Something for Nothing
Free merchandising workshop offered to city business owners

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

Sales associate Sue Carlson talks with Bridget Barlos of Taos and Danita Monness from Guffey, Colo., about the different turquoise rings at Richardson's Trading Company on Wednesday. Gallup MainStreet is sponsoring "Merchandising for Mainstreet Retailers" on March 8 at El Morro Theater to promote different merchandising ideas for retailers. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

GALLUP — A free evening workshop is being offered to merchants looking for fresh ideas to draw more customers into their stores and increase sales.

"Merchandising for MainStreet Retailers" will be presented from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, March 8 at El Morro Theater, 207 W. Coal Ave. Scott Day of Urban Development Services in San Antonio, Texas will be the presenter.

On Friday, March 9, Day will also offer free, one-on-one assessments to six downtown business owners and provide them with personalized suggestions on how they can improve their merchandising methods.

Both events are sponsored by Gallup MainStreet and New Mexico MainStreet.

According to Sarah Luginbuhl, the new manager of Gallup MainStreet, Thursday's workshop is open to any local business owner although it is specifically targeted to downtown merchants. Friday's assessment services are limited only to business owners whose business is located within the Gallup MainStreet district. The boundaries for the district are Gallup's East and West "Y" intersections, Historic Route 66 on the north, and the Dollar General Store on the south.

"It's specifically for downtown. That's their whole focus," she said of MainStreet's efforts.

The workshop will focus primarily on design aspects of merchandising: how to improve sales for a business by improving the store's exterior and interior appearance, how to design floor plans that offer better customer circulation throughout the store and present more merchandise to customers, how to create merchandise displays that encourage more impulse and add-on sales, and how to design more attractive window displays to draw customers inside. In addition, participants will learn how to measure successful merchandising in dollars and understand sales per square foot versus customer counts and average ticket sales.

Since its establishment over a year ago, Gallup MainStreet's mission has been to help revitalize the downtown business community through design, promotion, economic repositioning, and organization. A number of community members serve as volunteer board members and committee members to promote these four goals.

Luginbuhl, who is just in her second week at the non-profit organization, said everyone working with Gallup MainStreet wants to work with downtown business owners to help them succeed.

"We're wanting to help the businesses in every way possible," she said.

The most well-known promotion event thus far, said Luginbuhl, was last year's Picant Gigant festival. It was successful, she said, because it drew lots of people to the event and helped promote downtown Gallup as a "lively" destination.

For more information about Thursday's workshop or to sign up for a one-on-one assessment on Friday, contact Sarah Luginbuhl at (505) 863-1274.