Whenever you are trying to cost save on a business, there is always the option of purchasing things used. How many of us have bought more used cars than new over the years? Or how often does an after market product look just as nice but no carry the full price tag as the new one does? Shelving units are great new, but they are also very useful if they are purchased second hand.
Recently the Wal-mart here just took out all of their shelving and redid it. Since the store was not very old, under five years, many in the community wondered why the company would take on the time, expense, and aggravation, much less the customer aggravation when the store was torn up, when the store was so new. Then speaking with the assistant manager one afternoon he told us that the shelving was actually used. To save on costs when the store was built the big retailing giant decided to use used shelving units instead of purchasing new ones. I guess over the first years it was open the store proved it was a worthy investment (there is constantly a full parking lot over there) so upgrading the shelving became a good investment for them.
For a smaller office service shop, such as a computer repair outfit, new shelving units worked well. The computers are not light weight. Towers, old monitors, and other equipment are bulky and take up a lot of room. With narrow shelves of twelve to eighteen inches deep nothing got lost on the back of the shelves. To compensate for the need for more shelf space the office ordered extra shelves. Keyboards are a narrow item that slide right onto the shelf. Small boxes were placed on another shelf in a neat row to take care of cables, extensions cords, and other USB port cables. Other shelves were also added for external speakers, printers, and even a special rack for the computer mouse.
New shelving and used are both good options. New is more appropriate if the shelving will be out where people can see it. Dented, chipped, or scratched shelving does not look nearly as nice. Customer appeal is important and matching good shelving with new products is a great combination. For the little computer service outfit used shelving would probably be fine. No customers are back in the store room so shelving units or pallet racking only needed to be serviceable, not especially attractive.