By Naomi
It all starts with a dinner.
About twice a year, the members of the display teams for The Hague and Leidschendam dine together to plan the in-store displays for the coming six months. The four of us try to have a plan so we know what we’re going to do and when to order the books, but there’s always room for flexibility in case something comes up. That could be a current event, an unexpected new release or a book that suddenly blows up on BookTok.
When planning the displays, we pull from many sources: we ask colleagues what they might like; we keep track of big adaptations that are coming up (like The Three Body Problem, Avatar the Last Airbender or the Bridgerton series); we highlight big new releases (such as a new Sarah J. Maas title or RuPaul’s biography); if there’s a fun or historical “month,” we like to display that 
(Pride, April Philosophy Month, Black History Month); quirky or weird days are also good sources for displays (think Naked Gardening Day); and of course, we plan displays around holidays that people like to gift books for (Christmas, Ramadan, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day).
Everyone on the team is responsible for a couple of displays, and every member has a distinct style. One is very whimsical; another likes neat and orderly displays. Would you be able to tell who made a display?
We get to be as creative as we like, and it’s fun to see a new display come together. It can’t always be done in a day, so the display might look a little messy while we’re working on it.
Have you ever spotted our gnome, normally hidden behind a secret little door in The Hague store? If you see him out and about, it means we’re setting up a new display! But our work is not done once a display has been set up; we have to keep an eye on it to make sure it looks good and stays neat. We love it when customers buy books from the display; we just make sure to fill up any empty spots by adding more books.
We aren’t just responsible for the big window displays. We also make sure promotional material, either for a book or an event, is visible in the stores.
Additionally, there are many sections and subsections in-store that customers might not even know about. That’s why we have a mini display called “subsection of the week,” where we highlight a different and lesser-known subsection. The subsection is chosen (mostly) at random, and we use the books that are already in-store.
In The Hague, you can find this weekly-changing display in front of the Info Desk. We regularly change up all the other displays as well, so come take a look and discover something new!
About the Author: Lilia
