Come on, Man: A Folding Table Is NOT a Merchandising Strategy

Generally speaking, folding tables are lightweight and useful. They’re ideal for a kindergartener’s lemonade stand, and they’re handy for picnics with Aunt Edna and Cousin Earl, but NOT for today’s successful retail brands!

However, many retailers are now using folding tables to show off their wares. Specifically, they’re becoming places to put objects that don’t fit on the main display cases and other permanent fixtures. In most cases, folding tables are a temporary measure.

Nevertheless, it’s a bad idea. Think about all of the stores that you love to visit the most. Do any of them have folding tables out in the open?

A folding table just isn’t designed for showcasing merchandise. This display, if you can even call it that, may be inexpensive, but it looks unprofessional to even the most undiscriminating of customers and will detract from your overall brand. You might as well use twine to hang your products from the ceiling.

If you’re looking for displays that you can set up and take down quickly, there are options that are just as convenient as folding tables yet much more appropriate for a retailer.

A Visual Disaster

You no doubt put a great deal of time, thought and labor into making every nook of your shop look attractive. Then, when you put up a folding table in your promo aisle or clearance area, you drastically undercut those efforts.

Your folding table will contrast with its environment and stand out. Thus, the people who pass by it will really notice it, and they’ll get the false impression that you don’t care too much about your presentation. By extension, it might seem as though you don’t care about what your customers think.

Moreover, those individuals are likely to remember your little folding table. That means that they’ll take with them, consciously or subconsciously, a lasting and negative impression of your brand. A store can only be as good as its weakest element.

Unless every single visual element in your shop comes together harmoniously to serve a cohesive theme and style, you won’t be able to completely engage or impress your visitors. Impressing customers, by the way, boosts sales.

A Real Safety Issue

In many instances, folding tables are somewhat flimsy, which can present a safety problem. If you were to put too much weight on such a table, it could collapse, sending pieces of merchandise crashing to the floor. If one or more of those products were breakable, shards could scatter across the floor, and an unsuspecting customer could step on one.

If a child were to lean on one of those flimsy folding tables, he or she could cause it to crumple, and that mishap could lead to a serious injury.

Perhaps the best solution is to invest in a combinable and condensible modular fixture, one that you can move around easily. It won’t take up much room nor draw too much attention to itself. At the same time, it will maintain the dignity of your store. Then you can return your folding table to your garage or donate it to a local church for basement storage purposes. Either way, it will finally be where it belongs — far away from a retail setting.