by Kenna S Eaton, GM

Yup. The headline says it all. About a year ago we began the process of designing a new lighting structure for our store. We decided to tackle the produce department first—for a few reasons. First, its the first department you see when you walk into the store, and we think it speaks volumes to those things we value most: locally grown fresh, wonderful fruits and veggies! Second, we’re super proud of the work our team does in displaying the abundance of our region, however we identified the area had some really dark spots that just weren’t showcasing all those great aspects.

Most of this work will be done overnight, so it doesn’t impact daily shopping, but we do need to prepare the produce department for this work, which means we’ll need to close the department early @ 7pm for two evenings: January 27th and 28th. And yes, we will post a warning in our weekly e-flyer, and we have signs for inside the store. The produce team is prepared to empty off the dry tables at night, so the electricians came come in and safely work their magic, and the reload in the morning. It’s a lot of work and things might look a bit haphazard in the middle but that’s the way it goes, and we think the end result will be worth it.

Actually, when our expansion project was completed in 2019, we knew we would need to relocate or replace all of our store lights in the future. Some of you may recall that the light fixtures got left in place when the departments moved, as we just didn’t have the capacity to deal with it at that time. So early in 2021 we decided it was time to rectify this issue and begin the process of moving and/or replacing the lights throughout the store. Now it’s almost one year later, the lights for one department have arrived (we paid for them in 2021) and we are (finally) now ready to install them. Phew!

The new lights are more energy efficient, and we hope will do a better job of shining the light on our glorious produce. However, now we’re planning to simply reuse the old produce lights elsewhere in the store instead of buying more new fixtures since those just don’t seem to be readily available. At least not nowadays….

Thanks as always for your patience and support.

With appreciation,