Lisa Bartlett

As the owner of a brick & mortar lighting showroom, it comes as no surprise that I have a particular interest in the ability of showrooms to succeed and thrive—now and into the future. Over the years, I have devoted significant energy to this ‘big picture’ mission and produced results with my Lighting Showroom Association (RIP) colleagues that I am proud of. I admit I’ve also grown a bit weary on this topic, which is perhaps normal when “brick walls” (pun intended!) keep appearing where you least expect them.

A recent discussion in the Lighting Showroom Consortium Facebook group asked which of our supplier partners exclusively support brick & mortar businesses. The answer was clear: there is a wide spectrum of support, or lack thereof.

This brought me back to my primary priority for industry change. The core issue is this as I see it: keeping all other programs equal, what lighting showrooms desperately need is a pricing structure that reflects the reality of our overhead. There are pain points in any business, but a key priority for most showrooms today is positioning themselves as industry experts and focusing on customer education. Relying on small foot-traffic sales to keep a showroom afloat simply doesn’t work in today’s world.

However, I would argue that many showroom owners feel so pinched by the margin squeeze we’ve endured for years that they can’t focus on the very strategies that would serve their business long-term. We need our supplier partners to independently recognize that if they value the showroom experience, their IMAP policies need to evolve to support the true costs of rent, displays, and expert staff. It’s like Maslow’s hierarchy: we are so focused on getting a primary survival need met that we can’t see past it to address the higher-level growth our industry needs.

I believe that if our supplier partners want lighting showrooms to position ourselves as the experts, they need to unilaterally review their policies. Ideally, they must ensure they aren’t inadvertently starving the very businesses that helped build their brands and this amazing lighting & fan community.