Creating Snack Displays for Your Specialty Shop

If you manage an ice cream parlor, bakery, yogurt shop, or any other kind of specialty food shop and you think your shop wouldn’t benefit from a snack display because it already sells specialized food items, think again: Snack displays are lucrative ways to add additional merchandise to your customers’ menus!

If you're not sure how to get started, ask yourself the following four questions.

1. What Kinds of Snacks Would My Customers Like?

No one knows your customers better than you do, but as you’re considering the kinds of snacks to include in your snack display, keep in mind you also want to match your snacks to your current food items.

For example, if you manage an ice cream parlor that caters to lots of families with children, sweet treats like wrapped candies or lollipops might be the very things children want to get their hands on. On the other hand, if you manage a bakery that caters mostly to adults picking up a bread roll for dinner or a birthday cake for a party, gourmet chocolates might be the best way to go.

2. How Much Traffic Does My Shop Experience?

In addition to your display space (see below), the amount of traffic your shop usually experiences will help you determine how large or involved your snack display should be.

If your shop stays fairly busy, chances are a large snack display would work well; however, if your shop doesn’t experience a high volume of customers, a small display will work just a fine.

3. What Display Fixtures Should I Use for My Snack Display?

The kinds of display fixtures you should use for your snack display depends both on the kinds of snacks you want to display as well as the amount of display space you have to work with.

Once you know exactly the kinds of snacks to display, spend some time browsing the various kinds of display racks.

Plastic containers work great for small kinds of snacks, like wrapped candies, and you can use them alone or situate them on wire countertop display racks.

Small wire display racks with flat or angled shelves are great for holding small boxes of bagged candies or snacks like peanuts, and larger wire display racks are great for larger bags of chips.

4. Where Can I Situate My Snack Display?

The best place to situate your snack display is at your shop’s point of purchase, or POP. This is the area in your shop – usually the countertop where the checkout register is located – where your customers pay for their purchases.

One reason POP snack displays are so effective is that they promote impulse purchases. Don’t misunderstand – you’re not “tricking” your customers into making a purchase they don’t want; rather, you’re presenting them with merchandise they do want but might not have purchased otherwise because it wasn’t right there within their reach.

Which brings us to another reason POP snack displays are effective: Customers don’t have to walk anywhere to retrieve them, nor do they have to pick them up on their way through your shop and carry them to the checkout register. It’s not that your customers are lazy, but it IS that they are often busy with other things. Maybe they’re managing a couple of rowdy children, or maybe they already have their hands full with bags from another store. By placing the snack display in your POP, all they have to do is grab it, pay for it, and go.

Every Business Can Benefit from Creating Snack Displays

If you think your business can’t benefit from creating a snack display because your businesses doesn’t primarily sell food items, not only are you wrong, but also you’re depriving your business of lucrative merchandise displays!

Snack displays are perfect additions to a wide array of retail stores and other businesses – craft and hobby stores, bookstores, toy stores, movie rental stores, and hotels and motels can all benefit from snack displays. All you have to do is figure out which snacks you want to display, decide on the best display fixtures for those snacks, and determine the best location for the snack display in your business.

Choose Popular Snacks

Obviously, you’re going to want to display popular snack items. There’s no point in creating a snack display full of snacks nobody wants – especially if you operate a business that doesn’t primarily sell food.

There are lots of popular snack items on the market, and you can make your decision-making process a bit easier by thinking about your usual customer base. For example, if you operate a store geared toward children, such as a toy store, you’re going to want to include fun snacks in your display such as novelty candy. If your clientele consists mostly of adults, you might want to consider a snack display of gourmet chocolates.

Use Convenient Display Fixtures

It’s important for every store to use display fixtures that offer convenience to their customers; however, it’s especially important for a business that’s offering a snack display where no other food is normally sold. Rather than seeing the snacks as “in the way,” you want your customers to see them as a pleasant surprise.

The display fixtures you choose will depend largely on:

• The kinds of snacks you’re displaying. Plastic containers, for example, are great for small snacks like bulk wrapped candy, while wire display racks are ideal for larger items like bags of chips.

• Where you plan to situate your snack display (see below for more information).

Location, Location, Location!

One of the best places to create a snack display is at the point of purchase (or, POP). Your business’s POP is where your customers check out (or wrap up their business, depending on what kind of store you operate).

To create a POP snack display, you can use display fixtures designed for use on countertops such as plastic containers and small wire display racks. You can use either of these display fixtures by itself, or you can make them work together by situating the plastic containers on the racks to make the most of your countertop’s space.

You can also create POP merchandise displays beside your counter using bigger wire display racks (like those you see in convenience stores – there are many different varieties and it’s easy to find one that will complement your business’s décor) or 30-bucket revolving racks.

Of course, your POP snack display doesn’t have to be located directly on or beside your POP. Hotels and motels, for example, usually experience high volumes of busy traffic near their lobby counters, but these establishments can still benefit from POP snack displays within a few feet of their lobby counters, near soda machines and newspaper stands.

Create Point of Purchase Merchandise Displays for Your Drug Store or Pharmacy

The point of purchase, also know as POP, of your drug store or pharmacy is the area in which your customers make their purchases. A POP is usually the final checkout countertop, and as such it’s a hotspot for add-on merchandise and impulse purchases.

However, as the manager of a drug store or pharmacy, what can you use to create a POP merchandise display?

Candy and Other Snacks

Candy displays and snack displays work well in nearly every kind of business, and there is a wide assortment of display fixtures you can use to best showcase these items.

For example, you can:

• Use plastic containers to display small pieces of wrapped candies. If you don’t have much countertop space to work with or you want to use as many plastic containers as possible, you can pair these containers with wire display racks with shelves designed to sit on countertops.

• Use countertop racks with tiers that angle to display packs of chewing gum or the kinds of candy that come in boxes such as Good & Plenty.

• Use countertop racks with flat shelves or tiers to display small bags of chips, trail mix, or boxes of candy bars or bagged candy such as M&Ms.

Over-the-Counter Medication

Not many people head into a drug store or pharmacy with the sole purpose of purchasing over-the-counter medication. Usually, people pick up these kinds of items as afterthoughts, which makes them perfect for POP merchandise displays.

Chances are, your pharmacy already has a pretty sizeable display of over-the-counter medication somewhere in the store; however, you can use the same kinds of display fixtures discussed above to display small packets of over-the-counter medications ideal for carrying in a wallet or purse, as well as travel-sized bottles and even full-sized bottles, for those customers who might not intend to purchase any medicine but realize they’re out when they see the display at the POP countertop.

Small Medical Supplies and Accessories

Whether it’s diabetes testing strips or replacement batteries for hearing aids, small medical supplies make great items for POP merchandise displays. The same is true for accessories like reading glasses, travel-sized packets of bandages, and even medical identification bracelets.

Depending on the actual product, you might be able to use clear plastic containers with or without wire display racks, or you might be able to situate the merchandise on wire display racks with angled tiers or flat shelves. If you plan to display items like reading glasses or medical identification bracelets, be sure to check out spinning countertop racks with pegs for hanging the items.

Convenience Items

Many of the items listed above – such as over-the-counter medications and travel-sized packets of bandages – are considered convenience items by some; however, there are so many other convenience items you can include in your POP merchandise display.

Consider these ideas:

• Lighters and matchbooks
• Small eyeglass repair kits
• Travel-sized bottles of hygiene items like shampoo, soap, and toothpaste
• Toothbrushes
• Small bottles of hand sanitizer

Your options are really only limited to your store’s stock, your countertop’s space, and your own imagination!

Creating Candy Displays for Party Stores

If you manage a party store, you know that there are just as many different kinds of party supplies as there are parties! However, the one staple that seems welcome at almost every kind of party is candy. So, it only makes sense that your party store should have a candy display.

How do you create an effect candy display for your party store? One that offers convenience for your customers and a lucrative stream of income for your party store?

Start by asking – and answering – the following three questions.

1. What Kind of Candy Supplies Does My Store Sell?

This is the simple part: The kind of candy your party store sells will help you determine which plastic containers you should use for your displays as well as where in your store you should situate those displays. For now, just get a mental visual (of course, a spreadsheet doesn’t hurt!) of the kinds of candy your party store sells.

2. Which Plastic Containers Would Best Display My Candy?

Do you sell bulk unwrapped candy ideal for piñatas? Do you sell bars of candy great for gift or treat bags? What about lollipops, gumballs, and novelty candy?

Party stores cater to a variety of party candy needs, so it’s probably safe to say your party store sells a wide assortment of candy. This means you’re going to need to look at an array of plastic containers and other display fixtures for showcasing that candy.

The most important things you should consider about your candy as you’re determining the best display fixtures include:

• The size and weight of you different candy types.
• Whether your candy is wrapped or unwrapped.

Of course, you can’t make a final decision on the kind of display fixtures you’re going to use to create your party store candy display until you decide where in your store you’re going to situate those displays.

3. Where in My Store Should I Display My Candy?

Where you situate your candy display depends largely on both the amount and types of candy you’re selling and the kinds of display fixtures you’re using (or want to use). Just as there are display fixtures suited for every kind of candy, there are also display fixtures suited for certain areas of your store.

• Countertop and Point of Sale (POP) Displays: Creating a candy display on your party store’s candy display and POP areas works best if you’re using small kinds of candy. Plastic containers of various sizes as well as small wire display racks work great for countertop and POP displays.

• Floor Displays: Floor displays of party store candy are great for every size of candy. Create a floor display if you’re displaying large candy like candy bars, or just large numbers of small candy like bulk wrapped and unwrapped candy. For floor displays, you can use everything from plastic containers situated on wire display racks or convenience store racks to tall rotating displays like 30-bucket rotating racks.

• Wall Displays: Because they’re hanging from the wall, it’s best to only use small, lightweight kinds of candy for wall displays. Look for display fixtures such as slat walls or pegboard racks, as well as the plastic containers, cubes, and pegs that go with them, or consider wire bucket racks designed to hang from or mount to your wall.

3 Ways to Use Wire Display Racks for Countertops

It’s pretty well known that countertop displays – especially those situated on the point of sale countertops – are extremely beneficial for any kind of store. These displays put merchandise directly in front of your customers’ eyes and encourage impulse purchases of items everyone needs at some point.

However, when it comes to creating countertop displays, not everyone knows what resources – or display fixtures – are available to them. Sure, plastic containers are common, but isn’t there anything else?

Yes.

Wire display racks are excellent display fixtures for countertop displays, and below are three ways you can use wire racks to create countertop displays you might not have considered yet.

Use Wire Racks to Create Plastic Container Displays

Everyone knows plastic containers are ideal display fixtures for countertop displays; however, everyone also knows that not every countertop offers a whole lot of room to work with.

You can create plastic container displays for your countertop using wire display racks. These racks will hold and organize your containers as well as help you make the most of the countertop space you have to work with.

Use Wire Racks to Create Pop Displays

You might think the only place for a soda, or pop, display is in your store’s refrigerated section or somewhere on the floor where there’s enough room, such as a large aisle shelf or a space sizeable enough for a floor display rack.

However, you can also create countertop pop displays using wire display racks! Simply choose a rack designed for countertop use and fill it with cans or small bottles of soda. Drinks are usually a great impulse purchase, so creating a countertop pop display at your point of sale countertop could prove to be lucrative.

Use Wire Racks to Display Food Items

Who says the countertop you’re creating a display for is your checkout countertop? These racks are ideal ways for a variety of businesses to create countertop displays of food items:

• Nearly every kind of restaurant can use these wire display racks to showcase edible merchandise customers might want to add to their meals or purchase on the way out, as well as both food and non-food items such as displays of seasonings and condiment packets, napkins, and drinking cups, lids, and straws.

• Commercial cafeterias, such as those in hospitals, can use these racks to hold an assortment of food items including bags of chips, bottles of soda, and plastic containers and food grade acrylic containers filled with additional meal items.

• Specialty shops such as bakeries, ice cream parlors, candy stores, yogurt shops, and coffee shops can use wire racks to create displays of their daily baked goods, ice cream or yogurt toppings, wrapped and unwrapped candies, and coffee cups, lids, stir sticks, and packets of creamer and sugar.

Keep in mind that unless you’re planning on displaying stand-along items like bagged snacks and bottles of soda, or using traditional plastic containers with lids or handles, be sure to look for wire display racks specifically designed to hold acrylic food grade containers.