Stater Bros., the largest privately-owned supermarket chain in Southern California, has found a new way to save money and give their refrigerator displays a more appealing look: They have turned to General Electric's LED lighting solutions. The retrofitting of the frozen food display cases in nearly all of Stater Bros.' 166 stores is expected to save the company approximately $570,000 annually in energy and maintenance costs, while also reducing overall energy usage.
Cheaper and more efficient
Having evaluated proposals from five different lighting companies, Stater Bros. found that GE offered the best option to solve the lighting needs in their supermarkets. By replacing their previous 60-watt fluorescent fixtures with GE's 17-watt Immersion RV 40 LED lighting, Stater Bros. is expected to use 28,444 fewer kilowatt hours (kWh) per store per year, totaling 4.6 million fewer kWh across the 163 participating stores. That means $510,00 in energy usage savings, and another $60,000 in maintenance cost savings per year.
Installing commercial lighting fixtures of this kind is an important step in providing commercial and industrial customers with energy savings solutions, with the financial benefits leading to lower prices for consumers and a stronger bottom line for the companies that use them. Not to mention, it creates a positive impact on the environment.
Enhanced customer experience
While cost and energy savings may have been the driving factor behind the switch to commercial LED lighting, Stater Bros. has also found that the new lights lead to a better experience for their customers. People are most often drawn to certain products because of quality or how they are advertised, but sometimes the way a product is displayed will play a major role in how well it sells.
"We've received great feedback from customers and store managers," said Scott Limbacher, vice president, Construction/Maintenance at Stater Bros. "Our managers tell us the new lighting really makes their products pop."
That "pop" will likely drive higher sales, meaning LED lighting systems like the one installed by Stater Bros. provide yet another benefit on top of energy and cost savings.
Making your business more profitable and more environmentally friendly, while also furnishing a better experience for customers, can be accomplished with one relatively small change. Companies are finding that by switching to low voltage LED lighting and other environmentally sound lighting solutions they are seeing an improvement in nearly every aspect of their business.
