Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Retailers had an array of opportunities – from connecting with other store owners to ordering pallets of products at special prices and examining merchandising trends – at the Orgill, Inc. 2016 Spring Dealer Market.
They flocked to a show floor featuring displays of new items, product category spotlight areas and three model stores arranged to give ideas for how to stock and merchandise businesses of varying sizes and product mixes. The show ran Feb. 25-27 and covered about 1 million square feet of convention space in Orlando, Florida.
The model stores were set up as a home center serving an even mix of pro and DIY customers, a store with a garden center and another business with 3,200-square-feet of hardline products to complement a lumberyard.
Merchandising tools showcased in the stores included a single-queue checkout line stocked with impulse goods, sliding racks of hardline products and varying widths of endcap shelving to allow for side panel displays of other products.
Finding new products, ordering merchandise at market-only prices and looking for fresh ways to arrange their stores were among retailers’ top goals for their time at the show.
“We’re looking for the newest display and merchandising ideas,” says Roy Mason, vice president and general manager for Race Brothers Farm & Home Supply in Carthage, Missouri. “Anything to freshen (the store) up. Anything to make it easier for consumers to shop.”
Ronnie Graham, manager of Old Town Hardware in Old Town, Florida, was looking for ways to improve his store’s product selection, merchandising and advertising, while keeping his eye open for a new product or two.
“We’ve got to find out what’s new and what sells,” he says.
Jason Taylor, owner of S&H Building Supply in Hamilton, Alabama, divides his time at Orgill buying shows. He takes about one day to order products that his business regularly needs and then spends about a day trying to think outside the box.
“I didn’t come to Orlando looking for a shed that looks like a tree,” Taylor says of a product he found. “I think I’m going to buy some of those. If we do buy them, we’ll probably be the only ones in the state of Alabama that have them.”
The show was an overall success, according to Jaime Villanueva, manager for TW Perry Inc. in Maryland.
“It’s going very well. It’s well organized. All the vendors are great,” he says. “We’re looking for new products for our customers, and we’ve come across a number of them.”
