These streamlined fixtures communicate contemporary elegance, rejuvenating existing customers’ approach to their shopping experience and updating the retailer’s image to attract new customers. With a low profile creating visual interest among a sea of taller merchandisers, the nesting tables helped meet the additional design directive of enabling customers to shop at a glance while allowing accessories to be displayed with folded goods, spurring add-on sales.

Integral to the sleek, modern look is the unusual geometric shape of the metal base for the nesting tables. Fabricated by Ferrucci Metal of St. Leonard, Quebec, Canada, this offset support system uses 1-1/2-in. by 1/2-in. cold-rolled steel tubing with a bright chrome finish. “We chose rectangular tubing because it’s stronger than square tubing on the vertical approach. This enabled the base to support the millwork plus display merchandise – a total of 250 lb.,” explains Tony Vitelli, project manager for Ferrucci Metal. “In addition, the joints are cut 45 degrees in the middle to support the tables on each end without compromising the design.”

To avoid visible bolts between the bases and millwork, Ferrucci came up with a hidden fastening system. The manufacturer machined a 3/4-in.-diameter bushing with 5/16-in. thread in the tubing, placing them strategically to achieve the design vision without jeopardizing the weight ratio.

The stability of the finished base enabled Ferrucci to scrap an original plan to use a metal leg between the two tables to support the top table, resulting in a cleaner appearance suggestive of levitation.

This floating effect extends to the cash counter, which sits on a U-shaped frame of 2-in. by 3/4-in. cold-rolled steel tubing with the same bright chrome finish.

The retailer was so pleased with the design and fixtures developed for its new store in Sherway Gardens that it used them for another store opening two weeks later. The fixtures were fabricated for a total of four stores.