"Getting Customers through your Door"

Q U E S T I O N
My wife and I own a small specialty store in the “downtown” area of a local suburb. We need fresh ideas on how to spruce up our windows and attract walk-in customers.

A N S W E R
First off, think beyond simple window dressing. Try drawing chalk murals on the sidewalk, decorating with vines and flowers to camouflage an aging facade, cajoling neighbor kids into staffing an old-fashioned lemonade stand on your porch - free refreshments for all, placing a bubble machine outside the door, hanging specialty kites or odd-shaped banners, showcasing a musician, renting a portable oven and baking yummy fragrant cookies, putting up a huge inflatable, buying big props from www.greatbigstuff.com, substituting real people for window mannequins, placing a carpenter/cook/artist dude in the window to do a live demo, outfitting someone in scuba gear/historic clothing/pirate costume, etc. to promote a drawing or contest, or custom-designed window-clings. The interesting and the unusual will help you attract attention.