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RETAIL SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS - WEIS MARKETS
Weis’ floral department is removing all its refrigerated cases for a more European-style of merchandising.
lighting usage.
“It has not impacted sales, so we will
install skylights in every new store as a standard building feature,” says Olenick. In what may appear at first ironic, the floral department is taking away all its refrigerated cases for a more European- style of merchandising, according to Lucy Jason, director of floral, who joined Weis from Wegmans — where she worked in floral for some 23 years. “As long as we have the freshest product, buy from the right growers, and turn product frequently when it comes in the door, refrigeration makes no difference,” she says. “A big piece [to the transition] is taking the refrigeration out. The bigger piece is redesigning the program and expanding to be a full-service florist in a
new footprint.”
Originally, a décor decision, Olenick
says when floral decided to pull all the refrigerated cases out, it also served to conserve energy.
WIN-WIN
“For a sustainability program to work, it must have a practical aspect to it,”
efforts to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease impact on the ozone layer as well as climate change,” says Olenick. To date, 12 of its stores achieved EPA GreenChill Certification Awards.
“We have a store pending LEED certi-
fication, and we learned a lot of meas- ures we continue to implement in remodels and new stores.” One example of an energy efficiency measure the Weis team learned from the LEED store was a reduction in its
36 / MAY 2015 / PRODUCE BUSINESS