Ultimate Shelving Guide – Gondola Shelving; What It Is, Why It’s Used & Where To Find It

Here is another addition to our Ultimate Shelving Guide concerning a very popular style of shelving/racking that has one specific purpose and can be found in one specific environment.

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It’s called gondola shelving, and odds are you’re intimately familiar with it.

Here is why…

“Gondola shelving is just pretty much shelving you will see in any retail store,” said BuyUsedShelving.com Sales rep Cameron Canfield.  “It usually has a base and then a certain amount of shelves going up and one thing you’ll notice is that gondola shelving also usually has a peg board back to it.  It’s pretty much seen in any retail store and if you’ve gone into a store, you will have seen gondola shelving.”

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Cameron is right.  If you’ve even been shopping at your favorite grocery store like Smiths, Vons, Ralphs, Winco, Safeway, and even the Piggly Wiggly, you’ve stumbled across some gondola shelving.

Places you won’t find gondola shelving?  Your home or office.

“No, there is no residential use for gondola shelving.  It is store shelving—retail store shelving.  There are so many other choices for home shelving that you will never see gondola shelving in a house,” said Canfield.

So what makes this type of shelving unique from boltless, wire shelving or even other types?

“It differs mainly in presentation,” Canfield explains.  “It is because the backing has peg boards so you can kind of mount things onto that peg board.  If you want to add a peg then you can string up about any product that is hung by those little bars, or if you just want to do shelves, you can use this type of shelving in a store.”

Seeing as how the primary application for gondola shelving is a retail environment, it can be set up free-standing, or against a wall.

“It has a solid backing in the middle and this type of shelving usually comes in two different styles—there will be a double sided which is what you will see in the center isles of the store, and then there will be the single sided which will go out and around the perimeter of the store wall.”

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Since its primary use is in a retail environment, gondola shelving has a huge array of sizing choices for your store.

“As far as sections, they usually come in 2 foot, 3’, 4’ and 5’ sections.  And then the shelves, they will come in the same length but they will come in either an 8” deep, 10” deep, 12” deep, 14”deep, 16”deep and all the way up to 28” deep which will accommodate just about any use a store could need.”

Not only are there lots of choices to sizing, but the way it’s set up makes the gondola shelving choice very attractive for the retail environment.

“There are a couple of different layouts when it comes to gondola shelving.  You can either choose the regular flat gondola shelving which is what you see in the retail stores, or you can also get the type where the shelf is on an 18 degree angle,” said Canfield.  “You’ll see that angled gondola shelving sometimes in craft stores where the store wants you to take the products that are in the front and once removed, everything behind it kind of rolls into place.”

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So those are the main reasons why other shelving options for B-to-C stores, don’t work in retail environments.

“And that is something kind of unique that gondola shelving can provide that you won’t see, and you won’t find a lot of other shelving that won’t let you set things up that way,” states Canfield.  “Wire shelving will do that on occasion, but not nearly as frequently seen as in gondola shelving.  You know it’s all about the backing, the pegboard, and the style in which you can make your own end cap to isles in a retail store.  With gondola shelving you can customize the end caps to your satisfaction.”

Now if you’re thinking gondola shelving is the solution to your needs—especially in a retail store—here are a few things to keep in mind when ordering it;

“You kind of what to decide how and what you want your store to be set up like before ordering, so it is clear and you get what you want the first time,” Canfield advises.  “Because like I said, unless you have a lot of space like some of the clients I work with who are opening grocery stores, you can’t and shouldn’t put really tall gondola shelving in a small convenience store because you will feel like you’re in a cave or something.”

Believe it or not, some people forget height when ordering, so remember to take a good look at what will be blocked (or utilized) by going that high up on the uprights.”

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“If you’re going to open any type of retail store, especially like convenience stores and grocery stores, height is an issue.  Whether you want them really tall like in a grocery store so you can’t see over into the next isle or if you want to keep them low as they do in a convenience store for the clerk to have full visibility in the store, so you can keep an eye on customers,” Canfield cautions.

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“Those are the primary reasons why gondola shelving differs from the other stuff we have in stock,” adds Canfield.  “So just make sure you get a really nice set up of gondola shelving, because it does a world of wonder for your product display and ease of which customers can get that product off the shelf.”

Canfield pretty much sums up why gondola is the preferred choice in a retail environment with his years of experience.

“I mean it’s all fun and games trying to explain to a store owner who is determined to use another type of shelving besides gondola, but using another type of shelving in that environment isn’t as good,” said Canfield.  “But gondola shelving looks nice, and it holds up to that type of rigorous retail use.”