How LED Lighting Improves Efficiency for Convenience Stores
When wanting to boost their bottom line, most convenience store owners look to traditional supply areas, such as merchandise, brand selection, gasoline sales, and the endless coffee pot. But experienced operators—especially those who own multiple locations—are increasingly turning to energy efficiency as a way to upgrade their convenience stores and increase sales.
With the advent of newer, cooler, and more cost-efficient LED lighting, convenience store owners are learning that commercial LED lighting upgrades come with a lot of business benefits. These improvements not only translate into convenience store energy savings, but also into increased customer satisfaction, spending, and loyalty.
Bottom Line Results of Store LED Lighting
Convenience stores have the lights on and the coolers running around the clock. However, though the convenience of 24/7 hours helps maximum customer interaction, it results in inflated energy bills.
The idea of cutting energy expenditure, especially in lighting, may seem impossible. Convenience store operators often believe they do not have any control over these costs other than by turning the lights on and off.
The average convenience store selling food in the U.S. averages 52.5 kilo-watt hours (kWh) of electricity per square foot and 38.2 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot per year, which means they have one of the highest rates of energy consumption in the commercial space. The average-size convenience store therefore can spend about $200,000 per year on energy costs. Interior lighting alone can account for as much as 40% of a convenience store’s yearly electric costs.
Energy upgrades like LED lighting bring immediate results in convenience store energy savings that significantly contribute to the bottom line.
Improving the Shopper Experience with Convenience Store LED Lighting
Business owners who have implemented commercial LED lighting upgrades are often surprised by the improved aesthetic appearance of their stores. Where once dim, degraded, and costly fluorescent lighting illuminated their stores inside and out, LED lighting retrofits drastically improve the look and feel of their spaces. Convenience store shoppers (particularly younger and more affluent customers) recognize this, and reward stores with both trial visits and ongoing loyalty.
Premium LED units shed bright, adjustable light throughout a store’s interior, visible from the road and more inviting to customers. LEDs convert drab yellow or cold blue fluorescent spill off into welcoming bright space.
Replacing interior ceiling lights with LED lighting is step one in a comprehensive program for a store’s commercial LED lighting upgrades. Transforming formerly outdated in-case lights, swapping traditional lighting with LED lights cuts energy consumption in a standard refrigerated case by about 50 percent.
LEDs enhance in-case merchandising by improving light quality. The case looks better and brighter, because LED light doesn’t depreciate in cold temperatures the way fluorescent light does. Colorful brand packing comes to life under such conditions and also creates a better-lit, safer environment for employees working in walk-in coolers and freezers.
Improving LED lighting isn’t a new concept. Grocery stores have benefited from the superior illumination and quick payback of in-case LEDs for several years. It’s time for convenience stores to seize the opportunity, and a trusted energy-as-a-service company can help. In fact, by working with an energy management company to install today’s smart monitoring technologies, added savings can be created by fully reducing energy waste.
LED Lighting Control Systems Keep Your Store Safe and Make It More Attractive
Whether driving by or from foot traffic, customers are innately attuned to their environment. It’s a known fact: people don’t want to shop or work where they don’t feel safe, and dim or flickering lighting deters visitors.
That means the attractiveness of a convenience store location begins with a first impression made even before a consumer walks through the door. Lighting contributes greatly to these first and lasting impressions. Hence, bright LED lighting in the exterior of a convenience store becomes a welcome invitation to come in. New lighting plays a significant role in a convenience store’s success from the outside.
LEDs are designed to create greater illumination using less electricity, making them ideal for exterior spaces. Plus, reducing the glare and shadows that are common with traditional lights enhances aesthetics.
For convenience stores with gas dispensaries, replacing canopy lighting with inviting LED lighting and installing bright LED units in parking lots, building exteriors, grounds, and walkways not only saves energy; it creates a solid impression you care enough to make the outside inviting for easy, safe navigation for your customers.
Another benefit of commercial LED lighting upgrades is the fixtures themselves. The best modern units are made to last years, not months, so you’ll spend less time and money replacing bulbs in both accessible areas and on high poles, instead of relying on staff to manually replace bulbs.
Areas such as restrooms and storage spaces also present opportunities for cost savings by installing motion sensors. A smart energy management company partner will be strategic about where to install occupancy-prompted lighting in a convenience store, ensuring sensors, timers, and manual controls are used effectively.
A well-lit, always-on atmosphere is part of what attracts shoppers to a convenience store. Improving energy efficiency with enhanced lighting helps owners make sure workers are happy and more productive, customers feel welcome and eager to spend money, and businesses profit.
Having a comprehensive convenience store energy savings program can help convenience store operators eliminate energy waste while preserving thousands of dollars in capital —even more for those in multi-location chains. Working with an experienced energy management company can help this easily become a reality.
Getting Started: Choosing the Right Energy Efficiency Partner for Your Convenience Store LED Lighting
Achieving energy upgrades in convenience stores is no longer an open-ended, costly proposition. When you work with Budderfly, you can easily access commercial LED lighting upgrades that enhance efficiency with a great degree of precision and reliability— all with no out-of-pocket costs.* Even better, you get LED lighting as part of a suite of industry-leading, energy saving solutions. We use our own capital to install and maintain a range of cutting-edge technologies that significantly reduce energy consumption, including HVAC upgrades, refrigeration controls, monitoring software, smart thermostats, and more.
Budderfly pays for convenience store operators to cut their energy usage. The result: greener, better-looking, and more comfortable shopping experiences for your customers and employees—with no risk and no capital required.* To learn more about how we are helping convenience store owners across the U.S., contact us today.
*For standard installations