Walk a fair and compare the tables people stop at with the ones they drift past. The stopped-at tables are almost never flat. Height is the cheapest display upgrade there is — most of it is cardboard boxes under a tablecloth — and it works because of where human eyes actually look.
A flat table presents everything at hip height, angled away from a standing adult. Raising the back of the table brings your best stock into the natural browsing line and lets every item be seen at once instead of in rows that hide each other. The classic build: sturdy boxes or crates across the back third under the cloth, a middle shelf if you have one, small items at the front where hands already are. Instant amphitheatre.
Aim for three levels — back (tall: your hero pieces and the stall-name sign), middle (the range), front (pocket-money items and the price-group baskets). Three reads as "arranged"; one reads as "jumble sale"; five reads as "climbing hazard". Put the highest-margin things where the eye lands first: back-centre, slightly left, which is where most people's gaze enters a table.
A sign lying flat on the table is invisible from a metre away — it points at the sky. Signs earn their keep upright: against risers, in cheap acrylic holders, clipped to the gazebo frame, or folded into table-tents. The stall-name sign goes high at the back; price signs sit at the front edge of each level they describe, angled at the browsing eye. If a sign can't be read by someone deciding whether to stop walking, it isn't working yet.
Cardboard boxes and crates (risers), a second tablecloth (covers the engineering), books or bricks (weight and micro-height), a cake stand (borrowed, instantly professional for small items), and blu-tack, clips and string — which the packing list already told you to bring. Fancy display furniture can come when the stall has paid for it; height, levels and readable signs are free and do most of the job.
General guidance from stallholder practice, August 2026. CAAC.