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Wegmans’ merchants have embraced sustainability to the point their recommendations are encouraged and acted upon by Green Teams in each division.
more lights complaining the displays were too dark when the problem was that the lights weren’t focused properly,” Auria explains.
Fortunately, technology is advancing and opening up creative solutions, according to Rich Kelley, manager of engineering. “Basi- cally there are certain colors that make our product pop and certain colors that don’t. At the end of the day we’re merchants and we need to choose lighting fixtures that highlight product better but also are more sustainable
and cost ef fective.”
According to Auria, “You couldn’t have put
LED in produce departments five years ago. The problem with them was the color rendering wasn’t as good, so you wouldn’t have gotten the greens and reds and yellows out of the produce that you can today. Now we can capture produce in its natural state and really enhance the look of the products. We waited until the LED gave us the light quality we were looking for,” he says, adding, “You
don’t always want to be the leader using the newest technology because there’s a lot of things that don’t always work well.”
Auria acknowledges, “LED is getting there; it’s not ideal, but we’re close enough now where we made the changeover in our produce department. LED is still evolving and we are evolving with it.”
Store design features also factor in to overall lighting affects. For example, in the new stores, the ceiling is a lighter color so it actually reflects the light better, which means you need fewer fixtures. In contrast, the more sustainable concrete floors, while still high polish, do not reflect the light as well as the stores with vinyl tile.
“It’s a science and an art really,” says Wadsworth, “but Wegmans has been ahead of the game as far as lighting of the stores. Founder Bob Wegman was always big into lighting, and his son and CEO Danny Wegman took it to another level in the look and feel and the comfort of the customer expe- rience,” he says.
In addition to the sales floor, better quality backroom lighting solutions have benefited produce operations as well. “The guy working in the backroom getting the produce off the
50 PRODUCE BUSINESS • MAY 2013