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Wednesday 16 June 2010

Inspirational Stores & Display Ideas

Shopaholics beware....... For the next few days I am going to share photos of some inspirational stores and their display ideas that I came across whilst visiting the USA, the attention to detail made them stand out on their high streets.

Ralph Lauren store in East Hampton, yes before you say "of course it's a nice store it's Ralph Lauren and they have a huge budget" but little things like plants outside and the white decals on the windows just add little finishing touches that don't cost a fortune but make the outside look more inviting.


As you know I have wanted to have a shop of my own for some time and Cavania has decided to to open a flagship store. I have found the perfect site but as yet the landlords are undecided so I have my fingers and toes crossed. Cavania has grown beyond my wildest dreams in the last seven years, she will be 7 on July 13th. So many stores across the country stock our goodies that a visit to our showroom is constantly being requested. The office team would also be coming and so the store would also be a showroom to display all our product mix so any of the Cavania stockist can pop by at any time for a chat, I look forward to making interesting inhouse displays and sharing the ideas and presentations with you all.

Furniture BEFORE..............

For the past couple of days I have been stripping and painting furniture I found in one of my locally stores , lots of interesting pieces of furniture for the trade shows as well as in the back of my mind my Cavania HQ. When I was in the USA a couple of weeks ago the stunning high streets that we visited were full of boutiques and innovative stores and displays, and bustling full of shoppers. In the UK our high streets are slowly losing their identity as the big boys take over, we have to make a point of difference. Which brings me to my next topic Mary Queen of Shops is back on the BBC, and did you see last nights episode? If you are a store you just have to watch this series, I have mentioned Mary Portas before and as you can guess I am a fan of hers, anyone who is set to take on the task of changing the high street and helping the shopkeeper survive gets my vote. No matter how great we think we are at running our own business there is always room for improvement so listen to the free expert advice that she gives, I have learnt a lot from her myself and still learning daily.
See you tomorrow for more inspirational stores.
xxx

2 comments:

Cavania said...

Hi Karen . Just seen your blog. I must agree with you ,our high streets look terrible. I live in the marget town of Devizes. it use to be so pretty walking up the high street with bakers butchers and proper sweet and gift shops . Now the high street is made up of charity shops arrgh. Pound shops or shops that are just so tired with no trade nobody goes in them as they just look like charity shops. There use to be a really nice gift shop but it had to close due to business rates being so high and all the council said is that they would rather see ithe shop empty than reduce the tax . Guess what it has been replaced with another charity shop.arrgh. I think we have enough big supermarkets, when you are in Europe supermarkets sale food. My sister lives in Demark her high street is lovely full of small shops NO CHARITY SHOPS. to be seen . I know they need to make money but not on our high streets, they should have a big building just for charities, that people know to go to if they want and leave the high street as it use to be. Sorry to go on .. I love Mary Portas. This weeks programe made me cross though when they went back a month after , did you note that they didnt have clean white shirts or aprons. The owner had a furry wastecoat on Big beads and her hair all over the counter. Not what you expect in a grocers store. I think they looked the part with aprons on . What do you think..... BRING BACK PRETTY ,BUSY HIGH STREETS.
Kind Regards
Lucy xxxx

helle said...

Wonderful shop at Ralph´s!! I got my own shop a few months ago and I´m always looking for inspiration to improve the decoration!

Helle:))