"Sacred" Windows

Just about any business with a window to the street has people coming in requesting to hang their poster for this or that event. We get those requests several times a month. "Will you put a poster up for [insert festival/live music/party/charity/fund raiser/whatever event] in your window?" We always apologetically and politely decline. Not because we don't support whatever event people may be promoting, and not because we don't think it's a good idea to promote an event with window posters. I love window posters, and I love promoting things via that medium. We do it ourselves as much as we can, in our own windows and sometimes in other windows and bulletin boards. In fact, I'd like to talk a little more about posters as a promotional tool and art form sometime in the near future.

But for now, I'll just explain why we generally do not hang posters or fliers for other events in our windows. We're a small space. Our aesthetic is one that eschews visual clutter. We don't have a lot of signage in the shop. Besides the menu board there are a couple of small placards discouraging cell phone use and a small card in the restroom warning that the toilet is possessed by demons and plugs very easily. Occasionally we'll hang a poster on the wine cooler to promote a special drink or something like that, and we plan on using table cards sometime soon to let people know the month's music schedule.

We also do definitely use our front window each week to promote with fliers whatever musical event is coming up that particular weekend. So we do hang posters in our windows, but they are usually posters that promote Stumpjack and what's going on here. Again, it's not that we don't like the idea of displaying posters for other non-Stumpjack events...we're all for businesses that do that, and if they'll display one of our posters too, so much the better and thank you very much.

A business's front window space is prime real estate; it's what one marketing guru rightly called one of a business's "sacred spaces." We have chosen to use that space to our advantage as best we can, to try to promote our business. The barbershop adjacent to us puts up a lot of posters and fliers for various community events. It's great; you can see a lot of what's going on in town that month in their window. Sometimes we ask them to hang up posters for community events that we're part of as well.

I suppose there is a risk of angering or giving a bad impression to someone in declining to display their poster. It has happened once or twice. In fact, it happened recently. But the overwhelming majority of people who come in asking us to hang up their poster are cool when we decline. I just explain our policy and they seem to completely understand and are not put off by it. It is sometimes hard for me to say no to those requests, either because I know the people as customers or because their event is a worthwhile charity of some sort. But once the door is opened then I think it becomes more difficult to say no to everyone else.

Maybe not so coincidentally, the very few people who have seemed irritated with me for declining to hang their flier (there have been two such moments here at Stumpjack) are people who I don't recall ever stepping foot in the shop before. That seems to be the case with most of the people who come in asking us to display their posters; they are not regular or even infrequent customers, they're just going around from business to business trying to promote their event. Nothing wrong with that, that's perfectly ok. But don't adopt an attitude with me when I explain that I won't tape your poster to my front window.

Recently a small group of 4 or 5 people were going around asking businesses downtown to hang up their posters. One of their party went into the barber shop next door and one came in here. The barbershop of course accepted and hung the poster...excellent! I declined and apologetically told the fellow that we just use our window space to promote the concerts here at the shop. He balked a little, said that their event also had a live music component, I said I'm sorry but good luck and have a great day. He rolled his eyes a little and left.

When he met his fellows outside I could see he was telling them I said no, and they looked at our window and our own posters for the weekend's music, and a couple crinkled their noses as though they had just smelled something bad. And off they went, no doubt thinking we're jerks for not hanging their poster. I found that interesting. Here were some people who had never been in my shop before, asking me to use my space to promote their event, and were irritated with me for not acquiescing to their request.

I wonder if they'd be as accommodating as they expect every business to be if I were to knock on the door of their house and ask them to please display some Stumpjack music and event posters in their home's front window

Note: The last three images are of Schroeders Department Store here in Two Rivers, back in the day. I love the window display for the "Hosiery by Rollins," with the fringed velvet curtain and soft lighting. Classic!