WINDOW DISPLAY (Wholesale).—With the increasing interest of the retail trader in the value of his window display there has been awakened an interest by the wholesaler in the possibilities of successful aggressive work in this direction. The retail trader who is making window displays of an up-to-date character, finds in the course of a year that his stock of ideas for providing original and attractive windows is running out, and he becomes particularly amenable to suggestions from the outside, particularly if those suggestions are likely to result in profit to himself.
This point of view has been realised by many manufacturers who have gone out of their way to organise schemes for window decoration which could be adapted for use in the shop windows of retailers interested in the speciality. To-day, a department for dressing retail windows is quite a commonplace feature of an up-to-date firm engaged in the distribution of goods in general demand. One of the earliest manufacturing firms to seize on this method of popularising a proprietary article was the proprietors of Erasmic Soap, who, in some respects, pioneered the speciality window on behalf of the wholesale house. In the days when such displays were infrequent, the proprietors of Erasmic Soap designed elaborate settings for windows, calculated to show up their specialities in the most attractive ways, the window itself being almost a complete design in which not only the arrangement of the goods was con sidered, but a suitable colour scheme for the background provided. The firm specialised in making up their soaps in a tempting and attractive manner, in providing useful window cards and simple central features for display, and also by arranging the provision of suitable fittings to give an appropriate background to the general effect. As a result of their enterprise, the Erasmic Soap people were able to monopolise windows in most of the leading centres with shows wholly devoted to their specialities, and these displays were talked of wherever they were shown.
Naturally, so good an idea was not allowed to go without imitation. The success of the enterprise brought many competitors into the field and quickened up the instincts of traders who had been engaged, somewhat tentatively, in the same work. Since then a number of firms have entered into the same field and are prepared at a moment's notice to dispatch the necessary instructions and appointments to the retail trader who is prepared to dress a window entirely with their goods. Much effective work has been
done in this direction by two firms who sell fountain pens, both of which have made a feature of supplying the complete window. A firm of paint makers is largely interested in the same proposition ; one or two proprietary medicines have also seized upon the idea, perhaps the most notable illus tration of excellence in this direction being achieved by a firm who sold a speciality to relieve throat irritation. Other notable windows devised by the wholesale or manufacturing interest were the fine effects produced by the Eiffel Tower Lemonade people and Bovril, while in the same field one may find manufacturers of specialities for the hair, makers of patent goods, and importers of specialities such as Lime Juice and various mineral waters. The number of traders who are using window displays of this character is increasing, and tends to grow as time goes on, and several firms have sprung into being which make a point of providing the necessary fittings and novelties • for such windows in quantities. Such displays are secured by co-operation between the selling force and the retail traders they call upon. It is obviously to the advantage of the retailer to have an attractive window, and a special feature window ought always to be valuable to a retailer who has more than one window space, always providing that the manufacturer's suggestion is attractive and his goods saleable. There is always a prospect of being able to fix up sufficient window displays to make this branch of the publicity of the wholesale or manufacturing house worth following out, and a complete window pays the retailer who stocks that particular article by creating a special demand, which, wisely handled, ought never to die out, while it pays the wholesaler or manufacturer by supplementing and emphasis ing his general publicity in other directions. It is for this reason that large firms who depend upon the daily education of the public for their increasing sales find it well worth their while to run special departments to provide complete and effective window displays for every trader who makes application for their use.