WHAT TO DISPLAY.
The mission of the show window is not to display unsaleable goods, but to sell goods. If you can’t make a pretty picture and sell goods at the same time let the picture go, but make a display that will sell the goods. But don’t forget that if you can make the window attractive enough to arrest the gaze of the passerby your goods are half sold. This may appear to you ambiguous at first, but a little thought will teach you never to lose sight of the fact that goods must be sold, and that an attractive window will help sell them. But a “picture window,” in which the value or utility of the goods is sacrificed to make the picture, is not art, but foolishness.
In the selection of goods for your window two classes are best. First, new goods, of which there is ample stock; for, being new and seasonable, they are in demand and can be sold with profit and the money reinvested. Second, old goods which must be disposed of, probably at a sacrifice, in order that the money tied up in them may be used to better advantage. These last are “bargain” windows and each article must bear its price ticket. Cut the price sufficiently to interest people. Bear in mind that these goods might lie on your shelves years without moving if there was no show window to dispose of them. Properly displayed and properly priced, the show window will sell them like hot cakes, even though they are old enough to have gray whiskers. People dearly love bargains.
Don’t make the mistake of selecting a variety of goods for your display. Confine it to one line as much as possible, and when that is impossible confine it to kindred lines. You don’t need so very many goods if you know how to display them. Some of the best windows I ever saw contained very few goods; but, bear in mind, every piece stood out as distinctly as a wart on a man’s nose. At the same time a well-filled, or “stocky” window, as it is called, frequently is quite as effective as any, and a reputation for carrying a full stock is a desirable thing for any merchant. Unto them that have goods shall be given trade. You can’t sell what you haven’t got.