Browsing The Aisles

Home-improvement stores, grocery stores and other retail outlets – with store layouts that route customers through dense, high-traffic areas – naturally cater to floor graphics. The shoppers are usually targeted – as opposed to leisurely, specialty-shop browsers – and familiar with the store’s set-up. Thus, a targeted POP ad will likely catch the viewer who seeks a particular product.

To steer its customers’ attention towards specific products in particular aisles, Menard’s, a Midwestern, home-improvement chain, tapped Minneapolis-based Vomela to fabricate a series of temporary POP graphics. Featured products included Wagner mechanized-painting systems and Libman floor-cleaning supplies.

“Before we fabricate this type of a job, we have to become very familiar with the store layout, traffic patterns, cleaning equipment that will be used, the installation process, the expected lifespan and other factors,” said Rick Millington, a Vomela business-development executive. “We require at least a 90-day warranty from every material manufacturer, as well as liability coverage.”

Vomela fabricated the graphics using 3M’s IJ40C-10R media with the 8509 clear, luster-finish overlaminate. He said the graphics were designed to last six months. The shop printed the large floor graphics on an EFI-VUTEk 3360 eight-color, roll-to-roll solvent printer using 3M’s Matched Component System.

“Printing a graphic this long as a single piece presents challenges because, if there’s a problem in the middle of the print, you have to scrap it and start over,” Millington said. “That’s a huge labor and materials waste. Also, installation of such large graphics requires greater skill. Floors with seams, tiled floors or dirty floors also create difficult installations.”