Page 26 - Lighting Magazine - August 2013

Retail Spotlight

left: The stacked stone highway and that made it ideal. There wasn t a will sell. Diversifcation is the key to business, Jor-
sales counter is a replica For Sale sign, but Jordan sought out the owner dan explains. We go afer the remodeling market
of a design Jordan and negotiated a price. What followed was a mu- prety hard and about 75 percent of my business
created and installed for a
residential kitchen. Color- nicipal nightmare of having to install fre hydrants is with local builders. And I still have fea market
changing LEDs wash the on the undeveloped street and a lot of unexpected customers from back in the day, he quips.
stones with light. red tape, but he persisted, even selling his house to In addition to lighting are decorative accessories
raise the equity needed to fnish the construction. and mirrors. Penny, who is a licensed interior de-
Right: Afer builders
began asking for hardware, Taking advantage of every available square foot, I signer, buys the accessories and I buy the mirrors,
Jordan custom-built a built as large as I was allowed to for the property, he says. There are also two full-time employees
section in the showroom. he explains. who put up and take down lights all day long.
Just as predicted: if he built it, they would come. In fact, Jordan can ofen be found out on the
Right from the start, the showroom was bustling foor. I try to have fun at work. I want to have a real
with customers, most of whom had been doing good energy going on in here, he quips. I work
business with Jordan for years at the fea market. the foor, including a Saturday rotation like the rest
His very frst warehouse worker is still with the com- of the employees. I consider myself to be one of
pany today as is Jordans brother, who is in charge them. They know there is nothing I won t do for
of the stores 32,000-sq.-f. of-site warehouse. them, he states.
Jordan didn t blindly open a lighting showroom;
he did research beforehand, visiting many success- deSiGninG diSplayS
ful showrooms in non-competing areas such as Fort Worth Lighting has a lot of well-merchandised
Garbes in Tulsa, Okla.; Timeless Designs in Ama- displays, with many styles presented as complete
rillo, Texas; and Bensons Lighting in Miami. I saw vignetes that include fxtures, mirrors, occasional
elements at each place that I liked, he recounts. furniture, and decorative accessories. However,
One thing Fort Worth Lighting has a lot of is light- the idea of having displays was completely new
ing. I believe if you are a lighting showroom that to Jordan. Since he specifed the building to have
you need to show a lot of lights and not just what high ceilings (the best way to get the most available

24 enLIGHTenment Magazine | august 2013 www.enlightenmentmag.com