This week we asked members of the Midwest Retail Services to provide their best answer to the following question:
How can I tell what type of shelving I already have?
The best answers are featured below. Each MWRS team member added value to their answer by including bits of wisdom and advice gained through their personal experience. Some answers included similar points (sending us a photo is the easiest and quickest way to get your gondola shelves identified) but many of the answers covered different aspects of identifying the shelving manufacturer which we think you’ll find interesting (whether you decide to play Sherlock with your shelves or not!) Be sure to check out the visual guide in Matt’s answer and download the helpful free reference sheet provided by Donna at the end of the article.
Rachel Hoke, Customer Service
Just send me a picture – it is worth a thousand words!
Mike Welsh, Customer Sales
Many times the name of the manufacturer is stamped into the top cap or end trim of the fixtures. Madix shelving has their name branded on the top caps and Lozier shelving has their logo embossed in the upright end trim. Looking at the slotting of these two brands usually doesn’t help with identification, as they appear to be identical.
Streater shelves will typically have their name stamped in a circular marking on their top caps. All Streater shelving will have a LU or RU along with the shelf depth stamped on each side of the shelf bracket. Streater also features single-slotted uprights on all of their ends and double-slotted center posts.
The Streater brand uprights start at 38″ while Madix and Lozier uprights start at a height of 36″ and increase in 6″ increments.
Gary Kroneberger, Sales Representative
A really quick way to narrow down the type of shelves you currently have is to check if your shelves have round holes or diamonds. Most of the major brands like Madix, Lozier, and Streater will also have their name and logo embossed on the upright trim plate or top caps.
Chris Bell, Sales Representative
Here are some key characteristics of the major retail shelving brands:
- Diamond perforations.
- Thinner upright channel compared to Lozier & Madix.
- Texture paint finish vs smooth.
- No base end covers.
- Round perforations.
- The top spanner and metal end cover has Madix logo stamped on it.
- Upright has size/height stamped on towards the top of the upright.
- Base shelf locks into upright.
- Depth of shelf is stamped on the side of the bracket.
- Round perforations.
- Logo stamped on metal end covers.
- Base shelf does not lock into upright.
- Metal top caps vs plastic.
If you still can’t quite identify the brand beyond a shadow of a doubt, just email us a few photos and someone at Midwest Retail Services is sure to have the answer!
Matt Ray, President
We like to get photos from customers in order to I.D. items. A photo is more efficient than a customer walking through these steps and misidentifying a fixture because they really don’t have the experience our company does when it comes to spotting the subtle differences between makes, models, and manufacturers. Several manufacturers have their name stamped into the side of the upright cover at the end of the shelving unit. Some older fixtures do not (or the cover could be missing). In those cases, there are others ways we can determine what brand of shelving you have. Sometimes just a photo of the edge of a shelf can tell us all we need to know.
Donna Cossin, General Manager/Purchasing
Not to be outdone, Donna provided a helpful checklist that you can download and use to compare against the shelves in your store. Just click here to request it.
