Here’s a short list of things Millennials dislike: Grocery stores Survey after survey show the same findings: Millennials rate traditional supermarkets lower than all other generations. In an industry with razor-thin margins, this dissatisfaction could prove costly for grocery stores as other concepts and online competition elbow in on Millennials. Fortunately, there’s a longer list […]

Few things can cause a more bitter debate between contractors and architects than value engineering. The practice of reviewing specifications to determine cost-effective ways to complete a project has its defenders and detractors, but one thing that is for sure is that value engineering is being used more and more. Value engineering is supposed to […]

Callbacks. There’s nothing like them to suck the profits out of a project and damage your reputation for future projects at the same time. Fortunately, callbacks can be often be avoided. These four tips will help you steer clear of callbacks and keep customers satisfied with their lighting: Start with quality brands Using poorly designed […]

These days, it’s not enough to be an electrical contractor that only does installation work. With each passing year, specifying is becoming a larger portion of the job. This trend is likely to continue as the design-build construction model grows in popularity. In fact, 63 percent of electrical contractors say they are branching out from […]

2019 is going to be the year of the Millennials for supermarkets. Two decades into the eponymous millennium, members of Generation Y will finally outnumber Baby Boomers as the largest living generation in the United States. At the same time, Millennials are entering their prime spending years as more and more of them have children […]

Green building projects are growing each year and the trend is showing no signs of slowing down. Between 2005 and 2014, the green construction industry skyrocketed from $3 billion a year to more than $80 billion (McGraw-Hill). New green construction and retrofit projects can take many forms, from formalized programs like LEED, to merely adhering […]

Installation—it’s where a job’s profit is made or lost. A quick and easy installation means you can move onto the next job and the next check, without worrying about costly callbacks or extra labor time chewing into your profit margins. You understand the importance of the installation process—and if you’ve ever substituted specified lighting products […]

Across the country, supermarkets are shrinking. Especially common in dense metro areas, smaller format stores are proving to be an effective growth area for the industry. Small-footprint stores like Trader Joe’s and Aldi are continuing their success and large-format chains like Walmart and Target are experimenting with smaller stores. When a grocery store is small, […]

What’s for dinner? That’s a question up to 80% of Americans can’t answer by 4 p.m. on a given day, according to food service data provider Food Genius. More and more, shoppers are walking into supermarkets, looking for dinner inspiration, rather than shopping with a set list. This gives supermarkets a tremendous opportunity to drive […]

As communities across the globe upgrade their infrastructure and transform into “smart cities,” municipal leaders are leveraging the lamppost as a key tool. Often overlooked in day-to-day life, lampposts are becoming more than mere illuminators of paths and roads—they are the foundation of smart cities. Smart cities rely on networks of sensors spread across the […]

Smart cities, intelligent cities, connected communities. No matter what you call them, cities and towns paired with information and communication technology built into the infrastructure are the future for communities all over the world. “Smart city” and the myriad of similar names are all loose terms for a city or community that uses sensor data […]

Amerlux, an award-winning design-and-manufacture lighting company, announced today it will deliver a private demonstration to Wakefern Food Corp about its game-changing supermarket solution that will make sales of high-margin perishables more appetizing for grocers. The LED maker will showcase the Fresh Color chip—which is incorporated into the company’s premium SPEQ track lights—during the [...]

 If you’ve looked at lighting recently, you may have seen something like “CRI: 83” or “Rf 94”among the alphabet soup of the lighting specs. Another product advertised its great color rendering with two scores and a round graph. What does it all mean? How a light renders colors is very important—look at yourself in […]

Amerlux, an award-winning design-and-manufacture lighting company, announced today it has added a next-level microchip to its premium track lights that inevitably will help grocers transform into high-end retail boutiques. Amerlux’s Fresh Color chip accentuates the natural color of fresh foods, which has become a crucial high-margin draw to keep consumers shopping in the store. To […]

Today’s LEDs set the standard for light comfort, color quality and controllability. Even better, they cost a lot less than you might think and they can deliver huge savings to your bottom line. Here are four ways LED lighting will lower your operating costs: 1. Energy Cost Savings Electricity is a major expense for facilities […]