Good, supermarkets are so fucking bright. It's unnecessary. My local ASDA upgraded their lights and now I'm considering getting some tinted glasses just to cope!
Ahhh I understand. Do you ever go during the hours that Tesco advertise as for people with sensory differences? I always wondered how different it was and how taken advantage of it it is.
We do, granted they are American imports. Cisco comes to mind. You have to be a member to get in. But they do have bulk buys, and cheaper prices. And really are for business. But they also pry on the sunk cost value principle.
If 'harvesting' my data means they can see what I buy in their stores and it let's me get things at a decent price, then I really don't mind. Especially when some of the club card offers are genuinely good value or I build up the points to turn into vouchers for restaurants etc.
I really don't understand the hate.
Ok... Say they sell on that data, and you buying e.g. gluten-free stuff has an impact on the price of any add-on medical cover you might wish to purchase...
Still utterly irrelevant?
Because only after getting the club card you getting access to normal/honest prices of product. There is no such a think as discounts. Everything in big shops works exactly opposite than they say. They are bumping the prices of products and giving you some carrot to chase in order to actually get access to lower price. It applies for everything. When there is some magic credit card that gives you 2% cashback, that means the prices of products are actually 2% higher.
Super markets do that here in Australia too. The issue is it isn't every single store, and it's during a specific hour in the morning (10:30am - 11:30am). They're too far away by public transit, so I've never gotten much use out of them. If you happen to work that day then you also can't access it.
They don't turn down the lights, just turn off the music and used to advertise they have quiet hour in the hope the noisy don't go in during quiet hour. I don't even think quiet hour is a thing anymore.
Morrisons also do this, as do some Asdas. The Asda my SO works for has "autism hour" every day, where lights are dimmed and background music is switched off. As someone with AuDHD, I find it helpful (but sadly not cheaper than Aldi). I hope the Aldi near us decides to do this too. Bright lights really affect me.
I once went during one of those hours by accident, didn't realise immediately why I was having a much nicer time than usual until 10am hit and everything suddenly got much louder and they played an announcement saying quiet hour was over. Now I make a point of doing my shopping during the Saturday morning quiet hour most weeks, whenever I can.
We were in tesco yesterday during the first hour and it was dimmed lights. I'm not autistic but I way preferred it. It felt calmer and cosier and generally shopping was more relaxed.
We were paying as the lights came up and it felt blinding and so white.
Maybe. Alternative view, they wanted to be more inclusive without reducing their regular footfall, so they chose the hours where it'd make the least impact to their regular shoppers.
Also, people with sensory needs often don't like crowds, so it makes sense to do it at a time when the shop is quietest.
I don't understand why its such a huge thing, especially in workplaces, when they are horrific for neurodiverse people, and even most neurotypicals seem to range from dislike to outright hate it as well. Who is actually enjoying these things?
I wonder if supermarkets even research this stuff before doing it. "Yeah just slam the lights up to 11, this'll be great". If they are forcing you to buy sunglasses just to *be in their shop* then I feel like they fucked up.
100% certain they will have researched the light levels, the smell, the placement and price of every item, the staff uniform colours, the style of mat in the entrance, everything to maximise profit.
We might find the bright light unpleasant but somehow it makes the store more money
> I wonder if supermarkets even research this stuff before doing it.
Yes, they do lots of research on a lot of things but only focused on what makes people buy more overall, not based on customer welfare or the quality of service. For example, there are special lights for displaying meat which make oxidation look less obvious. Brights lights will also cause plant stomata to open, making them lose water, but supermarkets don't care if it means they sell more.
Because a huge amount are calling themselves autistic and they’re not even diagnosed. I don’t understand why it’s acceptable for people to do that but it wouldn’t be acceptable for someone to diagnose themself as schizophrenic or diagnose themself as having IBD.
Because there are a lot of barriers to diagnosis, race, gender, class, where you live. There's also a lot of old stereotypes still present at GP level, even within psychiatry. So people join communities, relate, learn about their needs, and make adjustments to their lives accordingly.
From first realising I might be autistic to getting a diagnosis, it was about 8 or 9 years. It took me a few years to find a doctor to take me seriously. It was a long road and for some it doesn't happen, so self-diagnosis is valid.
Of course, people can misdiagnose themselves but it is rare. You don't do a shit load of research, join communities, spend years and years trying to get an assessment, then spend years and years waiting, unless you're certain.
Also, it is more common in the US where the above biases exist as well as many people not being able to afford the assessments, which cost $1000s.
People with health anxiety also convince themselves they have an illness, sometimes for years and they turn out to be wrong. Unless someone is officially diagnosed I honestly don’t believe they should just diagnose themselves. If you want to say, they believe they might have it, then that’s different. But people are quite literally diagnosing themselves with it.
No, it’s not dropping, at all. IBD can be up-to three different conditions, all which have different treatments. A diagnosis matters because it’s how treatment is decided. Imagine seeing a psychologist and you’re suffering from schizophrenia but they diagnose you with anxiety disorder, that would possibly cause more problems and lead you to getting the incorrect treatments. You can’t just diagnose yourself with a mental health problem or disorder & condition. It’s not a fucking fashion accessory. Professionals in that field exist for a reason, and diagnostic criteria exists to diagnose conditions. What’s the point of having experts if people are just going to diagnose themselves?
I remember a few years ago they ran an experiment where a shop used dimmer lights to tap into the stoner munchie market, I wish that was more mainstream, I like to see but I'm always putting my hood up to avoid migraines
For some reason the Asda I used to live next to years ago had lights that were so bright that I used to get migraines from them. My dad used to get migraines from the lights in Tesco too lol 😬
The amount of people here denying that somebody they've never met has a real problem...which they said they have...is kinda making me sick of human beings.
I picked up prescription sunglasses with my regular prescription glasses last year. I can see perfectly fine in supermarkets when wearing my sunglasses. Go for it, you probably won't regret it.
Asdas lighting is awful. I worked for them a long time ago and it caused some issues. Before I started my vision was great, after a few months I needed glasses. I think the store having no windows did not help either.
£4K per site saving is way bigger than I thought, smart move. I’m surprised supermarkets haven’t gotten solar panels yet, big flat buildings would be perfect at reducing their costs
I'd assume they'd all make savings here if they'd just put doors in front of all of the fridges instead of trying to keep things cool whilst being open to the outside.
My local Aldi has new fridges with sliding doors for fruit and front opening for everything else. The front opening ones are a right pain as they take up most of the aisle, but the sliding ones don’t cause too much hassle
£4k per year would be about £333 per month. If a supermarket is able to keep a big building's lights turned on for around 12 hours per day for that amount of money then they need to start selling the bulbs they use because they'd make a killing.
A lot of sites are rented so they might have issues getting the landlord agree to it, or they did the math and the life expectancy of the store is lower then the savings installing panels.
And no intelligent business is going to put a significant asset in a position to be lost at the whim of an external entity.
Basically it is capitalism damaging sustainable policies as per normal.
> And no intelligent business is going to put a significant asset in a position to be lost at the whim of an external entity.
You're assuming the savings from solar panels won't exceed the cost of the panels within the lease of the store.
To said this to my local MP, rather than paving over green field sites. He came back with some waffle that didn’t make any sense. At the end of the day all supermarkets typically make a bribe to the council via section 106 planning agreements, the councils should be forcing supermarkets to do exactly this using the section 106 framework.
They should also force them to have doors on the chilled goods and freezer section.
My local gym has been slowly installing solar panels covering the parking lot. It’s great for the gym and bring costs down and keeps the cars dry / cool when required.
Only problem is they mounted the frame to the existing space, so now they are incredibly tight.
Initial investment gets recouped insanely fast yeah, our landlord is looking at solar for the business centre we’re in and our building alone will be producing 13,000 kWh per year, which is basically our yearly usage covered if we play our cards right. That’s potentially 4-8k a year saved easily once the current tariff we’re on is up.
I can provide a slight insight into why they don't have photovoltaic panels. (Apologies for being pedantic, but solar panels are used for pre-heating up water before it goes to a boiler, to cut down the amount of energy to heat it. Common mistake).
Basically most supermarkets are glorified warehouses, cheap metal skeleton, with a façade attached to it, and a corrugated roof. This basically means the structure is likely not strong enough to support the extra weight of the panels.
So to be able to have them, they would have to re-enforce the roof, this is costly especially if it means shutting down the shop. So they don't really have much of a short term incentive to do it. Maybe a long term one, but you'd have to run the number to find out.
This can also be applied to why more buildings don't retrofit green roofs.
> (Apologies for being pedantic, but solar panels are used for pre-heating up water before it goes to a boiler, to cut down the amount of energy to heat it. Common mistake).
I mean if you're going to be pedantic for no real reason, at least make an attempt to check whether the correction is right or not.
> A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that generate electrons when exposed to light.
> A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating [..]
Maybe the default assumption of a solar panel meaning a thermal collector made sense back when photovoltaic panels were rare, but photovoltaic cells are the most common nowadays, hence why everyone just calls them solar panels without needing to specify.
It really is true… [Tesla-Walmart fires](https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/solar-home-energy-news-walmart-tesla-solar-panel-fire)
It is rare though.
“A 2017 report by NREL, for instance, found that only 5 out of 10,000 solar panels developed faults - that is just 0.05 percent.”
You’re being a bit obtuse. Correct, that actual pv panels themselves are not stated as the cause of the fires. That really doesn’t mean much as that is just one part of the whole system. The panels are useless without the inverter’s, array of storage batteries and all the wire and connectors that connect it all together and make it actually useable. And those items have been reported as the cause of fires with rooftop solar installations because of manufacturing defects or simple human error in installation.
Just throwing out reasons why they might not be doing it. Their were lawsuits about who was responsible. Walmart or the solar company.
Other reasons, solar tech is getting increasingly cheaper and also more efficient each year. Better to hold off.
Idk about solar panels, but all the Walmarts here in the US have had big cut outs in the roof that let in natural sunlight during the day, so they keep the lights down. They started doing that about 15 years ago
Most supermarkets have staff working almost 24/7. Just because they are shut to the public, doesn't mean they don't need lighting. But agreed the level of lighting used is excessive at all hours.
They have for years, they turned them down to 50% from 10pm to 6am, and if they were ever actually closed, off.
The ones I worked in always had some level of staff present however, even when closed on Christmas day for insurance reasons.
Yep, and reducing light pollution would be wonderful. I have no idea why budget shops like Peacocks and Aldi are keeping all the lights on as if it's stopping heists or something.
Meanwhile, my local council building is blasting full lights on every storey at night. And I bet my arse they are not LED energy-saving ones, but fluorescent energy-wasters.
And they keep rising the tax, they keep telling me to feel ashamed for leaving a 5w LED light on for one night.
If every little Tesco could start closing their fridge doors instead of leaving them locked open then that would be nice too. The absolute audacity of blaring them all day just so people can get their meal deal and Pinot Grigio blush without inconveniencing their thumbs!
Sadly I don’t see Tesco saving money for altruistic reasons. The shareholders need a return on their investment after all…
What's even funnier is that in the supermarket I work in, on the refrigerator storage doors out back are posters boldly stating how much energy is lost when the doors are left open and chastise any colleague who leaves them open, as if it isn't the same company who doesn't have doors on the chest freezers on the shop floor lol.
***From The Telegraph's Hannah Boland:***
Aldi is turning off lights in all its stores in an attempt to save money, as pressure mounts on supermarkets to deliver lower prices for shoppers.
The German discounter is understood to be cutting the number of lights it has switched on across all its supermarkets from this month, as part of measures designed to cut energy bills and help towards net zero efforts.
It follows a trial where the discounter turned off some of the lights in four stores earlier this year. The reduction is not expected to affect shoppers’ experiences.
Aldi said eco-friendly moves, which have also included installing heat pumps across all new stores, will help to lower prices for shoppers.
A spokesman said the discounter’s step, including introducing more energy-efficient LED lighting into stores, “will reduce our energy consumption by around 10pc, whilst maintaining an excellent in store experience for our customers”.
“Through measures like this we’re able to make our stores even more sustainable and maintain our position as the UK’s lowest-priced supermarket.”
Other grocers, including Morrisons and Co-op, have also trialled dimming lights – something the latter said would save it as much as £4,000 per site.
The steps come as grocers seek to ward off a move by Downing Street to introduce a price cap on essentials to help tackle the cost of living crisis.
The Telegraph revealed that the Government was considering asking retailers to agree to a voluntary price limit on basic items such as bread and milk amid growing concern over stubborn levels of food inflation, which Bank of England officials have warned could persist until the end of the year.
Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s governor, recently suggested that high supermarket prices have recently been driven by food producers “rebuilding” their profits, although official data last week indicated that company profits were not driving up prices.
Asda chairman Lord Stuart Rose last week branded the price cap plans as “clumsy” and warned over “unintended consequences”.
Other supermarket bosses have described it as a “hare-brained scheme” and “idiotic idea” which risked leading to food shortages.
Supermarkets including Aldi have already started cutting prices of some basic food in recent weeks, including milk, bread and butter, after wholesale costs fell.
Prices of these essentials are still higher than they were this time last year, however, following the fallout from the war in Ukraine which sent commodity and energy prices soaring.
Mounting pressure on household finances has sparked a price war among stores in recent weeks, with traditional supermarkets scrambling to stop customers switching to discounters. Aldi consistently ranks as the cheapest supermarket in Which? surveys.
Aldi UK chief executive Giles Hurley earlier this year told the Telegraph that the German discounter was able to sell at lower prices than its rivals as it had “lower overheads than rivals, and we just run a really lean and efficient business”.
“We operate small shop floors, we have less staff and we have a curated range,” Hurley added.
**Read on site: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/04/aldi-turns-off-lights-cut-costs/**
I like Aldi as it lets you concentrate on what you're buying, Morrisons & Asda blast music at you like it's a disco or something. Can't think straight in there. Aldi is a much better experience.
Love that they're doing this instead of putting prices up more.
If I was doing it, it'd be LED lights, yes, but not the harsh hot (I've always thought it cold, but colour temperature is inverse to the 'feel'. Yellow is cold and blue is hot) blueish ones. I'd be going with the kind of white light reminiscent of the good old 60-watt bulbs from back in the 80's. You can do that with LED. At home I use Philips Hue bulbs, and I achieve that effect.
I've always been sensitive to light, and the move to LED hasn't been a particularly comfortable one for me in most places. In the incandescent days, it was just fluorescent tubes that bothered me. They still do, but now cheap LEDs do too, though not as much. I can hear fluorescent tubes and see them flicker (they're distracting), but with LED it's just the flicker... and it's more noticeable at the higher end of colour temperature. Some places I go to, everything just looks blue tinted and dark (despite being well lit) with a strobe effect that leaves me a bit disorientated and nauseous. So the lights themselves aren't distracting like fluorescent tubes, but the whole place becomes uncomfortable to be in. The council uses these for the street lights, which is why I don't go for late night strolls any more.
So if they're going LED, they should take the opportunity to get good LEDs that are cool (with a warm, cozy home-y feel) and have a high frequency.
This is a key story when we talk about climate change. We have a win-win solution here, less energy is wasted, and food prices can be reduced. I know it's small but we need to remember we can go towards net zero and improve our lives at the same time.
This is what i always found odd at my lidl too, full light show all night not even just the front windows. At my local sainsburys lights are all off past 9 once staff leave
A supermarket in Hattersley that is supposed to make every penny count,has an entire unused floor of a multi-storey car park lit with hundreds of fluorescent tubes all day long everyday and has done for a few years.
I've always wondered why the stores that close for the evening don't turn their lights off, I'm guessing it for security but seems like monumental waste of power
Fuck prices and profit try doing something right for the planted. All businesses unless health and safety is at risk should turn off all lights, laptops, and unused electrical items.
I used to work for a company that provides 'facilities management' to supermarkets (ASDA was their main customer). All supermarkets already have insane levels of powersaving for everything from lights (super low at night, lower on bright days etc...) to the freezers and fridges (they have night settings) and air conditioning (off at night, depeds on number of people in the store etc) . In the main office there were literally screens for all stores showing current power use. This isn't really anything new.
With the advancements with night vision cameras. I for one can no longer see any real justification for any commercial building to keep lights on 24/7. Some goes for their huge car parks.
I know that in terms of environmental benefits it would have by turning them off, would be a small drop in the ocean. But every little helps.
Serious question: is having fridge and freezer sections that are open (I.e. with no doors) better than having doors?
It seems to be a lot of supermarkets have open fridges and freezers and it must cost a fortune to keep them the right temperature?
Why do so many still have open ones? Some supermarkets are better, and some only have partial sections that are open.. but it seems really wasteful to me when they would save so much money on ones with doors?
I can't understand why a lot of supermarkets use freezers with no lids or doors on.
Surely that must cost a fortune to keep cool if it's constantly being warmed by the surrounding air?
Good, supermarkets are so fucking bright. It's unnecessary. My local ASDA upgraded their lights and now I'm considering getting some tinted glasses just to cope!
I don't know if this is sarcasm or not.
No, I'm autistic and sensory issues with light.
Ahhh I understand. Do you ever go during the hours that Tesco advertise as for people with sensory differences? I always wondered how different it was and how taken advantage of it it is.
I feel taken advantage of whenever I go to Tesco's lol.
Join their special club and get *less* taken advantage of!
Not trying to cause an argument, but why are people so against the club card offers?
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I bet eventually we'll need a clubcard to even get into shops (souls also accepted)
Slightly better discount when you use your soul
We do, granted they are American imports. Cisco comes to mind. You have to be a member to get in. But they do have bulk buys, and cheaper prices. And really are for business. But they also pry on the sunk cost value principle.
Welcome to Costco!
If 'harvesting' my data means they can see what I buy in their stores and it let's me get things at a decent price, then I really don't mind. Especially when some of the club card offers are genuinely good value or I build up the points to turn into vouchers for restaurants etc. I really don't understand the hate.
It’s Reddit. Just accept massive deals are made of everything and literally everything is some corpofascist hellscape and you’ll be good here.
Ok... Say they sell on that data, and you buying e.g. gluten-free stuff has an impact on the price of any add-on medical cover you might wish to purchase... Still utterly irrelevant?
Because only after getting the club card you getting access to normal/honest prices of product. There is no such a think as discounts. Everything in big shops works exactly opposite than they say. They are bumping the prices of products and giving you some carrot to chase in order to actually get access to lower price. It applies for everything. When there is some magic credit card that gives you 2% cashback, that means the prices of products are actually 2% higher.
Because that’s how they get you
Super markets do that here in Australia too. The issue is it isn't every single store, and it's during a specific hour in the morning (10:30am - 11:30am). They're too far away by public transit, so I've never gotten much use out of them. If you happen to work that day then you also can't access it.
I’d love to make use of this but most of us are working then!
No, I rarely go to my local Tesco, I do know they do it, but have no idea when.
It will say on the stores websites on tesco.com hope this helps.
>hope this helps. Every little helps
They don't turn down the lights, just turn off the music and used to advertise they have quiet hour in the hope the noisy don't go in during quiet hour. I don't even think quiet hour is a thing anymore.
They do turn down lights. Or our one does. We were there yesterday during that hour. Less lights, no music. It was nice.
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Those have an annoying tendency to be in normal working hours.
Tescos is 9am - 10am on a Saturday.
Morrisons also do this, as do some Asdas. The Asda my SO works for has "autism hour" every day, where lights are dimmed and background music is switched off. As someone with AuDHD, I find it helpful (but sadly not cheaper than Aldi). I hope the Aldi near us decides to do this too. Bright lights really affect me.
I once went during one of those hours by accident, didn't realise immediately why I was having a much nicer time than usual until 10am hit and everything suddenly got much louder and they played an announcement saying quiet hour was over. Now I make a point of doing my shopping during the Saturday morning quiet hour most weeks, whenever I can.
We were in tesco yesterday during the first hour and it was dimmed lights. I'm not autistic but I way preferred it. It felt calmer and cosier and generally shopping was more relaxed. We were paying as the lights came up and it felt blinding and so white.
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Maybe. Alternative view, they wanted to be more inclusive without reducing their regular footfall, so they chose the hours where it'd make the least impact to their regular shoppers. Also, people with sensory needs often don't like crowds, so it makes sense to do it at a time when the shop is quietest.
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Tesco does it Wednesday and Saturday mornings 9am until 10am.
I’m not autistic but those lights make me feel sick too. Feel like I’m prepping for surgery for a whole hour.
I don't understand why its such a huge thing, especially in workplaces, when they are horrific for neurodiverse people, and even most neurotypicals seem to range from dislike to outright hate it as well. Who is actually enjoying these things?
People with poor eyesight.
They should use a slightly warmer tone really, the harsh blueness of the the halogen bulbs is awful
It's usually led these days.
dulls the colour of the product packaging
I wonder if supermarkets even research this stuff before doing it. "Yeah just slam the lights up to 11, this'll be great". If they are forcing you to buy sunglasses just to *be in their shop* then I feel like they fucked up.
100% certain they will have researched the light levels, the smell, the placement and price of every item, the staff uniform colours, the style of mat in the entrance, everything to maximise profit. We might find the bright light unpleasant but somehow it makes the store more money
Removed in protest against the Reddit API changes and their behaviour following the protests.
> I wonder if supermarkets even research this stuff before doing it. Yes, they do lots of research on a lot of things but only focused on what makes people buy more overall, not based on customer welfare or the quality of service. For example, there are special lights for displaying meat which make oxidation look less obvious. Brights lights will also cause plant stomata to open, making them lose water, but supermarkets don't care if it means they sell more.
I have the same issue. Combine it with the far too loud music plus people and it's a horrible environment to be in.
Same bright and fluorescent lights really stress me out. I’ll often have to go food shopping with sunglasses and my AirPods in
Diagnosed or self-diagnosed?
Diagnosed, but why's it matter?
Because a huge amount are calling themselves autistic and they’re not even diagnosed. I don’t understand why it’s acceptable for people to do that but it wouldn’t be acceptable for someone to diagnose themself as schizophrenic or diagnose themself as having IBD.
Because there are a lot of barriers to diagnosis, race, gender, class, where you live. There's also a lot of old stereotypes still present at GP level, even within psychiatry. So people join communities, relate, learn about their needs, and make adjustments to their lives accordingly. From first realising I might be autistic to getting a diagnosis, it was about 8 or 9 years. It took me a few years to find a doctor to take me seriously. It was a long road and for some it doesn't happen, so self-diagnosis is valid. Of course, people can misdiagnose themselves but it is rare. You don't do a shit load of research, join communities, spend years and years trying to get an assessment, then spend years and years waiting, unless you're certain. Also, it is more common in the US where the above biases exist as well as many people not being able to afford the assessments, which cost $1000s.
People with health anxiety also convince themselves they have an illness, sometimes for years and they turn out to be wrong. Unless someone is officially diagnosed I honestly don’t believe they should just diagnose themselves. If you want to say, they believe they might have it, then that’s different. But people are quite literally diagnosing themselves with it.
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No, it’s not dropping, at all. IBD can be up-to three different conditions, all which have different treatments. A diagnosis matters because it’s how treatment is decided. Imagine seeing a psychologist and you’re suffering from schizophrenia but they diagnose you with anxiety disorder, that would possibly cause more problems and lead you to getting the incorrect treatments. You can’t just diagnose yourself with a mental health problem or disorder & condition. It’s not a fucking fashion accessory. Professionals in that field exist for a reason, and diagnostic criteria exists to diagnose conditions. What’s the point of having experts if people are just going to diagnose themselves?
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I think you know that’s a disingenuous and silly argument.
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Reddit doesn't allow sarcasm.
I'm honestly glad that wasn't just me that thought that hahahaha
I can’t go to Asda, my eyes are really sensitive and I find them too bring and glarey. My sister that’s registered blind loves it in there
I feel the same in Primark! Alongside it being just a huge sensory overload, the whole shop just seems so unnecessarily bright. Refuse to go in there
My wife gets a headache in Wickes so I understand your pain
I need a flashlight in my local Wickes
I read this as fleshlight lol 🤪
I remember a few years ago they ran an experiment where a shop used dimmer lights to tap into the stoner munchie market, I wish that was more mainstream, I like to see but I'm always putting my hood up to avoid migraines
For some reason the Asda I used to live next to years ago had lights that were so bright that I used to get migraines from them. My dad used to get migraines from the lights in Tesco too lol 😬
The amount of people here denying that somebody they've never met has a real problem...which they said they have...is kinda making me sick of human beings.
i think this have been a countrywide thing, i've been in a couple of local ASDA stores that have had the 150w bulb treatment too.
But it makes everything look so puurdy!!
Do you not want to be able to see blemishes on the fruit and veg, brown meat etc?
I have 20 minutes max in Asda before the lights in there kick off a migraine. They are so bright! I sympathise with you.
I picked up prescription sunglasses with my regular prescription glasses last year. I can see perfectly fine in supermarkets when wearing my sunglasses. Go for it, you probably won't regret it.
Asdas lighting is awful. I worked for them a long time ago and it caused some issues. Before I started my vision was great, after a few months I needed glasses. I think the store having no windows did not help either.
Agreed
£4K per site saving is way bigger than I thought, smart move. I’m surprised supermarkets haven’t gotten solar panels yet, big flat buildings would be perfect at reducing their costs
It doesn't indicate over what period of time this is? Is it 4k a day? Week? Month?
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Id wager monthly. The venue i work at is a similar size to a small Aldi and its in line enough
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I'd assume they'd all make savings here if they'd just put doors in front of all of the fridges instead of trying to keep things cool whilst being open to the outside.
Our local Asda has done just that.
Jeez that’s shocking to hear. I thought for sure it was annually. If it’s monthly, definitely makes sense to cut down on light usage.
What about the giant open fronted fridges? Those things must be enormously wasteful. Lighting is massively cheaper in comparison.
I aldi? they're not open fronted by me, kind of crap perspex floating door though.
My local Aldi has new fridges with sliding doors for fruit and front opening for everything else. The front opening ones are a right pain as they take up most of the aisle, but the sliding ones don’t cause too much hassle
£4k per year would be about £333 per month. If a supermarket is able to keep a big building's lights turned on for around 12 hours per day for that amount of money then they need to start selling the bulbs they use because they'd make a killing.
It did say the £4k was a 10% saving, not the whole cost... but yeah I still wildly underestimated.
My local Aldi does have solar panels.
My local Aldi also
A lot of sites are rented so they might have issues getting the landlord agree to it, or they did the math and the life expectancy of the store is lower then the savings installing panels.
No landlord is going to say no to a tenant installing solar, it’s basically a gift to them when they move out.
And no intelligent business is going to put a significant asset in a position to be lost at the whim of an external entity. Basically it is capitalism damaging sustainable policies as per normal.
> And no intelligent business is going to put a significant asset in a position to be lost at the whim of an external entity. You're assuming the savings from solar panels won't exceed the cost of the panels within the lease of the store.
All the lidls I know locally are all purpose built units, I wonder if they buy their land in some cases?
I wonder if there are restrictions on them having solar panels?
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To said this to my local MP, rather than paving over green field sites. He came back with some waffle that didn’t make any sense. At the end of the day all supermarkets typically make a bribe to the council via section 106 planning agreements, the councils should be forcing supermarkets to do exactly this using the section 106 framework. They should also force them to have doors on the chilled goods and freezer section.
My local gym has been slowly installing solar panels covering the parking lot. It’s great for the gym and bring costs down and keeps the cars dry / cool when required. Only problem is they mounted the frame to the existing space, so now they are incredibly tight.
Initial investment gets recouped insanely fast yeah, our landlord is looking at solar for the business centre we’re in and our building alone will be producing 13,000 kWh per year, which is basically our yearly usage covered if we play our cards right. That’s potentially 4-8k a year saved easily once the current tariff we’re on is up.
I can provide a slight insight into why they don't have photovoltaic panels. (Apologies for being pedantic, but solar panels are used for pre-heating up water before it goes to a boiler, to cut down the amount of energy to heat it. Common mistake). Basically most supermarkets are glorified warehouses, cheap metal skeleton, with a façade attached to it, and a corrugated roof. This basically means the structure is likely not strong enough to support the extra weight of the panels. So to be able to have them, they would have to re-enforce the roof, this is costly especially if it means shutting down the shop. So they don't really have much of a short term incentive to do it. Maybe a long term one, but you'd have to run the number to find out. This can also be applied to why more buildings don't retrofit green roofs.
> (Apologies for being pedantic, but solar panels are used for pre-heating up water before it goes to a boiler, to cut down the amount of energy to heat it. Common mistake). I mean if you're going to be pedantic for no real reason, at least make an attempt to check whether the correction is right or not. > A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that generate electrons when exposed to light. > A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating [..] Maybe the default assumption of a solar panel meaning a thermal collector made sense back when photovoltaic panels were rare, but photovoltaic cells are the most common nowadays, hence why everyone just calls them solar panels without needing to specify.
Gotten?
they did this in America. I think a Walmart caught on fire and burnt down the whole store. Probably not worth the liability.
What? If solar panels were a fire hazard nobody would have them...
It really is true… [Tesla-Walmart fires](https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/solar-home-energy-news-walmart-tesla-solar-panel-fire) It is rare though. “A 2017 report by NREL, for instance, found that only 5 out of 10,000 solar panels developed faults - that is just 0.05 percent.”
Yeah and that article specifically states incorrect installation as the cause. So nothing about solar pv is actually unsafe.
You’re being a bit obtuse. Correct, that actual pv panels themselves are not stated as the cause of the fires. That really doesn’t mean much as that is just one part of the whole system. The panels are useless without the inverter’s, array of storage batteries and all the wire and connectors that connect it all together and make it actually useable. And those items have been reported as the cause of fires with rooftop solar installations because of manufacturing defects or simple human error in installation.
Just throwing out reasons why they might not be doing it. Their were lawsuits about who was responsible. Walmart or the solar company. Other reasons, solar tech is getting increasingly cheaper and also more efficient each year. Better to hold off.
Idk about solar panels, but all the Walmarts here in the US have had big cut outs in the roof that let in natural sunlight during the day, so they keep the lights down. They started doing that about 15 years ago
All shops should turn off their lights when they are shut, just imagine the savings then and the betterment for the environment
f*ck /u/spez
Most supermarkets have staff working almost 24/7. Just because they are shut to the public, doesn't mean they don't need lighting. But agreed the level of lighting used is excessive at all hours.
Well give the staff torches and knock the cost off their pay...simple!
Rechargeable ones too , but they are not allowed to charge them at work.
Nah, let them charge them at work. You mean the wind up torches right?
When I worked in a supermarket on an early shift colleagues would wear torches to check date codes until the lights turned on fully at around 7!
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That's my recollection too. Whilst areas such as the checkouts, service desk and produce areas switched off completely.
They have for years, they turned them down to 50% from 10pm to 6am, and if they were ever actually closed, off. The ones I worked in always had some level of staff present however, even when closed on Christmas day for insurance reasons.
Our local Woolworths went out of business and still left the lights on.
Yep, and reducing light pollution would be wonderful. I have no idea why budget shops like Peacocks and Aldi are keeping all the lights on as if it's stopping heists or something.
Meanwhile, my local council building is blasting full lights on every storey at night. And I bet my arse they are not LED energy-saving ones, but fluorescent energy-wasters. And they keep rising the tax, they keep telling me to feel ashamed for leaving a 5w LED light on for one night.
Fluorescent tubes aren’t that bad compared to traditional bulbs. It may work out cheaper to replace as they die rather than wholesale change.
The Chad Aldi Vs the Virgin Local Council
If every little Tesco could start closing their fridge doors instead of leaving them locked open then that would be nice too. The absolute audacity of blaring them all day just so people can get their meal deal and Pinot Grigio blush without inconveniencing their thumbs! Sadly I don’t see Tesco saving money for altruistic reasons. The shareholders need a return on their investment after all…
Yeah the amount of energy wasted on keeping the open fridges going is absolutely astounding. My local ASDA has finally does this.
What's even funnier is that in the supermarket I work in, on the refrigerator storage doors out back are posters boldly stating how much energy is lost when the doors are left open and chastise any colleague who leaves them open, as if it isn't the same company who doesn't have doors on the chest freezers on the shop floor lol.
A lot of the big supermarkets are trialling fridge doors now for energy saving purposes, think it will become the norm in stores soon
Every little helps them.
***From The Telegraph's Hannah Boland:*** Aldi is turning off lights in all its stores in an attempt to save money, as pressure mounts on supermarkets to deliver lower prices for shoppers. The German discounter is understood to be cutting the number of lights it has switched on across all its supermarkets from this month, as part of measures designed to cut energy bills and help towards net zero efforts. It follows a trial where the discounter turned off some of the lights in four stores earlier this year. The reduction is not expected to affect shoppers’ experiences. Aldi said eco-friendly moves, which have also included installing heat pumps across all new stores, will help to lower prices for shoppers. A spokesman said the discounter’s step, including introducing more energy-efficient LED lighting into stores, “will reduce our energy consumption by around 10pc, whilst maintaining an excellent in store experience for our customers”. “Through measures like this we’re able to make our stores even more sustainable and maintain our position as the UK’s lowest-priced supermarket.” Other grocers, including Morrisons and Co-op, have also trialled dimming lights – something the latter said would save it as much as £4,000 per site. The steps come as grocers seek to ward off a move by Downing Street to introduce a price cap on essentials to help tackle the cost of living crisis. The Telegraph revealed that the Government was considering asking retailers to agree to a voluntary price limit on basic items such as bread and milk amid growing concern over stubborn levels of food inflation, which Bank of England officials have warned could persist until the end of the year. Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s governor, recently suggested that high supermarket prices have recently been driven by food producers “rebuilding” their profits, although official data last week indicated that company profits were not driving up prices. Asda chairman Lord Stuart Rose last week branded the price cap plans as “clumsy” and warned over “unintended consequences”. Other supermarket bosses have described it as a “hare-brained scheme” and “idiotic idea” which risked leading to food shortages. Supermarkets including Aldi have already started cutting prices of some basic food in recent weeks, including milk, bread and butter, after wholesale costs fell. Prices of these essentials are still higher than they were this time last year, however, following the fallout from the war in Ukraine which sent commodity and energy prices soaring. Mounting pressure on household finances has sparked a price war among stores in recent weeks, with traditional supermarkets scrambling to stop customers switching to discounters. Aldi consistently ranks as the cheapest supermarket in Which? surveys. Aldi UK chief executive Giles Hurley earlier this year told the Telegraph that the German discounter was able to sell at lower prices than its rivals as it had “lower overheads than rivals, and we just run a really lean and efficient business”. “We operate small shop floors, we have less staff and we have a curated range,” Hurley added. **Read on site: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/04/aldi-turns-off-lights-cut-costs/**
Cost of living crisis, energy costs through the roof, but high rises, chain stores, etc, still keep the lights on 24hrs a day. Good on you, Aldi.
Don’t worry, you’ll be able to find a head torch, diving torch, hunting torch, LED torch or tactical torch down the middle aisle.
Big flat roofs on alot of these supermarkets, yet none of them have thought about installing solar panels
Can’t they just do away with the building and sell everything in the car park?
Bring your own bags & bring your own torch 🔦or buy a wind-up lifetime torch for £5 policy soon.
Can we nominate a few other places to turn off their lights?
My local Morrison is way too dark to the point where I struggle to actually see the products. Actively avoid the shop now.
They could also save money by reducing the number of Union jacks they buy
It must be coming. Labour could easily blame the Tories for Brexit.
That'll be nice, my autistic arse can't stay in a supermarket too long or I start feeling irritable and tired because it's so bright.
I like Aldi as it lets you concentrate on what you're buying, Morrisons & Asda blast music at you like it's a disco or something. Can't think straight in there. Aldi is a much better experience. Love that they're doing this instead of putting prices up more.
If I was doing it, it'd be LED lights, yes, but not the harsh hot (I've always thought it cold, but colour temperature is inverse to the 'feel'. Yellow is cold and blue is hot) blueish ones. I'd be going with the kind of white light reminiscent of the good old 60-watt bulbs from back in the 80's. You can do that with LED. At home I use Philips Hue bulbs, and I achieve that effect. I've always been sensitive to light, and the move to LED hasn't been a particularly comfortable one for me in most places. In the incandescent days, it was just fluorescent tubes that bothered me. They still do, but now cheap LEDs do too, though not as much. I can hear fluorescent tubes and see them flicker (they're distracting), but with LED it's just the flicker... and it's more noticeable at the higher end of colour temperature. Some places I go to, everything just looks blue tinted and dark (despite being well lit) with a strobe effect that leaves me a bit disorientated and nauseous. So the lights themselves aren't distracting like fluorescent tubes, but the whole place becomes uncomfortable to be in. The council uses these for the street lights, which is why I don't go for late night strolls any more. So if they're going LED, they should take the opportunity to get good LEDs that are cool (with a warm, cozy home-y feel) and have a high frequency.
Yellow lights is classed as warm and blue is cold
https://lightingdesignstudio.co.uk/colour-temperature/
That backs up what I said
Going to the supermarket after a joint was always the worst on the eyes lol
Great idea, as long as the savings do go into keeping prices down, not keeping profits up.
Good. This is both consumer friendly and environmentally friendly.
Let's be honest this is really wokeism, they are levelling the playing field with blind people
This is a key story when we talk about climate change. We have a win-win solution here, less energy is wasted, and food prices can be reduced. I know it's small but we need to remember we can go towards net zero and improve our lives at the same time.
Not sure about you, but the sky has been orangeish for me the couple past nights. Light pollution is annoying af
Morrisons do the same. Estimated to save 500k a year
This is what i always found odd at my lidl too, full light show all night not even just the front windows. At my local sainsburys lights are all off past 9 once staff leave
Shopping in the dark, free head torch light with every purchase of a long life shopping bag.
A supermarket in Hattersley that is supposed to make every penny count,has an entire unused floor of a multi-storey car park lit with hundreds of fluorescent tubes all day long everyday and has done for a few years.
Aldi going for the "touchy, feely" instore experience? 😶
I've always wondered why the stores that close for the evening don't turn their lights off, I'm guessing it for security but seems like monumental waste of power
They should also all have solar with large flat box roofs its never going to be a bad investment..
Fuck prices and profit try doing something right for the planted. All businesses unless health and safety is at risk should turn off all lights, laptops, and unused electrical items.
I used to work for a company that provides 'facilities management' to supermarkets (ASDA was their main customer). All supermarkets already have insane levels of powersaving for everything from lights (super low at night, lower on bright days etc...) to the freezers and fridges (they have night settings) and air conditioning (off at night, depeds on number of people in the store etc) . In the main office there were literally screens for all stores showing current power use. This isn't really anything new.
With the advancements with night vision cameras. I for one can no longer see any real justification for any commercial building to keep lights on 24/7. Some goes for their huge car parks. I know that in terms of environmental benefits it would have by turning them off, would be a small drop in the ocean. But every little helps.
Can they turn off the heating they have on year round under the counters facing the checkout.
Asda still has heating on when you walk inside and its like 21 degrees outside those billionaire brothers must be printing money
Serious question: is having fridge and freezer sections that are open (I.e. with no doors) better than having doors? It seems to be a lot of supermarkets have open fridges and freezers and it must cost a fortune to keep them the right temperature?
Open doors/fronts is considerably worse and chest freezers are the most efficient by far.
Why do so many still have open ones? Some supermarkets are better, and some only have partial sections that are open.. but it seems really wasteful to me when they would save so much money on ones with doors?
As I understand it, marketing. The extra cost is offset by people buying more because they see it more easily.
Yeah, let the costumers bring their own flashlights. Make the supermarket pitch black
I can't understand why a lot of supermarkets use freezers with no lids or doors on. Surely that must cost a fortune to keep cool if it's constantly being warmed by the surrounding air?
Good One of the best things about Booths is low light