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From the Editor
A survival story
By Alison Embrey Medina, Executive Editor
July 02, 2010
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“Fixture?...I hardly know her!”
Guffaw. Hardy har har. LOL (for those of you reading this online). I must admit, I thankfully cannot claim this horrifically awful joke as my own—I heard it once on a tradeshow floor many moons ago. All bad jokes aside, the fixture industry is indeed hardly recognizable in today’s day and age—not just in terms of the industry’s consolidation and contraction, but regarding the way that fixture manufacturers have had to completely reinvent their services and offering in order to stay relevant. To stay in business and survive, they’ve most likely had to crack a bad joke or two, wait out the enduring, awkward silence and keep on moving forward.
In this issue, we pay tribute to one of the core tenets of our industry—the store fixture manufacturers. In addition to our annual Fixture Leaders listing of the top fixture manufacturers (page 40), we have included a roundtable of fixture industry experts (page 32), featuring representatives from B&N Industries, Reeve Store Equipment Co., Leggett & Platt Store Fixtures Group, Trion Industries Inc. and L.A. Darling Co. LLC, who share their thoughts on how the industry has changed and in what direction it is heading. And finally, on page 36, we’ve included a diverse mix of stock collections, new lines and custom installations from fixture suppliers in an extended product section.
Despite a trying 2008-2009, the fixture industry overall is largely optimistic as we reach the midway point of 2010, poised for growth in the coming months—albeit a bit timidly. “After two years of sales declines, our members predicted a 10 percent sales increase in 2010,” Klein Merriman, executive director of the Association for Retail Environments (A.R.E.), notes in the roundtable article on page 32. He follows up with a key wavering factor for the industry in 2010: “I hope we hit that.”
According to Robert Reeve Frackelton, president of A.R.E.’s board of #directors, the store fixture industry has experienced a decline in volume of 25 percent to 35 percent. As Frackelton puts it simply and openly: “When the retailers stop growing, so do store fixture manufacturers.”
But the good news, according to not only the manufacturers interviewed in this issue, but also to many anecdotal conversations DDI has had with our readers and advertisers in the past few months, is that business is indeed picking up. But, as with all industries climbing out of the post-recession muck, it’s a slow and steady trek upward. “Yes, business has been increasing,” says John Thalenfeld of Trion Industries. “But, the daily trend is still as erratic as the stock market.” And lord knows the stock market can raise or lower your blood pressure three times over in a single 24-hour span.
Store fixtures are the bones of any retail store. Lose the bones, and the whole plan is liable to fall apart at your fingertips. So, here’s to the fixture manufacturers, and the conceptual creations they help us to build.
Well, now that we’ve gotten the important stuff out of the way, tell me if you’ve heard this one: “Three fixture manufacturers walk into a bar…”
Alison Embrey Medina
Executive Editor
alison.medina@ddionline.com
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DDI visited the new JCPenney department store at Manhattan Mall in New York and spoke with store manager Joe Cardamone.Click here for a video of that conversation paired with a walk-through tour of the new store. For more on the JCPenney store, look out for DDI's November/December issue mailing out at the end of November. .
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