Review: GlobalShop 2002

Bay Area Display (San Francisco) was judged to have the Best Booth at GlobalShop's Visual Merchandising Show for the second year in a row by VM+SD's panel of roving experts.

The company's plywood-looking structure with surrounding stockade fence was the backdrop for the company's usual collection of colorful abstract trees, soft-sculpture mannequins, decorative objects and this year's hit of the show – a troop of all-white penguins that were selling right off the floor.

On the Store Fixturing side, the award went to the futuristic and geometric tower of materials and graphics by Winntech (Kansas City, Mo.). The booth was actually an emulation of the project it recently completed for a Good Guys consumer electronics store in California. (See “A World of Interactivity” on page 40.)

“Best use of graphics integrated with fixtures,” said one VM+SD judge. “Great lines and geometries,” said another.

“When money is no object,” said a third, “this is what you can do.”

This year's judges were Mimi Lettunich of Twenty Four*Seven (Portland, Ore.); David Kepron of Kepron Architect (Englewood, N.J.); and Steve Wierzbowski and Lora Delestowicz-Wierzbowski of WDW Design (Chicago).

Brickstream Corp. (Arlington, Va.) won Best New Product at the show for its Brickstream Intelligence for Space, which uses video technology to chart shopper in-store activity in real time and provides retailers with analysis on how people shop their stores and whether store layout or merchandising displays are effective.

During GlobalShop, Leggett & Platt (Niles, Ill.) held a party at Excalibur, the multi-faceted Chicago nightclub, that featured the food of 11 of the city's best chefs. The company made a donation on behalf of each attendee to Share Our Strength, the national anti-hunger network. It also announced that it plans to host the event again at GlobalShop next year.