Supermarket Perimeter - February 2019 - 14

On trend
Labor Savings
With the cost of labor
increasing dramatically
over the past couple
of years along with a
shortage of skilled and
unskilled labor in many
US markets, retailers are
looking for ways of lowering labor costs through
their merchandising.

Food Safety
With more attention
being given to food safety by governing safety
entities, retailers need
merchandising products
that provide safe, food
contact surfaces to display their product along
with merchandising
equipment that is easily
cleaned.

LED Lighting
Over the past 10 years,
the cost of LED lighting
has dropped dramatically while the quality
of LED has improved
greatly. LEDs produce
a very clean, very clear
light which bring out
the colors of food and
packaging.

True colors
Modern LEDs can deliver the best color rendering abilities ever achieved
with artiﬁcial lighting, Plageman says. Where older lighting technologies
like ﬂuorescent and ceramic metal halide lamps produce very ﬂat colors
and halogens present overly warm colors, today's LED lights let foods'
vibrant colors crisply shine out.
Maximizing the proﬁtability of specialty perimeter departments,
such as meat and seafood, produce and instore restaurants all require
different lighting than center-store, Plageman says.
Instore bakeries, for example, need warm-toned lights (think of the
light of the setting sun) to emphasize the just-out-of-the-oven look of
the bread. Meat, on the other hand, does better under cool lights that
emphasize the red color of the steak, while keeping the marbling a
crisp white.

Inventory Management
With a growing number
of product SKUs, retailers are strained to ﬁnd
enough merchandising
space in their perimeter
cases. Merchandising
maximizes the available
space in cases along with
ﬂexibility of their equipment to capture voids /
lost space.

Shelf Design
Custom engraving allows
your shelf fencing to
become more than a
product stop by creating
a more engaging experience with customers and
your brand.
Source: Carlson AirFlo

And instore restaurants need warmer lighting and different ﬁxtures,
so the area stands out from the rest of the store and attracts shoppers'
attention.
Whatever the perimeter department, Plageman says, Amerlux can
ﬁnd the right ﬁt.
"Our SPEQ track lights with Fresh Color Chips are the ideal solution
for supermarkets," he says. "SPEQ is a modern-styled, highly efficient
LED light solution that delivers premium lighting on target while drastically reducing energy consumption without sacriﬁcing color quality or
performance."
SPEQ lights illuminate products so well, Plageman says, that art
galleries and museums are using them for their displays. SPEQ comes
in three versions - 15-watt, 26-watt and 48-watt - and delivers a
super-long lifespan of 50,000 to 70,000 hours. With that kind of lifespan,
supermarkets can be assured of a long operating life with minimal
maintenance needs.

Innovative display
cases, like those made
by Carlson AirFlo, are a
vital part of any perimeter
department redesign.

14 - FEBRUARY 2019

Plageman says some supermarket managers are scared of high costs to
upgrade their lighting to LEDs. But the truth is that upfront costs have
never been lower. LED technology keeps improving and costs keep falling, and revamping perimeter department lighting with high quality LED
lighting is one of the rare things you can do, he adds, to both reduce
expenses and boost sales.
And on the expense side, LEDs can quickly pay for themselves with
their energy efficiency, maintenance savings and utility incentives. As
for sales, Plageman says that supermarkets Amerlux has worked with in
the past say they typically see a 20% boost in sales after improving their
product lighting.
"Merchandise that looks good sells better, and nowhere is that
truer than with fresh foods," he says. Retailers who switch to LEDs can
ﬁnd cost savings in other ways, too. There are a wide variety of utility
rebates and tax incentives available to encourage LED adoption, making
lighting upgrades more affordable than ever, Plageman says.

www.supermarketperimeter.com

CARLSON AIRFLO

Quality goes up, prices come down

http://www.supermarketperimeter.com

Supermarket Perimeter - February 2019

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