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Layout Building

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Layout Building

Carefully Plan your Store Layout when you own a Dollar Store

Those who own a dollar store and find a mistake was made in the layout of the display area inside their store are painfully aware of what this costs their business. There are so many impacts associated with poor layouts. They include poor to no traffic flow that can cause shoppers to ignore some aisles or even leave your store. Poor layout can also result in inadequate merchandise display area which further reduces dollar store sales and thus impacts dollar store profits. Of course poorly laid out displays also increase security risk for you and your employees.

It is critically important to measure the display floor carefully before opening. Be sure to draw the perfect store layout before installing even one display rack. Keep the following criteria in-mind as you determine the optimum layout.

#1) Safety must always be your number one concern when you own a dollar store. Blind corners, sharp equipment and display shelving edges, stacks of merchandise filling aisles and blind corners filled with trip hazards all present safety risks to your shoppers and employees. Design your store to facilitate the flow of traffic and to eliminate these hazards.

#2) Traffic flow and ease of movement comes next. Never set up aisle so shoppers are expected to walk into a dead end and then turn around and try to work their way through other shoppers to move on to the next aisle. Those who know about or can see the dead end will avoid entering the aisle. Watch your dollar store sales and dollar store profits drop as this occurs. Always provide room at both ends of every aisle to allow for shoppers to move on to the next aisle. This may require a drawing few versions of Your Layout to accomplish, but the planning will pay rewards in the form of happy shoppers and more dollar store sales.

#3) Maximizing display area for best selling departments needs to be factored in to your layout. Build dollar store sales and dollar store profits by providing adequate space for the better selling and higher margin departments. Party goods are a perfect example. Many of these in-demand items are also among the most profitable in your store. Facilitate sales by making party goods easy to find and by providing the appropriate amount of display space. Other, tight margin items such as household cleaners can receive a smaller area in a much less visible location without hurting overall dollar store sales. Plan all of this into your store layout before your store fixtures even arrive.

#4) Do not forget security when you own a dollar store. We’ve already covered safety, but what about security? Create a layout that prevents your dollar store profits from walking out the door. Your layout can go a long way toward preventing this from happening. Make it easy for those at the cash register to see the full length of as many aisles as possible. That view will go a long way toward helping to reduce shop lifting.

To your success when you own a dollar store!

About the Author

Find out how You Can open your own dollar store business.
Bob Hamilton is an entrepreneur, author, writer, business consultant and trainer.