I get a kick out of headlines like “dot-com opens brick and mortar showroom” or “online magazine buys print magazine”. It’s not that I don’t get the reasons why, it’s just that those examples are the exact opposite of what we did and I honestly can't imagine doing it the other way.

Well, to cut to the chase, our business model started with a real, physical storefront not the other way around. We’re taking twenty years worth of lighting expertise and bringing it to the web versus building a website and then growing into our chosen product.

That’s not to say I don’t believe those business models are capable of working, obviously they do (gross understatement) but their offering something altogether different than we are. Yes, they’re selling the same product we are but what about after the sale?

What does someone who started with the cart (no pun intended) in front of the horse say when asked about design considerations, practical advice, or heaven forbid first-hand knowledge of the product? I hate to break this to you but not only do some of the larger sites have extremely limited lighting knowledge, they also farm out their chat and phone support to companies with zero lighting knowledge.

This isn’t a knock on those companies, they have as much right to promote their products as the next guy. However, when all things are equal, equal pricing that is, why not go with the company that actually has a background in lighting, versus a background in sales? In a nutshell, what makes us different is that we started out and remain a lighting shop, a shop that specializes in personal service. Our goal is to bring that same experience online, one customer at a time.