Old-time Allure
Nothing says “Welcome” like a giant peppermint. Especially when it's woven into an arbor of garland.
But the showy red and green display does more than say hello. It is among the many storefronts that introduce their wares to shoppers.
Sell it with a smile
“It's actually a silent salesman,” said Jeff Double of Smith's Flower Shop on Main Street, where the arbor frames the store entrance.
By using the peppermint arbor, Double can advertise both floral and candy arrangements available in the shop. But using his decorated storefront and windows also helps spread goodwill.
“(The displays) have to be seasonal, fun and almost entertaining. You have to get people to smile,” said Double, who manages the store.
And people do smile, but they also enter the store, asking about the large peppermints.
Like most window designers, Double uses mostly merchandise to create the scenes. But items also are purchased from a range of places to achieve the desired effect.
“The candy came from Dollar General,” Double admitted. “They were pathway markers and I used them as ornaments. I have a distorted view of reality and it works for me.”
To create window displays, Double relies on his “God-given talent” along with corporate training he received in the 1980s, when he travelled the region for J.C. Penney setting up new stores.
“You want to entice customers who otherwise wouldn't stop or shop downtown,” said Double, who considers content, color and quantity when designing the displays.
To facilitate the process, Double asks himself, “What story do I need to tell and how can I tell it in the shortest period of time?”
Although storefronts in earlier decades often featured intricate displays for pedestrian viewing, Double said many of today's store windows contain items visible to drivers. “You have to get their attention quick,” Double said.Accomplishing this task often requires large, showy items instead of tiny figurines designed to dazzle up close.“We want people to drive by and really look at it,” agreed pharmacy technician Cheryl Klabnik, who works on many window displays at the Evans City Pharmacy and Gift Shoppe. “When new merchandise comes in, you kind of look at it and you know if it's going to go in the window,” she said.“If it's too small, it wouldn't go in the window, because it's not something you're going to see when you're driving by. The object is for somebody to see it and think they can't live without it.”Klabnik and her helper, store clerk Savannah Coyne, create different scenes in each of the store's three windows. They gauge their success by feedback that comes from customers.This season's scenes depict a woodlands theme “with some outdoor creatures and some trees that look like they can can easily be in the forest,” Klabnik said.“The middle window is a candy land theme. And the last window is just a snow, outdoor snowman theme,” she said. “Actually, it does seem like its kind of the outdoor theme that's catching everybody's eye,” Klabnik added. “(Maybe) we're going back to an old timey, old-fashioned Christmas feel.”
An old-fashioned feel lives on in Zelienople, where residents look forward to window displays at Maddalon Jewelers on Main Street.“My father's been in business for 25 years, and that's how long we've been doing our holiday windows,” said 41-year-old David Maddalon, a co-owner of the family store who creates the displays with his wife Amy.This year's “Just Be Claus” theme includes a fireplace, oversized packages and a chimneyed Santa visible to drivers.But the part of the display that attracts an audience every year is the model train.“The train is kind of our staple,” Maddalon said. “Every year the parents bring their kids in just to watch the train go around.”From the outside, the train can be seen from the store's two, 6- by 8-foot windows. Inside the store, visitors can watch from behind a hefty, brass rail.“That's always been there,” David said of the antique rail. “My mom polishes it up once a week.”In years past, the train was used to display jewelry items that sat atop the cars, but in recent years the Maddalons have focused more on community spirit.Each year on the train cars, David Maddalon and his parents, Joe and Kathleen, have special decals made to transform the train with logos from local businesses.Personalized cars on this year's train include George Moving and Storage in Zelienople, Lake Forest Gardens in Fombell, Centerline Boring in Harmony, and Plunkett Motor Freight in Zelienople.“They really appreciate it,” Kathleen Maddalon said. “They really love seeing their train car in our windows.”But like other merchants, the Maddalons do use the window for sales: A smattering of Clothtique collectible Santas, for instance, appear in the display, often luring shoppers.And a fireplace mantel in the window creates a place to display clocks, another item sold in the store.“I'll sell a clock a lot just because I put it above the mantel,” Maddalon said. “It kind of shows you what your living room would look like.”
Like many merchants, Maddalon designs windows around consumer holidays like Valentine's Day and Easter. But special displays also appear during Zelienople's Horse Trading Days.The same holds true for Smith's Flower Shop.“It'll change per season and in the summer once a month. For Easter it's probably going to be a giant chocolate rabbit and lots of pastels,” Double said, noting his perpetual goal of improving upon past work.“When you set your standards so high, the next window has to top the one before it or be total opposite.”Although Maddalon's holiday display will come down shortly after Christmas, the mantel will remain as part of other scenes that rotate throughout the year.“We do about seven to nine different windows,” Maddalon said.“But the train is just for Christmas. This is our special window. It took us about 10 hours to put in.“We do hear that people can't wait to see what kind of Christmas display we're going to put in every December, and it makes us feel good.”
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