Page 63 - Lighting Magazine January 2020

Two Cities
Once briefly its own country – the Republic of Texas – the 28th state to join the union has always marched to its own drum beat. After all, as a market, the state has the expanse
(268,597 miles) and population (28.7 million) to maintain its own lifestyle and décor aesthetic independent of trends in the rest of the country. Up until roughly 10 years ago, the lighting style of choice in Texas was large in scale and “brown and curly” in appearance, a reference to the ubiquitous traditional-style scrolled iron chandeliers in a dark bronze finish that for decades never seemed to wane in popularity even when contemporary and lighter finishes were de rigueur nationwide. And yet within the immense Lone Star state, the people of East and West Texas have long thought there were significant differences between themselves.
All of that is changing, as I discovered on my
whirlwind tour with award-winning veteran sales representatives B.J. Ferber and Barbara Jordan of Bill Ferber & Associates. Having to cover such an ex- pansive territory – the mileage equal to what could easily span several states in other regions – means maintaining two home bases (Dallas and Houston) plus the time and expense of airplane and car travel to visit customers over a vast territory regularly. It used to entail serving two very different environ- ments with distinct end-consumer tastes, but social media and HGTV have been closing that gap.
Our tour began at Dement Lighting in Lubbock (West Texas) with husband-and-wife owners Dru and Crystal Dement and ended the next day at Hagen’s Lighting in Tyler (East Texas) with Shane Hagen and his wife Katrina (Trina). With a popula- tion of more than 255,000, Lubbock is known as the birthplace of legendary rocker Buddy Holly and is home to Texas Tech University. Tyler, on the other
January 2020 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 59