Veteran retailer Karen Grosse's out-of-the-box thinking has given fresh life to greeting card sales at her Lighthouse Christian Books in Green Bay, Wis.

She has overturned traditional display practices in the department, which accounts for 650 of the store's 12,000 square feet. Grosse decided to try something radical with a 28-foot section previously dedicated to Lawson Falle cards, but left looking threadbare after the company changed hands and output was lowered.

So she came in one Sunday afternoon, took out all the cards in the section and rearranged them manually. Instead of being displayed by line, they were grouped in new topic subsections—sympathy, get well, wedding, anniversary, thinking of you, thanks, baby, confirmation and miscellaneous.

The reorganization has been a hit. "Customers are very appreciative to be shown exactly where they can find the specific card they are looking for," Gross reports. "An added benefit is that since I put all the cards out myself, I am able to take a customer to a card that says just what they are looking for, since I have a much better knowledge of our cards.

"Because I refill from cards that are in the back, I am able to go through the section each day and refill any cards that have sold out with another similar card, so there are seldom any 'holes' in the card section."

Grosse's makeover was applauded by Rick Tocquigny, CEO of card company Artbeat of America. "Karen is intuitive and off the grid as a thinker," he said. "She considers her customer first ... always. She breaks tradition on greeting cards by not putting companies separately, organizing the rack by how consumers shop."

Read more in the March issue of Inspirational Gift Mart magazine.

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