I have probably posted these notes about daytime storefronts in the wrong order.  This post  really should have been first because the images provide a visual definition of the main problem a designer faces when dealing with storefront display options at a time of day when the sun is shinning brightly.  That would clearly be the tendency of exterior expanses of glass to produce reflections to the extend that we almost always experience at least a double and often a  triple, or more, image.  Consideration of the shops in the images below proves to be instructive.

Is this a cafe, a bar, a coffee shop? The only thing we know for sure from the street is that it is open, that there is head in street parking in front, a multistory brick building and more street parking across the street.  Maybe they do something with hunting because there is a poster or other image of a deer in the window.  The things we actually know about the place are mostly defined by the architecture.  Wainscoting and historic columns are often seen in restaurants so we naturally make the connection to food.  Further, there is a strange cafe curtain in the window, think bakery, as well as what appears to be printed blackboards, both also, associated with food.  Otherwise we are in the dark, or in this case reflected light.

The only element strong enough to be seen in this daytime window are the interior lights.  Because the merchandise had been placed so close to the interior glass we do understand that they must be selling some type of magazines or printed material, but the actual images are distorted by the reflected scene and clarity is impossible.