By Jack Sjogren
Hillphoenix Design Center Specialist

The right lights produce results. Just ask the owners of this supermarket in Crestline, California, a summer tourist area. Our Hillphoenix team helped them rethink lighting in the store’s meat department, and over three months departmental sales jumped 15% compared to the same three months the year before. (That sales boost came after peak tourist season, I might add.)

We made simple changes with big visual impact that captured customers’ attention. The first step was shutting off existing in-case lighting — T8 fluorescents — that drained color from the meat and created an obscuring glare on products on the top shelf. Then we lit the case solely from the outside using high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, which produce more visible and effective light than fluorescent and incandescent lamps. You can see the transformation in these before-and-after photos.

In addition to boosting sales, the lighting switch also extended product life and reduced energy consumption. Eliminating the old in-case lighting greatly reduced heat around the product, which meant meat stayed fresher longer. Of course, the food was selling faster, too, so that also reduced product shrink. The HID lamps added up to 600 watts, compared to 1,344 watts for the fluorescents. Overall, the new lights consumed 55% less energy than the old ones.

I’ll talk more about the transformative power of lighting during a demonstration and training session at Supermarket Sense, which takes place Sept. 22-23, 2015, at Hillphoenix’s headquarters in Conyers, Georgia. Industry experts from Hillphoenix and beyond will give insights into the latest industry trends and offer ways for supermarkets to capitalize on them. Hope to see you there.