What happens to shop displays?

[Hibbutyhop]

I work in a school and so have a radar for spotting stuff that can be reused and repurposed for free! I often see lovely shop displays (e.g big cardboard flowers, cardboard snowflakes etc). I’ve never had much luck with getting these when they’re no longer needed in store- so what actually happens to them?! Shop workers- tell me your secrets!

They are quite often hired.

They go in the bin! You should ask them to keep them for you when the promo is finished

Ask for them! We have a few cool ex-display stuff from shops, our teachers often arrange to collect them, staff let us know and we go at closing time.

We would give them to teachers if they asked but more often than not it was a pain because they wouldnt collect them for days, wanted to pick and choose which bits they wanted at the time of collection, which either meant taking them into the back to rifle through everything, or bringing all the display onto the shop floor. And sometimes people would take one thing and decide the rest wasnt what they wanted in the end after we'd held it for days! I didnt mind doing it, but some people got pissed off because it was quite a faff! Some much loved cardboard cut out characters who weren't ever collected were very rudely graffitied in the staffroom... I'd definitely ask tho. Bookshops often have promo posters which are great for school libraries and may throw in stickers/promo merch too if you're nice!

Ours were put up by an external company on behalf of the store. They’d travel the country doing all of the stores. We weren’t even allowed to sell the clothes on the mannequins in the window as they weren’t our stock.

Glad to hear some of the replies to say they are hired or recycled. When I worked for Mosaic (Coast, Wallis, Phase Eight among others) in the noughties we had to destroy it! Such a waste, the clothes were added to stock, but all the accompanying items like vases were smashed.

Wow! It's shocking that items just get destroyed or binned. We only ever had cardboard type displays so they'd be recycled. I had a lifesize David Boreanaz from a promo of Buffy who I used to hide around the flat whenever my flatmate went on a night out. Imagine if he'd been binned!

They go in the bin. people asking for them is a pain in the arse as it means storing them as they never turn up to collect them when they say they will.

Shop worker here who’s job it is to hang things and display things.
Always ask for them, A local teacher asked for our cardboard daisys after Easter this year. We happily gave them as they go in the bin. Some things we do have to send back but majority of the time they just get thrown. So always worth asking :)