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Marvin Display Changes With Times
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Business New Haven
6/12/2000
By: Priscilla Searles
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Marvin Display has gone through a number of guises over the years. Presently owned by Tracy O'Brien, the third owner, it is located at 58-B Research Drive in Milford. "We needed more space," says O'Brien, "so we made the move last July. The Marvin Display of today has little in common with the original store."
Opened in New Haven during the 1970s by Marvin Egan, a window trimmer, Marvin Display carried visual display materials, props, window trimmings plus party goods and seasonal items. Egan was the first one in the state, according to O'Brien, to sell artificial trees retail. The business was purchased by Al Hendlin, who moved it to the Boston Post Road in Milford. Under Hendlin the business began to ease out of the window-trimming business and into selling fixtures.
Hired as manager in 1981, about the time of the move to Milford, O'Brien has owned the business since 1996. "I had a five year buy-out agreement with Hendlin before the sale became final," says O'Brien. "I noticed a trend away from the seasonal items and the visual-display materials Marvin Display was once known for, so I started phasing them out altogether, discontinuing the last of what we had in 1999."
Today Marvin Display's primary business is selling display fixtures. "Anything you could possibly need to outfit a store is what we sell," saays O'Brien. "'We have the product to display your product,' is our motto. We have to carry a wide variety for stores or trade shows - everything from literature racks to clothing, jewelry or gift items. Our customer base is mostly New England, but we have customers nationwide.
"We also do custom work for clients who can't find what they want as a standard item," says O'Brien. "Customers opening new stores bring their floor plan to us and we discuss the options, what is needed to get a look that will work for them. Often they don't know what they need, and we work with them to figure it out. We deal with a variety of suppliers; we're basically a distributor for the manufacturer so we have a wide variety of fixtures available."
About the same time that the buy-out agreement took effect O'Brien became a member of the National Independent Flag Dealers Association. Today the flag store is part of Marvin Display. Carrying standard American flags as well as historical, state, nautical, foreign and seasonable flags, they also sell custom flags to entities such as Yale University, the city of Milford and Bic Corp. "People bring in their own design and we make them up in a custom department located off-site," explains O'Brien. "I also give talks on the evolution of the US. flag as a public service, going to schools, service organizations and Scout troops. I don't charge anything for these programs.
"My goal with the flag store is to see it grow enough so it becomes it own separate entity," O'Brien says. "But it's going to have to grow further before I commit to that move [because] it means a separate location and more rent."
O'Brien uses direct mail to promote both the fixture business and the flag store, producing catalogues and direct mail pieces. "I hadn't used a lot of direct mail for the flag store in the past; I'm just growing into it," she says. "Word of month also helps, as well as carrying the equipment needed to display flags such as poles, cleats and other items.
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