By Karen Long MacLeod

Because pet sales are such an important part of their business, Mark and Caroline Janczak have devoted a lot of energy to improving the animal displays in their store, Critters Pet Shop in St. Charles, Ill. Since product sales offer an even greater potential for increased profits, they realized they needed to devote just as much energy to product display and merchandising.

They had attended many seminars and read numerous articles about merchandising, so they knew their floor plan should direct customers through the store, exposing them to merchandise they might not have noticed before, as well as to featured items highlighted on end caps. Furthermore, they knew the arrangement of products within each display should entice customers.

Their next step: devising and implementing a specific merchandising plan based on these general principles.

Over the past several months, Mark and Caroline have taken steps to upgrade their store--with the help of two well-known industry consultants, one prominent distributor/wholesaler, 20 leading pet supply manufacturers (and their sales representatives), and the staff of PET AGE magazine. They have a budget of $60,500, including their own minimum $10,000 contribution, and expect to receive products valued at more than $25,000.

In this segment of our year-long series about Critters' redesign, we'll see how the Janczaks formulated a basic merchandising plan, installed new store fixtures and remerchandised their store. (Although this series will continue until July 2000, the Janczaks will complete the actual renovation and remerchandising of their store in less time.)

A New Merchandising Plan

Critters' original floor plan, based on long aisles, did a good job of directing customers to the back of the store--but a lousy job of drawing customers to departments beyond the center aisle. Rows of tall gondolas, which blocked sightlines and made the sales area seem dark, offered too few opportunities for creating promotional end caps. Furthermore, a lot of Pegboard and shelf space was wasted.

After touring the store last spring, project consultants Simon Handelsman of Out of Hand Inc. (Newburyport, Mass.) and Mike McCahill of Retail Store Planning (Roseville, Calif.) agreed the store needed a new design that would feel more open and inviting, yet expose customers to more product and give the owners more opportunities to sell additional categories of pets and supplies. Furthermore, the Janczaks needed to employ better merchandising techniques to use display space more effectively and make it more appealing to customers.

"My premise is to design a beautiful, functional store that's easy to work in," Mike said.

Mike's final design, based on a racetrack or "buy-way" with angled aisles, highlighted exciting animal displays (see "Fish in Focus," January 2000; "Natural Appeal," February 2000; and "Labor of Love," March 2000) and reinforced Critters' strongest departments. Taking advantage of our natural tendency to move counterclockwise, the functional, flexible layout incorporated floor gondolas with lots of easy-to-change end caps.

His plans also made full use of wall space in the main sales area. An expanded pet food department--with seven sections, up from four and a half sections in the original floor plan--occupied the length of the left wall. A solid wall of slatwall shelving on the right balanced the wall of pet food on the left.

For additional merchandising flexibility, Mike suggested a floor-to-ceiling kiosk in the center of the sales floor, plus a variety of tonnage flats (12-inch-high platforms) on the sales floor and in the front windows.

He even incorporated shallow shelves and peg hooks--perfect for promotional and impulse items--into the space-saving cash/wrap area.

Even though they approved Mike's plans, Mark and Caroline wondered how they would fit all their inventory into the gondolas represented in the fixture floor plan, since the number was substantially lower than in their original floor plan.

Mike, of course, had no doubts. "Once we start remerchandising the store, we'll see that we can fit more into the gondolas," he said. "We'll consolidate merchandise that's now spread out all over the store. We'll also use the walls much more effectively."

Buying Fixtures

The next step was buying display fixtures. Although they could have reconditioned their existing displays, Mark and Caroline decided to buy new floor gondolas and shelving units to ensure a clean, uniform look throughout the store. To leave enough room in their budget for fixtures, they even sacrificed a few items from their construction budget (see "Tough Choices," December 1999).

Armed with detailed specifications for fixtures--including styles, dimensions, colors and number of shelves per unit--Mark and Caroline contacted suppliers that cater to pet stores, as well as store fixtures manufacturers.

They hit pay dirt with Welsh Design Services (Naperville, Ill.), the local distributor for Streater Store Fixtures (Albert Lea, Minn.).

"Mike Welsh, the gentleman from Streater, has been really helpful," Mark said. For example, Welsh suggested various options to help stretch Critters' remodeling budget, including a cash/wrap station by Powers Retail Services (Woodridge, Ill.) that was significantly cheaper than the counters the contractor proposed to build.

Through Welsh Design Services, the Janczaks ordered 18 floor gondolas (a combination of 36-inch and 48-inch units) and 16 end-cap units in white made by Streater, plus 10 wall units made by Streater, along with Pegboard, slat wall, shelves and cornices. In addition, they ordered two L-shaped cash/wrap counters (laminated in "sea") with matching 48-inch-wide half gondolas made by Streater, and a floor-to-ceiling kiosk (also laminated in "sea") made by Powers. The final invoice for all these fixtures was $19,628.

Since the overall floor plan also included an expanded pet food department, Mark wanted to get racks from Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. (Topeka, Kan.) to match the store's existing Science Diet racks. He hit a snag when he found out that Hill's no longer provided the same racks. Fortunately, he was able to get five racks from The Iams Co. (Dayton, Ohio)--a sponsor of the PET AGE Pet Store Make-over project--at no charge.

"They're two different racks, but they are pretty similar," Mark said. "The existing racks are red, and the new racks are black, so we might paint them all to make them match."

The fixture floor plan also specified a variety of display accessories, including peg hooks, wire dump bins, metal sign holders and shopping baskets. Mark bought most of these items from Southern Imperial (Rockford, Ill.).

Installing the Fixtures

To minimize disruptions to daily business operations, Mark and Caroline planned to install the new display fixtures in stages. Accordingly, they thinned out their inventory, marking down some merchandise and temporarily reducing fill-in orders. They then began consolidating merchandise, gradually moving empty gondolas out of the sales area.

But even the best laid plans can go awry.

"The fixtures were done a week early," Mark said. Although the Janczaks almost panicked when they learned they would have to accept immediate delivery or pay a storage fee, "we compromised on the delivery date by a couple of days, so we could have the weekend to get organized."

Once the delivery truck arrived, it took four hours just to unload the boxed fixtures.

"We had to scramble to find places to stack boxes and shift shelves," Caroline said. "The store looked pretty messy."

It looked a lot messier a few days later, when the Janczaks completely redid the sales area in late October. The process took two days, with 12 people working in concert. One team, consisting of store employees and manufacturers' sales representatives, moved all the product from Pegboards and shelves into shopping carts. The second team, consisting of Mark and Charlie Lopp of Wilson Pet Supply (Hanover Park, Ill.), dismantled the old shelves and racks. The third team, from Welsh Design Services, assembled the new shelves and racks. Then the first team reset merchandise on the shelves.

"We had to close for four hours during this process," Caroline added. "When one woman came in with her toddler, I realized how dangerous it was, with ladders and big sheets of metal leaning everywhere. So we locked the doors. When people banged on the doors wanting food or crickets, we only let them come in to the counter, and we got them what they needed."

At this point, Mark and Caroline decided to set up a total of six dog food racks instead of the seven called for in Mike's plan. They omitted one rack in the middle of the wall to create a 9-foot-wide boutique for collars and leads, including product donated by Coastal Pet Products (Alliance, Ohio) and Flexi USA (Cincinnati).

After two days of organized chaos, Mark, Caroline and their employees had returned every piece of merchandise to a shelf or peg hook. Even though they knew they would have to move most of the stuff at least one more time to implement the final merchandising plan--still being refined--the Janczaks were relieved to put the sales floor in a semblance of order in time for the big Christmas selling season. Their major merchandise reset could wait until after the holidays.

Deciding What Goes Where

It's one thing to arrange fixtures according to a detailed floor plan. It's quite another to decide where each department belongs, and how to display products on gondolas and shelves within departments.

Project consultants Mike McCahill and Simon Handelsman offered some general advice for Critters:

• Remerchandise the aquatic supply section.
• Give the small-animal department more display space in a prime location.
• Remerchandise the dog supply department and deepen inventories of better-selling products.

After considering this advice, the Janczaks hammered out the specifics of their final remerchandising plan with the help of Charlie Lopp, their sales representative from Wilson Pet Supply, the sponsoring distributor for this project.

"Charlie has been really helpful on ideas of how to merchandise and arrange product," Caroline said.

"You want the merchandising scheme to draw people farther into the store," Charlie noted.

Initially, the Janczaks wanted to display fish products on gondolas facing the entrance to the fish room. Instead, Charlie encouraged them to display aquarium accessories, fish foods and remedies on 11 48-inch sections and three sections of wall shelves in the right front section of the store, and put decorated tanks in the front window. This would emphasize Critters' biggest category--and capitalize on the business generated by the store's beautiful new fish room.

Mark and Caroline agreed with Charlie's reasoning, even though it meant abandoning Simon's recommendation to display small-animal products in the front of the store.

Their next idea was to display reptile products across from the entrance to the fish room. Since reptiles are housed near the fish, this seemed like a logical idea.

Mark and Caroline had no trouble allocating space for the bird department. They decided to put bird food--including new bulk food dispensers provided by Sun Seed Co. (Bowling Green, Ohio), a sponsor of the make-over project--plus treats, toys and other accessories on two sections of the wall unit adjacent to the bird habitats and four 48-inch sections facing the rain forest.

Since dog food and dog supplies together represent almost a quarter of Critters' business, the Janczaks and their consultants agreed to give these departments prominent placement in their new merchandising plan.

Near the massive pet food display along the left wall of the main sales area, in the left front section of the store, would be highly visible gondolas and end caps filled with dog toys and treats, followed by gondolas displaying other dog supplies.

Beyond the dog department, the cat department would encompass three 48-inch sections of gondolas and one end cap.

Just past the cat department, in the left rear section of the store, they allocated six 48-inch sections of gondolas and one end cap for small-animal products.

Putting Everything in Its Place

On Jan. 18, four months after they began construction, Mark and Caroline were ready to reset their store.

They were aided in this effort by Charlie Lopp and Ken Scott of Wilson Pet Supply, plus eight volunteer merchandisers representing project sponsors. Section by section, they pulled boxes, bottles and blister packs from shelves and shifted them to new locations. They set overstock aside to move to the back room, and put discontinued merchandise (designated by Mark's Post-It notes) into two shopping carts for "one heck of a sidewalk sale."

Although Charlie started the day with a specific plan, and most of the departments shaped up according to this plan, he and the other volunteers had to make some adjustments on the fly.

The biggest adjustment came in the small-animal department. The Janczaks ended up giving it nine 48-inch sections of gondolas instead of six, in part to accommodate generous product donations by four project sponsors--Ware Manufacturing Inc. (Phoenix), Prevue Pet Products (Chicago), Pets International Ltd. (Arlington Heights, Ill.) and Sun Seed.

"It's a disproportionate amount of small-animal product for a store of this size," Charlie admitted. However, Mark and Caroline eventually will eliminate the overlap, based on computerized sales reports showing which SKUs have the greatest customer appeal.

Because the Janczaks put small-animal accessories on the gondolas facing the entrance to the fish room--and the adjacent small-animal habitats--they had to find a new spot for reptile products. Charlie suggested they put the relatively small reptile section near the aquarium accessories. That forced the volunteer merchandisers to do some additional shifting in the aquarium department.

At the end of the day, Caroline still wasn't sure where she would put space-hogging retail cages and tanks.

Power Merchandisers

After installing the fixtures and placing merchandise temporarily, the Janczaks realized they would not be able to squeeze their full inventory--including new lines ordered in anticipation of their grand reopening--onto the new shelves.

Charlie offered a simple solution: Use wing panels for peggable items and special power wings specifically for books (also called side kicks). Attached to end caps, these accessories increase display capacity without taking up additional floor space.

Wilson Pet Supply gave Critters five power wings made by T.F.H. Publications Inc. (Neptune City, N.J.)--one for each department. Each power wing has 15 pockets, and each pocket can hold about three books.

"The power wings allow you to put books by the relevant department, which has been shown to generate more sales than stand-alone racks or separate shelves," Caroline said.

In addition, Mark ordered 20 wing panels in white from Southern Imperial to match the gondolas.

Wilson gave Critters 4-foot-wide wire baskets to hold rock (to replace the shopworn cardboard boxes and dump bins they were using), chew toys and plush toys (to free up Pegboard space).

Finally, Charlie urged Mark and Caroline to rethink their approach to facings. "We can't have two or three facings of each product," he said.

"Since we're running out of space, we have to break some of the merchandising rules," Caroline said. "I know we're supposed to keep the soffits clear, but we had to store crates, cages, etc., up on top."

Time to Tweak

At the end of their daylong merchandising marathon, volunteers had placed most of Critters' inventory where it belonged. However, Charlie expected to return the next day "to tweak it, tighten up some of the merchandising, make sure pegs aren't too full, straighten up," he said. "Then, I'll come back in a week, after the rest of the new product comes in, to tweak some more and write an order to fill in the gaps."

That's not to say that everything was in perfect order. The Janczaks still needed to reposition a tall rack of dog beds and a large animal playpen, both of which created traffic barriers by the front door. They also needed to find a good spot for the often-used cricket cage.

When we last visited the store, the kiosk, which is destined to showcase specials, was still on order. In its place was a temporary display of aquarium tanks on stands.

"Once the kiosk is installed, the store will feel more finished," Caroline said.

Also to be done: final decorative touches, an awning for the collar boutique, departmental signage, window signage and window displays.

Positive Feedback

The two weeks leading up to the store reset were particularly frustrating for the Janczaks and their employees. They were tired of the chaos, mess and constant rearranging--and they were starting to hear customers complain about the store being different every time they visited.

"My main concern is that the customers are happy," Caroline said.

Since the store reset, however, customers clearly are happy.

"Customer feedback about the store is mostly positive," said Susan Scudder Roy, the store manager. "Most people love the fish room and the rain forest, and like how the store seems bigger."

Employees are finding it easier to work in the store, too.

"Since the fixtures are shorter, [you can] see customers throughout the store," Susan said. "That's one of the best things about the new design: You can see when someone needs help."

"The wider aisles make it easier to see bottom shelves," Mark said. "And since the shelves are all the same brand, we can add, subtract or move them easily to reset a gondola."

Now that they've gone to such lengths to upgrade their store, Mark and Caroline realize they can't afford to revert to old habits--wasting display space on end caps, leaving empty gaps on shelves or Pegboards, and cluttering open floor space with randomly placed cages or cardboard point-of-purchase displays.

"Our big focus is caring for the animals, so merchandising and sales sometimes play second fiddle," Caroline acknowledged. "I guess that's a balancing act every pet store has to deal with, because you are trying to run a retail business. You know how the store should look, but you don't always take time to reset a shelf.

"Charlie's goal, as our sales rep, is to have us free up all the end caps from regular product and do monthly  change-outs highlighting seasonal or promotional merchandising," she added. "We know he's right--it's just hard getting into the mindset to do that."

Now that the Janczaks have remerchandised their store, will product sales increase as much as they--and our fearless consultants--hope? How will livestock-oriented focal areas relate to newly merchandised fixtures and rotating end caps? How will decorative touches and signage convey the store's personality?

Next month, we'll see Critters' new logo and coordinating in-store signage. In our June issue, we'll learn about plans for promotions leading up to Critters' grand reopening. PA

Karen Long MacLeod is editor in chief of PET AGE.