Creating Snack Displays for Your Specialty Shop

If you manage an ice cream parlor, bakery, yogurt shop, or any other kind of specialty food shop and you think your shop wouldn’t benefit from a snack display because it already sells specialized food items, think again: Snack displays are lucrative ways to add additional merchandise to your customers’ menus!

If you’re not sure how to get started, ask yourself the following four questions.

1. What Kinds of Snacks Would My Customers Like?

No one knows your customers better than you do, but as you’re considering the kinds of snacks to include in your snack display, keep in mind you also want to match your snacks to your current food items.

For example, if you manage an ice cream parlor that caters to lots of families with children, sweet treats like wrapped candies or lollipops might be the very things children want to get their hands on. On the other hand, if you manage a bakery that caters mostly to adults picking up a bread roll for dinner or a birthday cake for a party, gourmet chocolates might be the best way to go.

2. How Much Traffic Does My Shop Experience?

In addition to your display space (see below), the amount of traffic your shop usually experiences will help you determine how large or involved your snack display should be.

If your shop stays fairly busy, chances are a large snack display would work well; however, if your shop doesn’t experience a high volume of customers, a small display will work just a fine.

3. What Display Fixtures Should I Use for My Snack Display?

The kinds of display fixtures you should use for your snack display depends both on the kinds of snacks you want to display as well as the amount of display space you have to work with.

Once you know exactly the kinds of snacks to display, spend some time browsing the various kinds of display racks.

Plastic containers work great for small kinds of snacks, like wrapped candies, and you can use them alone or situate them on wire countertop display racks.

Small wire display racks with flat or angled shelves are great for holding small boxes of bagged candies or snacks like peanuts, and larger wire display racks are great for larger bags of chips.

4. Where Can I Situate My Snack Display?

The best place to situate your snack display is at your shop’s point of purchase, or POP. This is the area in your shop – usually the countertop where the checkout register is located – where your customers pay for their purchases.

One reason POP snack displays are so effective is that they promote impulse purchases. Don’t misunderstand – you’re not “tricking” your customers into making a purchase they don’t want; rather, you’re presenting them with merchandise they do want but might not have purchased otherwise because it wasn’t right there within their reach.

Which brings us to another reason POP snack displays are effective: Customers don’t have to walk anywhere to retrieve them, nor do they have to pick them up on their way through your shop and carry them to the checkout register. It’s not that your customers are lazy, but it IS that they are often busy with other things. Maybe they’re managing a couple of rowdy children, or maybe they already have their hands full with bags from another store. By placing the snack display in your POP, all they have to do is grab it, pay for it, and go.