Locking Pen Displays

[Rich Aldrich]

Last Summer, I had a display table in a business. Bowls, bottle stoppers and pens were on the table. After the second month, two pens were missing and they were not sold. I removed the pens for the rest of the year. I am planning on displaying at the same business this summer, but need a locking display case for the pens. Does anyone have plans for one of these display cases? I am sure I could design one, but if there is already an existing design, it would be helpful.

Thank you,

[John Terefenko]

Hello Rich

I am going to assume where you had your pens set up was on a consignment basis situation. I have done a few of these in the past. The main thing I always found was to have a clear and consise written agreement about theft and damage. You need to understand who is responsible for such and what is done to compensate if anything. Even though you have a lock display the owner needs to be able to show your stuff and it still is possible to have the case left open and the same thing could occur. I realize you are trying to add more security to your product. With pens you maybe able to do that with a locking case because the area you take up is small. What this does though is takes away the touchy feely customer. Some people are just afraid to ask for help or if the store gets busy the salesperson may not be able to get to them in a timely manner for what they perceive to be so they walk away. It is one of those catch22 things.

But if you do decide to go that way I am sure if you google display cases or something of that nature you can come up with something. Plexiglass would be easy to work with. Good luck in your quest and happy sales.

[Rich Aldrich]

I realize the touchy feely part, but not at my cost. Their theft and damage agreement is clearly on the seller - they will not take any responsibility, but they make no commission on anything sold. They only make money on the one time display charge. The owner did have my display close to the counter area to discourage people from stealing.

If I put the pens in a locking display, I was planning on having one of each pen type on some sort of chain or something so the customer can actually try the pens.

This is a store where quite a few artist have items for sale. There is one other wood turner, books, pictures, etc. of the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. I figured it was safe, but they typically have about 20,000 people through the store during their season. I dont know if any other artists lost items. It is more like a store and I only check about once per week. My stuff went slow, but I was happy with the exposure and ended up doing much better than I had anticipated.

Now that I am into more expensive pens, I am not taking any chances. The people who own/run the place have no issues with a locked cabinet and opening it for people to check out the pens, so it should work out OK.