It's counter-intuitive, but if you have a lot of turn in your inventory, sometimes the best thing you can do is make your selling area smaller, remodeling a bit for more storage so that the selling area is smaller but more comfortable. That's a nice place to shop because there's room to move around. To make a small store seem more open, he says, owners should try to space out shelving, raise ceilings or even alter the shape of their box to make customers more comfortable. People may not notice that they're winding their way through a store, but subconsciously they're more at ease. We influence how they feel by creating different environments.
Small stores tend to be ugly.
Mitchell says there are more tricks that small-space operators can employ to make their stores look bigger and more inviting. In one project, he used raised, open ceilings, skylights in the center of the building, and wide aisles of black shelving, which make the products stand out more. Also, he says, changes in the location of the main checkout, from a side or front wall to the back wall, make the area appear larger to entering customers. It will make the walls appear to recede into the background and open up the space above the shelves. There was some stuff stored in there, but the space wasn't being utilized very well, and we decided that the wall separating that dog leg had to come down.