From the day we moved into the new store, the biggest complaint that my customers (and I) have had is the lighting. The building started as a bank and, let's face it, bank customers don't really care what color their money is, or want it to match the color of their shoes or a particular dress, do they?
We resolved some of the lighting issues by installing new light fixtures with parabolic reflectors at the front of the store, and added "daylight" (like giant Ott Lights) in the classroom and workbench areas. But, those darned things are expensive and the idea of upgrading all of the lighting went on the back burner until we win the lottery or have a long lost relative will us a couple of million dollars!
Today, we had a gentleman come in and tell us about a program that the utility companies have to help commercial businesses modernize their lighting to improve visibility and to help reduce their electricity bills. You can bet that got our attention! Mike is all for saving energy - we replaced our A/C unit, the light bulbs and added insulation at home, long before the government started giving rebates for it. Boy, did we lose out on a lot of money by being that far ahead of the curve.
IF we qualify for this program, it looks like we'll be able to get all of the lighting in the store upgraded to more energy efficient fixtures and better lighting for color matching. The Swarovski crystals will really show their fire and you'll be able to tell if that stone is bluish-green or greenish-blue or maybe not even blue at all!
From what the man said, the changeover should only take about 1 day, so we will have minimal interruption of business.
I'll post updates as we know them - especially if we have to change the store's hours for the changeover process.
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