slightly different than creating a regular merchandise display; however, the five steps below make creating display on your tabletops a breeze!

Step One: Think About Your Restaurant

You might think this step is unnecessary; after all, you own or manage your restaurant – why should you need to think about it?

In reality, you DO need to think about several things regarding your restaurant. The next few steps will help you do that more thoroughly, but as you’re scanning your restaurant and thinking about your future tabletop displays, consider where you want to situate your displays, the kind of merchandise you want to display, and what kinds of display fixtures might work best for you.

Step Two: Decide Where to Situate Your Tabletop Display

The phrase “tabletop display” suggests the display will be on your tabletop; however, which tabletop? Your restaurant might have tables of various sizes and, depending on the point of your display (see below), one size of tabletop might work better than another size.

Too, you might actually want your tabletop display to be a countertop or bar top display.

Step Three: Determine the “Point” of Your Tabletop Display

Obviously, one point of your display is to showcase a product of some sort.

However, you must also decide if:

• Your display will showcase complimentary items like packets of condiments or seasonings, or breath mints, hand wipes, or toothpicks.
• Your display will showcase additional merchandise for sale.
• Your display will be purely for decoration.

Step Four: Choose Your Tabletop Display Fixtures

Some of the most popular display fixtures to use for tabletop and countertop display fixtures are plastic containers and acrylic bins. You can find these display fixtures in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and styles, and they’re durable, versatile, and easily converted into “storage fixtures” once they’ve run their course on your tables!

However, if you choose plastic containers or acrylic bins for your tabletop displays, note that you can pair them with other display fixtures. Depending on the size of your display space – and how large you want to make your display – you might use one of the varieties of display racks. For example, you can situate your plastic containers or acrylic bins on small wire display racks. This will help keep your tabletop or countertop from becoming overwhelmed and allow your customers more room.

Step Five: Create Your Tabletop Display!

You might think this step seems obvious, but there’s no better way to make sure you display is going to work than first creating it and then giving it a try yourself.

Once you fill your display fixtures with the merchandise you want to display and situate the fixtures on your tabletop (or, countertop or bar – whichever you choose), put yourself in the position of the customer. Sit at the table or at the bar, or stand by the countertop. How does the display look from your position? Can you easily do what you need to do at the table, without the merchandise getting in the way? Can you easily access the products if you need to?

If the display doesn’t work, rearrange a few things until it does; if it does work, you’re ready to go!

Display Racks: Convenience Is Key

Display racks are convenient tools for a variety of businesses, including:

• Gas stations and other kinds of convenience stores.
• Restaurants, cafeterias, and specialty food shops.
• Bookstores, movie theaters, and movie rentals.
• Hotels, motels, and other travel industry businesses.
  

Every business needs to display its merchandise is organized, attractive, and convenient ways. One of the best ways to do this is to use racks designed to display merchandise on the floor or countertops. So, it only makes sense that the key to choosing the best display racks for your business is to choose what will offer the most organization, visual appeal, and convenience to your customers.

Choose the Best Display Rack

There are various kinds of display racks – from pegboard racks to common convenience store racks – and while each one works to display merchandise, each one also works a bit differently from the next. Keep in mind you can also find racks designed specifically for countertop display (which work great for small stores that need to make the most of the space they have!) as well as floor racks of various heights and widths.

Be sure to take your time considering the kind of merchandise you want to showcase and browsing each kind of display rack to determine which one will work best for you.

Choose the Best Accessories

Once you know what kind of display racks you want to use, it’s time to think about the accessories you’ll need.

Unless you plan to use a more traditional convenience store rack (also known as a c-store) rack, which generally has a number of built-in shelves for you to work with, chances are you’re going to need accessories like pegs, trays, and small plastic containers and bins to hold your merchandise. If you’re using pegboard displays, also be aware of the extensions you can add to make these displays taller and create more room for more merchandise.

While they’re not necessary tools for actually showcasing your merchandise, header sign holders are excellent ways to clearly label the merchandise on a certain rack, note the price, or announce a particular promotion. These header sign holders are generally available in clear and a number of sizes and shapes, like half-circles and rectangles, so choose the holders that will best fit your display rack.

Choose the Best Location

Naturally, you need to place your racks in convenient locations throughout your store. This might mean organizing the racks close to other displays of similar items or rearranging displays that hold merchandise for sale so they’re near high-traffic areas in your store. However, this always means making sure your racks are positioned in ways so that your customers can conveniently access the merchandise.

Note that in addition to stationary display racks, you can also choose racks that revolve so your customers can spin them around to see the merchandise on each side. These revolving racks are ideal for displaying merchandise in stores with limited space where the racks need to stand close to a wall or on top of countertops.

Convenience Store Racks: Where Else Can You Use Them?

Despite their name, convenience store racks or, c-store racks – which are generally the tall floor display racks you see in businesses like gas stations and other convenience stores – are actually ideal tools for displaying both food and nonfood items in numerous retail establishments.

Convenience Store Racks Work For Many Businesses

Simply put, you don’t have to manage a gas station or any other type of convenience store in order to need a c-store rack or two. These racks are helpful in a variety of retail settings, making it easier for storeowners to organize and display merchandise and convenient for customers to view and select the items they need. Consider these examples of how convenience store racks can benefit your business:

• Gift Shops and Other Specialty Shops: Gift shops and specialty shops can use these display racks to showcase nonfood merchandise like collectible figurines, stuffed toys, and craft items as well as any food products they sell such as gourmet candy.

• Bookstores: To display their books, magazines, and videos, bookstores generally use large shelves built into their walls or lined up as aisles throughout the store, but they can use c-store racks to display items like stationary sets, calendars, and gift sets. Also, some bookstores provide areas where customers can read the books they’ve purchased, and sometimes these areas include quick snacks. These bookstores can use convenience store racks to display food items like candies and bottled soda or water.

• Pharmacies/Drug Stores: Pharmacies have never been just places for people to fill prescriptions. These kinds of businesses sell an assortment of items and can use convenience store racks to display hygiene and other personal products like shampoos, soaps, lotions, and grooming kits; medical supplies such as diabetes testing supplies, blood pressure cuffs and monitoring supplies, and post-surgery products; and even food items like bags of chips, candy bars, bubblegum, and cases of soda.

• Hotels/Motels: C-store racks are great for organizing and displaying food items in the snack or dining areas, but they’re also useful for holding items hotel and motel guests often expect like magazines and newspapers. And, because many hotel and motel patrons are traveling through areas they’re not familiar with, you can use these display racks to hold convenience items like travel guides and brochures and local area and state maps.

• Movie Theaters: You probably can’t think about visiting a movie theater without also thinking about the delicious aroma of buttery popcorn! While they keep their popcorn fresh and hot in a popcorn machine, movie theaters can use convenience store racks to display other snacks like boxes and bags of candies such as Mike & Ike, Sugar Babies, Hot Tamales, M&Ms, and Skittles. Keep in mind that c-store racks are also great for movie rental businesses. They can hold items like snacks as well as help owners create displays for discount DVDs and videocassettes.

Take a look around your business and consider the kinds of items you sell. You’ll most likely find that your business could benefit from a convenience store rack or two!